California - Northern

[chiqita]

Laura if you can run a hose the sprinklers run on batteries.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

Chickens can take cold temperatures so if you live where it does not go below 0F, they will be fine. They do need to have a place to be out of the wind and rain though.

I have a breeding pen of EO Basque in Winters and will soon have UofArkansas Blues out there. The rest are in my Signature as layers.

Well I'm just south of mt Shasta in dunsmuir and last year my FBCM roo and New Hampshire roo got frostbite on their combs so just wondering what everyone else does. They have brand new houses this year and I was considering a lamp when it gets in the single digits I just didn't want them to get dependent on the heat

 

[Nikon]

The chickens are tearing up the nesting boxes. Kicked out the woden egg two days in a row down into the coop shavings everywhere. Do they not like pine shavings as nesting material? No eggs yet. The OE squats sometimes when you let her though and the EE comb is turning red almost overnight.

 

[ronott1]

The chickens are tearing up the nesting boxes. Kicked out the woden egg two days in a row down into the coop shavings everywhere. Do they not like pine shavings as nesting material? No eggs yet. The OE squats sometimes when you let her though and the EE comb is turning red almost overnight.

That is a great sign that they will be laying eggs soon!

Expect an egg as soon as today.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Laura, sorry for your continued losses.

Even though the cat wasn't hunting you, it makes you think about how often we are all being watched without realizing it. The night I had to go out in the dark to look for a youngster that had escaped the pen, I had the heebie jeebies, LOL I didn't have a flashlight with me, just one of those little headlamps. When I looked out towards the fence (about 20 feet), there were two large sets of eyes glowing back at me. Based on the size, height, spacing, I'd say raccoons, but they literally they just stood and stared at me. They made no effort to move off, even when I stamped my foot at them. They were waiting for me to leave so they could go back to patrolling my chicken pens. If I hadn't had the light to shine in their direction, I would have never known they were there.

That creeps me out too. Especially with Mountain Lions.

I was startled awake at 4:30 this morning by a strange call from a wild animal. I identified it this morning by listening to the different calls, it's a fox call. It even woke up the roosters, as they started crowing.

 

[BCollie]

Hey guys! I haven't been on here in a while, I've been so busy.
So I'm having a weird problem...Let me give just a little back story.
The first time my dog ever saw chickens was at the local feed store, they were in a large metal livestock watering tub. She was absolutely obsessed and didn't do anything except stand there and stare at them. Of course, this isn't surprising, she does this with a lot of things. She's a working line Border Collie which causes her to be verryy obsessive about some things. Anyways, I eventually stopped letting her stare at the chicks in the tub because she kept drooling on them(she drools when focusing really hard on something)

Since the day that I got chicks she has been nothing but kind and gentle to them. In fact, I can only remember one time when there was a live chicken in her mouth - and this was when a baby jumped off a platform I was photographing it on, and landed right into my dogs open mouth(she had been sitting there at the edge of the platform, looking up at the chick while panting). My dog just spat her out and the chick walked away completely unharmed.

Whenever I need to catch a hen, for whatever reason, I usually have Nelly help me. If I try and fail to catch the one I want, they all go hide under the coop or run away, so I bring in the stockdog and she rounds up the one I want. It has saved me a lot of time, really. And, like she is with all livestock, she's never been anything but respectful towards the hens. The hens are not scared of her, not at all. They move when she tells them to move, but if she's just laying down minding her own business, the hens have no issue with being around her. In fact, when she comes up to the outside of their run, they all go to greet her!

But lately my Black Andalusian hen has been very aggressive, not only to my dog but to other hens. Today I picked up my Light Brahma(the only hen that doesn't run for the hills when I try to catch her) and the Black Andalusian jumped up and attacked her using both her feet and beak, missed the light Brahma and got my arm. I've got a couple scratches on my wrist now.
And any time I use Nel to help me round up the hens, the Black Andalusian puffs up her neck feathers and chases after/attacks her. This hen is very quickly turning into a huge bully.

What should I do??


Oh, a little side question - why are there so many small feathers all over my run?! It started as just a little pile of them in the corner but now they're everywhere! The hens are something like 4 months old now..

 

[Chickengirl1304]

That creeps me out too.  Especially with Mountain Lions.

I was startled awake at 4:30 this morning by a strange call from a wild animal.  I identified it this morning by listening to the different calls, it's a fox call.  It even woke up the roosters, as they started crowing. 

Since we got our dog we haven't had fox or raccoon problems. But the fox stands outside our fence and calls. It's cute (well cute as long as it stays away from our chickens!)

 

[windandraine]

*sigh* -- the bobcat returned, off of its previous mornings-only schedule, this afternoon around 5:30, literally about fifteen minutes after i'd let them out and about two minutes after i'd walked away from the area by the pens -- i've gotten everyone rounded up & in their pens again, but the last young isbar pullet is missing (although i haven't found ANY feathers, so hoping she might still be hiding), and Maggie the basque hen is wedged way underneath the house -- i can see her (and i'm pretty sure she's injured, there's a huge pile of her feathers when the bobcat pounced), but i can't get to her.  

so, i get the message: all free-ranging is suspended indefinitely, at least until the bobcat stops patrolling for a good while.

We have a bob cat too. This is the second one. We had the first one trapped and taken off the property, then a few weeks later this one showed up. My hubs and his friends were on the hunt a couple weeks ago and shot at it with a pellet gun and all was quiet for two weeks. Last night it showed up again around midnight I heard the birds and ran outside. There it was sitting on a fallen tree staring into the coop getting ready. I yelled and threw rocks at it, which seemed to work till about 1am and it was back. Once again, I'm out in the yard in my Jammies armed with my iPhone and a handful of rocks. I scared it off again and was able to sleep through the rest of the night. I know it will keep coming back till we trap it again. No free ranging till this guy is caught. I have lost so many of my girls to these predators. I do not want to lose anymore.

 

[ronott1]

Hey guys! I haven't been on here in a while, I've been so busy.
So I'm having a weird problem...Let me give just a little back story.
The first time my dog ever saw chickens was at the local feed store, they were in a large metal livestock watering tub. She was absolutely obsessed and didn't do anything except stand there and stare at them. Of course, this isn't surprising, she does this with a lot of things. She's a working line Border Collie which causes her to be verryy obsessive about some things. Anyways, I eventually stopped letting her stare at the chicks in the tub because she kept drooling on them(she drools when focusing really hard on something)

Since the day that I got chicks she has been nothing but kind and gentle to them. In fact, I can only remember one time when there was a live chicken in her mouth - and this was when a baby jumped off a platform I was photographing it on, and landed right into my dogs open mouth(she had been sitting there at the edge of the platform, looking up at the chick while panting). My dog just spat her out and the chick walked away completely unharmed.

Whenever I need to catch a hen, for whatever reason, I usually have Nelly help me. If I try and fail to catch the one I want, they all go hide under the coop or run away, so I bring in the stockdog and she rounds up the one I want. It has saved me a lot of time, really. And, like she is with all livestock, she's never been anything but respectful towards the hens. The hens are not scared of her, not at all. They move when she tells them to move, but if she's just laying down minding her own business, the hens have no issue with being around her. In fact, when she comes up to the outside of their run, they all go to greet her!

But lately my Black Andalusian hen has been very aggressive, not only to my dog but to other hens. Today I picked up my Light Brahma(the only hen that doesn't run for the hills when I try to catch her) and the Black Andalusian jumped up and attacked her using both her feet and beak, missed the light Brahma and got my arm. I've got a couple scratches on my wrist now.
And any time I use Nel to help me round up the hens, the Black Andalusian puffs up her neck feathers and chases after/attacks her. This hen is very quickly turning into a huge bully.


Oh, a little side question - why are there so many small feathers all over my run?! It started as just a little pile of them in the corner but now they're everywhere! The hens are something like 4 months old now..

I like your story about the Dog and the Head Pullet!

The feathers are from the final molt before adult hood. They will molt again next Fall.

 

[Ali707]

Hey guys! I haven't been on here in a while, I've been so busy.
So I'm having a weird problem...Let me give just a little back story.
The first time my dog ever saw chickens was at the local feed store, they were in a large metal livestock watering tub. She was absolutely obsessed and didn't do anything except stand there and stare at them. Of course, this isn't surprising, she does this with a lot of things. She's a working line Border Collie which causes her to be verryy obsessive about some things. Anyways, I eventually stopped letting her stare at the chicks in the tub because she kept drooling on them(she drools when focusing really hard on something)

Since the day that I got chicks she has been nothing but kind and gentle to them. In fact, I can only remember one time when there was a live chicken in her mouth - and this was when a baby jumped off a platform I was photographing it on, and landed right into my dogs open mouth(she had been sitting there at the edge of the platform, looking up at the chick while panting). My dog just spat her out and the chick walked away completely unharmed.

Whenever I need to catch a hen, for whatever reason, I usually have Nelly help me. If I try and fail to catch the one I want, they all go hide under the coop or run away, so I bring in the stockdog and she rounds up the one I want. It has saved me a lot of time, really. And, like she is with all livestock, she's never been anything but respectful towards the hens. The hens are not scared of her, not at all. They move when she tells them to move, but if she's just laying down minding her own business, the hens have no issue with being around her. In fact, when she comes up to the outside of their run, they all go to greet her!

But lately my Black Andalusian hen has been very aggressive, not only to my dog but to other hens. Today I picked up my Light Brahma(the only hen that doesn't run for the hills when I try to catch her) and the Black Andalusian jumped up and attacked her using both her feet and beak, missed the light Brahma and got my arm. I've got a couple scratches on my wrist now.
And any time I use Nel to help me round up the hens, the Black Andalusian puffs up her neck feathers and chases after/attacks her. This hen is very quickly turning into a huge bully.

What should I do??


Oh, a little side question - why are there so many small feathers all over my run?! It started as just a little pile of them in the corner but now they're everywhere! The hens are something like 4 months old now..

Well hopefully the jerk chicken (I have a pair of them but they are Welsummers) will not peck her in the eye. That would be awful!

You know I have heard Ron say many times it is a moult, but my coop looks like someone plucked a chicken in it. I have long big feathers and downy feathers in there. I don't see that anyone has bald patches so I don't think they are picking them out. I haven't seen anyone do any picking, except for my one Polish who they will NOT let her crest feathers grow back in. Mine are coming up on 17 weeks now. So I just keep watching for any signs of picking or anything else......