Chick was in the wrong bin, light feathers on legs/straight comb-new pics

[flockmomma]

More pictures of the unknown chicken. This bird is way outsizing the other members of the flock, aside from maybe the turkey, who is catching up weight-wise (though the turkey is still smaller, because it is more compact). But this one is still the biggest chicken, and the easiest to catch and carry around.

Light feathering on the legs still, no changes there.


Black Austrolorp and turkey in picture with Jumbo size chick (hmmm, Jumbo might be the gender-neutral name for this chicken)


Chicken really wanted back in the pen with the others, which was down below it. Hence the goofy posture, it was trying to figure out how to jump down in with the others.


Still figuring out how to jump down in. Hubby for clipped its wing, and now this big bird is even more clumsy than usual when flying/jumping. He clipped them while I was gone, because they kept getting out of their outdoor pen. In his defense, he is trying to finish the barn to house them, as they are temporarily living in our garage/outdoor temporary run next to our house.

 

[flockmomma]

I am still not sure about this one. No change in feathering on feet. What color would I call the base color? Red? It is almost the same shade as my sex links, and definitely more red than my buff Orphingtons. It is still the easiest to catch, and has a mild temperament compared to everyone else.

 

[flockmomma]

Well, I will never know what it was now. Something got into our chicken pen this afternoon. The fence wasn't very strong there, but it had pulled away from the post at the top of the fence.

A mostly white Amberlink Roo and this big chick were missing. A sex link went missing yesterday. Since it was the middle of the day, and there were feathers, but no blood, on the ground near the outside of the pen, and TWO chicks went missing the same day, at the same time, I am thinking dogs. We left the house at 1030am, and got back around 4pm. Pen is right alongside our house. Fence was separated from the top down, not from the bottom. So something big. With no blood, and mystery chick being so big, we think that rules out hawks. Our fox den fell vacant in the last year or so. I suspect the neighbor with a couple dozen geese and a turkey took care of them. We do occasionally get coyotes, but the only one I have seen in the middle of the day is a dying baby coyote (drought last year, this thing collapsed out in my garden in th shade of my potato plants). One set of neighbors saw nothing, and they were out in the later afternoon cleaning up the messes on their property.

There are a pair of dogs that I have seen running around here off and on. We live on ten acres in Wyoming. So does everyone else around us. One of the dogs appears to be a Border Collie/Heeler mix, and the other a short haired dog that had pups earlier this year. They have raided my trash before, and exhibit some pack behaviors. Not good. We are soon to have our full property fenced. We will be fencing our (eventual) goat and "free range" pasture with field fencing, and the rest of our property in barb wire (tight strung down low, obviously, to try and deter these dogs. If I catch them on my property again, it will be time for a call to the Sheriff's Department, or something along those lines. I am tempted to call and talk to them about these dogs anyway, since today I finally figured out where the dogs live. They were in a backyard fence when I saw them. I wonder if someone caught them with chickens, and put them away? I cannot say for sure that they are what did this, but it took something big to do what was done. Our outdoor dog, Maggie, is a nearly ten year old bloodhound, with a personality that makes a B personality look assertive. She will protect the humans, but will not stand up to other dogs at all. Good thing she is a good dog otherwise. She doesn't mess with chickens. Not only does she not like chasing stuff, but they move faster than her. She is a lazy thing. we got her after she had her feet run over by someone, (probably her last owner), and the own refused to pay the vet bills when she was picked up by animal control. She was nearly eight at the time, and had severe lacerations to her front feet (nothing broken). She let us care for her injuries without a fuss. She makes up for her lack of guard dog abilities in other ways (like putting up with my six year old who is a hellion). Our indoor dog, Angel (five year old lab/Basset mix), will mess with poultry, and as such, is either indoors or on a tether (near her people, of course).

Obviously, we worked on fencing today.