BuffetChicken
Chirping
Here's my introduction:
I'm new to raising chickens, didn't grow up with chickens or have any friends or neighbors with them. I took over some chickens March 23, 2021. Got them via Craigslist with their coop and all their gear.
There are four, three Australorps and a BlackStar, all born in spring 2020. They free range during the day and seem content. I'm learning their preferences (no raw asparagus, no blueberries, no cooked black beans; eggs and meal worms are the tops).
Pretty quickly, I realized they had intestinal parasites. With diagnosis by and advice from a great BC member, I treated the parasites (tapeworms). Had to figure out how to catch them, let alone administer the medication after they rejected bread coated in it. They're not chickens that have been handled, so that was a challenge!
The evening following administering the first dose of tapeworm treatment, we had our first fox encounter. I was lucky enough to be walking past the back door when it happened, so I heard the chickens' furious clucking. I ran outside to see a glorious fox hooking around from one chicken to another. The two chickens were running in opposite directions. I chased off the fox, and everyone was okay. (The other two were safely up in the coop. I'm not sure whether they happened to be there already or made the good choice to run there for safety.
After that, I started corralling them in their run before dusk. It wasn't too long before we had a different fox in the yard looking for chicken dinner. I had only a few minutes earlier gotten them in the run and closed the door. At that point, however, the run wasn't a lot of help. The Craigslist poster only used chicken wire around the run. So, I dedicated time in the following days to removing the chicken wire and replacing it with hardware cloth. Later, after relocating the coop in the yard, I also added a hardware cloth apron.
I've since had to treat them for lice, which were pretty bad, at least comparing to pictures I've found here. I'm not sure the lice are gone, but at least there are fewer of them. We had a heat wave (not nearly so bad as other areas this year), and I had to step in to alleviate heat stress on one occasion by spraying them gently with the hose.
Now we're back under fox attack. Saturday night, July 3, I was tired from yardwork. I was sitting at the kitchen table taking a rest. I was aware it was later than when I usually corral my flock, but it also seemed fairly light still. Then I heard it: furious chicken clucking. I threw open the door and the fox already had one of the chickens in its mouth! I ran at it screaming "NO!" It dropped her and jumped the fence. To my tremendous surprise, she was physically unharmed. She's traumatized, though. She's reluctant to leave the run now. I'm hopeful with time she'll recover emotionally.
That fox is unrelenting, though. The same one was back tonight. The chickens were already in the run, but the fox was trying to rip through the hardware cloth. The cloth held, but the staples I used to attach it were starting to pull out. So, back to run fortification.
It's been three tumultuous months. This chicken raising business is turning out to be a stressful endeavor.
I'm new to raising chickens, didn't grow up with chickens or have any friends or neighbors with them. I took over some chickens March 23, 2021. Got them via Craigslist with their coop and all their gear.
There are four, three Australorps and a BlackStar, all born in spring 2020. They free range during the day and seem content. I'm learning their preferences (no raw asparagus, no blueberries, no cooked black beans; eggs and meal worms are the tops).
Pretty quickly, I realized they had intestinal parasites. With diagnosis by and advice from a great BC member, I treated the parasites (tapeworms). Had to figure out how to catch them, let alone administer the medication after they rejected bread coated in it. They're not chickens that have been handled, so that was a challenge!
The evening following administering the first dose of tapeworm treatment, we had our first fox encounter. I was lucky enough to be walking past the back door when it happened, so I heard the chickens' furious clucking. I ran outside to see a glorious fox hooking around from one chicken to another. The two chickens were running in opposite directions. I chased off the fox, and everyone was okay. (The other two were safely up in the coop. I'm not sure whether they happened to be there already or made the good choice to run there for safety.
After that, I started corralling them in their run before dusk. It wasn't too long before we had a different fox in the yard looking for chicken dinner. I had only a few minutes earlier gotten them in the run and closed the door. At that point, however, the run wasn't a lot of help. The Craigslist poster only used chicken wire around the run. So, I dedicated time in the following days to removing the chicken wire and replacing it with hardware cloth. Later, after relocating the coop in the yard, I also added a hardware cloth apron.
I've since had to treat them for lice, which were pretty bad, at least comparing to pictures I've found here. I'm not sure the lice are gone, but at least there are fewer of them. We had a heat wave (not nearly so bad as other areas this year), and I had to step in to alleviate heat stress on one occasion by spraying them gently with the hose.
Now we're back under fox attack. Saturday night, July 3, I was tired from yardwork. I was sitting at the kitchen table taking a rest. I was aware it was later than when I usually corral my flock, but it also seemed fairly light still. Then I heard it: furious chicken clucking. I threw open the door and the fox already had one of the chickens in its mouth! I ran at it screaming "NO!" It dropped her and jumped the fence. To my tremendous surprise, she was physically unharmed. She's traumatized, though. She's reluctant to leave the run now. I'm hopeful with time she'll recover emotionally.
That fox is unrelenting, though. The same one was back tonight. The chickens were already in the run, but the fox was trying to rip through the hardware cloth. The cloth held, but the staples I used to attach it were starting to pull out. So, back to run fortification.
It's been three tumultuous months. This chicken raising business is turning out to be a stressful endeavor.
You might consider adding a hot wire around your chicken run. It works wonders. 
Glad you joined.
