Consolidated Kansas

[Trish44]

Yeah, me too, I thought maybe you were having some kind of meltdown Danz.

Sunflowerparrot, I don't know if maybe I could send a text to Mary in the morning after I get up & tell her to just bring a couple of those other windows or not. I bet I could use them on my main coop, hey that's an idea. I was needing to put some other windows in there, thanks for bringing that up.

KarenS, I'm sending you a PM.

 

[chicken danz]

I am having a melt down Trish! But seeing that brought me back to life for a minute.

I wonder how on earth he managed to step on the enter key? Could have typed a novel while I was MIA! Maybe he was trying to tell you all why he keeps eating my hair!!!
Guess it is time for him and his little chicken buddy to go back in the bin.

 

[HEChicken]

I am having a melt down Trish! But seeing that brought me back to life for a minute.

I wonder how on earth he managed to step on the enter key? Could have typed a novel while I was MIA! Maybe he was trying to tell you all why he keeps eating my hair!!!
Guess it is time for him and his little chicken buddy to go back in the bin.

You're lucky ALL he did is step on the keys.....it coulda been much, much worse.

 

[ChicknBaron]

That whole chlorine incident sounds similar to something that happened a few weeks ago in my house! My mom poored 'draino' down the sink and it got backed up and it spewed this horrible "toxic" fume all over the house, so we evacuated. my mom got it really bad and couldn't get her breath so we called the poison hotline too. she was fine later, but it was a VERY scary time for us.

I saw that link for the victor mouse trap and i just realized i have the same one! haha. i don't have a mice problem tho... i've got a ground squirrel problem!!! those dum things first chewed through my feed sacks and pooped in them, then when i put the feed in 5 gal. buckets and they couldnt get at it then they started going in the coop to eat, and that was even worse because then i was afraid the chickens might eat there poop and get diseases! and there was only this one, i'd see him everyday scurrying his fat, chubby, overweighted body out of this little crack in the coop's siding, and he'd run on the other side of the fence where i couldnt get him.

that thing got so fat on my chicken feed he could hardly move! first i tried catching him with sticky traps, but all i caught was his tail (he chewed it off to get away)! then the next day i put corn in it and caught 5 sparrows.

so eventually i set out the biggest snap trap i could find and sprinkled corn around it. and it worked! i finally caught the stupid thing! Bye Bye Squirrely

 

[WichitaKidd]

Not a very good day on the backyard farm. Came home to find that 6 of might 8 chickens had been killed by 2 stray pit bulls that jumped the fence. One bird is pretty banged up, but still alive. Not expecting her to make it thru the night, but so far so good. Another bird was missing altogether (not in the yard). She showed back up about an hour after I got home trying to find her way back to the coop. She's missing a lot of feathers & has a few bites & scratches, but is holding up really well. Better than I am. Not really sure how I'm handling it honestly. I've raised these birds since they were 3 days old. A lot of time, energy, effort, money & care have gone into this hobby. Not sure what I'm going to do at this point. If my one bird doesn't make it that will leave me with just one. She knows something is up & has been looking for the other birds for hours. Not sure I'm going to even try & get any more birds this late in the year especially with winter just around the corner. I may have to re-home her just so she's not alone. Then I can decide in the spring if I want to try again or just let it all go. Still pretty emotional about the whole ordeal & have decided not to make any final decisions right now. I'm just glad I wasn't home to see it happen. Fortunately, my neighbor witnessed the whole thing & was able to identify the dogs for animal control & they picked up the dogs & took them away.

On a side note, the one thing the animal control officer did point out to me was that I did not have the proper permit for the number of birds I had. I've known that for some time & the form is sitting on the desk. Just never took the time to fill it out & send it in. She did not write me a citation, but said that an officer may be back by to write me one if they deemed it necessary. The officer knew I was pretty upset so I think she cut me some slack. So I guess what I'm saying if you need a permit & don't have one yet take the time to get it done.

 

[sharol]

I'm so sorry about your birds. It would be a tough call this time of year.

Sharol

Not a very good day on the backyard farm. Came home to find that 6 of might 8 chickens had been killed by 2 stray pit bulls that jumped the fence. One bird is pretty banged up, but still alive. Not expecting her to make it thru the night, but so far so good. Another bird was missing altogether (not in the yard). She showed back up about an hour after I got home trying to find her way back to the coop. She's missing a lot of feathers & has a few bites & scratches, but is holding up really well. Better than I am. Not really sure how I'm handling it honestly. I've raised these birds since they were 3 days old. A lot of time, energy, effort, money & care have gone into this hobby. Not sure what I'm going to do at this point. If my one bird doesn't make it that will leave me with just one. She knows something is up & has been looking for the other birds for hours. Not sure I'm going to even try & get any more birds this late in the year especially with winter just around the corner. I may have to re-home her just so she's not alone. Then I can decide in the spring if I want to try again or just let it all go. Still pretty emotional about the whole ordeal & have decided not to make any final decisions right now. I'm just glad I wasn't home to see it happen. Fortunately, my neighbor witnessed the whole thing & was able to identify the dogs for animal control & they picked up the dogs & took them away.

On a side note, the one thing the animal control officer did point out to me was that I did not have the proper permit for the number of birds I had. I've known that for some time & the form is sitting on the desk. Just never took the time to fill it out & send it in. She did not write me a citation, but said that an officer may be back by to write me one if they deemed it necessary. The officer knew I was pretty upset so I think she cut me some slack. So I guess what I'm saying if you need a permit & don't have one yet take the time to get it done.

 

[Hawkeye95]

Not a very good day on the backyard farm. Came home to find that 6 of might 8 chickens had been killed by 2 stray pit bulls that jumped the fence. One bird is pretty banged up, but still alive. Not expecting her to make it thru the night, but so far so good. Another bird was missing altogether (not in the yard). She showed back up about an hour after I got home trying to find her way back to the coop. She's missing a lot of feathers & has a few bites & scratches, but is holding up really well. Better than I am. Not really sure how I'm handling it honestly. I've raised these birds since they were 3 days old. A lot of time, energy, effort, money & care have gone into this hobby. Not sure what I'm going to do at this point. If my one bird doesn't make it that will leave me with just one. She knows something is up & has been looking for the other birds for hours. Not sure I'm going to even try & get any more birds this late in the year especially with winter just around the corner. I may have to re-home her just so she's not alone. Then I can decide in the spring if I want to try again or just let it all go. Still pretty emotional about the whole ordeal & have decided not to make any final decisions right now. I'm just glad I wasn't home to see it happen. Fortunately, my neighbor witnessed the whole thing & was able to identify the dogs for animal control & they picked up the dogs & took them away.

On a side note, the one thing the animal control officer did point out to me was that I did not have the proper permit for the number of birds I had. I've known that for some time & the form is sitting on the desk. Just never took the time to fill it out & send it in. She did not write me a citation, but said that an officer may be back by to write me one if they deemed it necessary. The officer knew I was pretty upset so I think she cut me some slack. So I guess what I'm saying if you need a permit & don't have one yet take the time to get it done.

Oh no! I've wondered how your coop and chickens are doing. I sure didn't want to hear this. What a horrible thing to have happen-- dogs get into your back yard. I'm just so sorry for you. I can't even imagine how awful that must be. I don't think you should give it all up, though. Give it time to think about it and let some time pass. I will put it out there that LAST year, I bought several layers in October-- so still a month away-- and then just kept them in my garage. Of course, you have a coop, so you could brood them in there in a large tupperware with a heat lamp over them. There are lots of chicks yet at Atwoods, etc. But of course, you do what you think it right for you. I would just hate to see that gorgeous coop you built not house chickens in it. I'm glad they caught the dogs. Two of them running around like that is very dangerous-- and not just for backyard chickens, but for children and people too.

 

[ChicknBaron]

Sooo sorry to hear about the attack

I wish you the best of luck in your future chicken raising though

 

[tweetysvoice]

Not a very good day on the backyard farm. Came home to find that 6 of might 8 chickens had been killed by 2 stray pit bulls that jumped the fence. One bird is pretty banged up, but still alive. Not expecting her to make it thru the night, but so far so good. Another bird was missing altogether (not in the yard). She showed back up about an hour after I got home trying to find her way back to the coop. She's missing a lot of feathers & has a few bites & scratches, but is holding up really well. Better than I am. Not really sure how I'm handling it honestly. I've raised these birds since they were 3 days old. A lot of time, energy, effort, money & care have gone into this hobby. Not sure what I'm going to do at this point. If my one bird doesn't make it that will leave me with just one. She knows something is up & has been looking for the other birds for hours. Not sure I'm going to even try & get any more birds this late in the year especially with winter just around the corner. I may have to re-home her just so she's not alone. Then I can decide in the spring if I want to try again or just let it all go. Still pretty emotional about the whole ordeal & have decided not to make any final decisions right now. I'm just glad I wasn't home to see it happen. Fortunately, my neighbor witnessed the whole thing & was able to identify the dogs for animal control & they picked up the dogs & took them away.

On a side note, the one thing the animal control officer did point out to me was that I did not have the proper permit for the number of birds I had. I've known that for some time & the form is sitting on the desk. Just never took the time to fill it out & send it in. She did not write me a citation, but said that an officer may be back by to write me one if they deemed it necessary. The officer knew I was pretty upset so I think she cut me some slack. So I guess what I'm saying if you need a permit & don't have one yet take the time to get it done.

I'm so sorry to hear this. Any loss is a bad one, but this is just terrible! I'm glad they caught the dogs!

 

[HEChicken]

Not a very good day on the backyard farm. Came home to find that 6 of might 8 chickens had been killed by 2 stray pit bulls that jumped the fence. One bird is pretty banged up, but still alive. Not expecting her to make it thru the night, but so far so good. Another bird was missing altogether (not in the yard). She showed back up about an hour after I got home trying to find her way back to the coop. She's missing a lot of feathers & has a few bites & scratches, but is holding up really well. Better than I am. Not really sure how I'm handling it honestly. I've raised these birds since they were 3 days old. A lot of time, energy, effort, money & care have gone into this hobby. Not sure what I'm going to do at this point. If my one bird doesn't make it that will leave me with just one. She knows something is up & has been looking for the other birds for hours. Not sure I'm going to even try & get any more birds this late in the year especially with winter just around the corner. I may have to re-home her just so she's not alone. Then I can decide in the spring if I want to try again or just let it all go. Still pretty emotional about the whole ordeal & have decided not to make any final decisions right now. I'm just glad I wasn't home to see it happen. Fortunately, my neighbor witnessed the whole thing & was able to identify the dogs for animal control & they picked up the dogs & took them away.

On a side note, the one thing the animal control officer did point out to me was that I did not have the proper permit for the number of birds I had. I've known that for some time & the form is sitting on the desk. Just never took the time to fill it out & send it in. She did not write me a citation, but said that an officer may be back by to write me one if they deemed it necessary. The officer knew I was pretty upset so I think she cut me some slack. So I guess what I'm saying if you need a permit & don't have one yet take the time to get it done.

David, I am so, so sorry. I am really glad they caught the dogs though - unfortunately this scenario happens just about everyday somewhere in the country and in most cases, the dogs are never caught so you have to live in fear they will be back.

I really hear you on the lone hen. While there are chicks available this time of year at Atwoods, you probably want a grown hen to be immediate company for yours. Please PM me if you need a hen - I'm sure I can spare one to be a companion for yours. How is the injured hen doing this morning?

FWIW, I had a fox attack a couple of months ago and one of my hens was attacked and had four bite wounds. I treated them with Neosporin but didn't expect her to make it. She had 3 days where she was in shock and wouldn't eat or drink but did eventually come out of it and is now laying again. I really hope to hear your hen is hanging in there too.

I bet they will not write you a citation for the lack of permit. I was in almost the exact same situation. I knew I needed one but procrastinated on getting it, and eventually my neighbor reported me for having an accidental roo and AC came to visit. The roo was gone by the time they visited, I was contrite about the lack of permit and promised to take care of it right away and they just told me I should really do that. I DID go ahead and get the permit the very next day and was glad I did. It gave me legal rights when my neighbor's dog attacked and killed one of my hens by digging a hole under the fence, laying in wait with only head and shoulders through, grabbed a hen and dragged her into their yard and killed her. Since I was "legal", AC took THEM to court (when my attempts to resolve it peacefully failed) and they were the ones to get the citations for having dogs "running at large" which is what they call any part of a dog that is not on its own property (in this case I had a photo of the dog with head and shoulders over on my side of the fence) and for not having their dogs registered and vaccinated. The $25 annual fee wound up being worth it (although chicken math did kick in and I figured if I was paying for a permit to have 12, then by golly, I was going to have all 12).