DEVASTATED. Lessons in newbie chicken-keeping UPDATE on P.3

[ninjapoodles]

Awww, that's sweet. My husband ordered a BUNCH more, so I'll have to wait a while, but I guess we get to start over. In the meantime, I have turkey poults in the brooder.

 

[Solsken Farm]

Gosh, this sounds devestating. How terrible.

What kinds of chicks did you order? That sounds exciting. Keep us posted.

 

[seriousbill]

Quote:
Yes! It may be good to focus on the positive. I'm sorry for your loss, but it sounds like you have a lot more poultry joy in your future

 

[ninjapoodles]

My husband ordered some, and didn't choose exactly what I would have, or from the sources I would have, but I didn't complain because he was doing it to be sweet because he felt bad for me. He place TWO hatchery orders: the first with some Buff Orps, some cuckoo Marans, and (shudder) 7 Cornish X, which I have NO idea what I'm going to do with, because my whole setup is geared toward raising REAL chickens, not Frankenchickens. Then a week later (I KNOW) he has an order of 25 Buff Orp pullets coming. He's building additional housing in the meantime.

If anyone has any tips on raising broilers along with your regular flock, I'd be glad to hear them!

Belinda

 

[blurose]

Your hubby sounds like a real good egg all around. Now, I do have experience with fox in the henhouse, er after my chickens anyways. I lost two roos to a fox, one got carried off (roo nearly bigger than the fox) and one left behind when fox was chased off by me and my dog. This was on two seperate occasions. The roo left behind wasn't killed outright but had its neck broke and died a short time later. That same roo (6 months older than when the first roo got foxnapped) WAS bigger than the fox and the fox left the scene with a noticable limp. Also, that same roo had previously survived two encounters with the rancher's wandering hunting dog. On these two occasions the dog bruised and bloodied my roo and removed nearly all of the feathers from his back that it took him weeks to recover. If I'd had a gun, I'd have shot that dog, landlord's or not. Anyways, what I'm trying to say in my round about way is that the fox didn't hardly disturb a feather but broke the necks of my roos. By the way, the fox never came back again for as long as I lived there. It could be that a fox or some other predator was in the process of carting off the dead to a den nearby when either you or daybreak interrupted it. Just offering suggestions.

 

[ninjapoodles]

Our one cockerel who was emerging as the "leader" (he was roosting the hens, and always stationed in the doorway of the coop) apparently went down fighting. He had bundles of brown fur clutched in his grasp.