Dixie Chicks

Super upset earlier. Came home from town, brought in groceries, went to check chickens, one dead white giant and two missing
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didn't know what got them three have been escaping the four foot fence. Wife says she seen the neighbors cat around. Whatever it was partly plucked it and then left it ten feet away next to the other chicken run, had me confused, maybe we interrupted it.
While I was setting up my trail cam on the dead body I put back by the pile of feathers, wishing I still had traps, two of the missing came running out of the bushes by the garage
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Unloaded my .22 in our van and got packed up to take 11yr old bullhead fishing. Heard a ruckus, mama broody going nuts in her pen, giants and sussex going nuts but they do that, act like something's getting them, everything looked OK, NO! half the giants/sussex ran to the other side of the run, there was a HAWK! trying to KILL a few on the other side! I could not get the clip in the .22 fast enough, got it in ratcheted in a bullet, darn thing saw me, now twenty feet away, and flew into a pine tree above other run, cross hairs on it, DARN safety was on! It flew off!
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Wish I had brought out the shotgun! Wife came out, told her I was sure there was three or four dead or will be dead badly injured. Miraculously not a single injury! It had a few pinned down! What to do now! Put them all in the big coop with the big chickens.
I got them July 2, so they are almost two months old. Hopefully they will be OK. They are quite active and the big chickens didn't hurt the silkies when I put them in to make room for these chicks. Actually they did the same thing as when I put the silkies in, they acted scared of them. Half of the big chickens ran outside into the run like they were scared of them. They have a better chance of survival in the big coop with a covered run than they do where they were at. Dang chicken hawk! Sucks the one killed was one of the few pullets with correct white feathers and slate grey legs, I'd a rather it didn't kill any but would have rather it was a cockerel, I have mostly, or one of the few with wrong color legs or the greyish lilac colored ones....
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Yeap! @Beer can , I've never had a chicken I didn't like get picked off by predators....
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Glad you found what the predator was though. There are so many feral cats around here and none has offered to even bother any of my chicks. Even the younger ones, I put the chicks in a circle fence during the day & the cats have never bothered them. Hawks, owls, dogs and lots of raccoon attacks.

I have put younger ones with my older ones & aside from pecking, they usually get along good. I moved some of mine around. The 5th pullet that was sick died. Most are copper marans. I think I only have one girl left out of that batch.

Night before last night one of the big hens flew down & wacked me in the face putting a big scratch down the side of my face. Guess I'll have to wear makeup today. Have a good day. Busy day for me!
 
HAPPY MONDAY MORNING EVERYONE

Hope you all enjoyed your summer! We had nighttime temps in the high 30's over the weekend and the high today is supposed to be in the low 50's, wet and blowing, again. Been so cloudy that it's been so dark in the coop the girls have stop laying. Guess I'm going to have to turn the coop light back on early, sigh. They are loving this cooler weather tho! They really didn't like it when it got into the 80's. It was so hot in the coop one night I had to put a fan in there one night!

As for ACV, always put it in their water in the summer. Just a tsp or two in a two gallon waterer. Great for their gut health and it keeps anything from "growing' in their water. It's also loaded with minerals that are good fro them. Braggs is great but a bit pricey tho so I make my own. If you have apple peels it's easy peasy. Just google. All the natural chicken keeping types have instructions on their websites.

Speaking of those folks, been staying in touch with my friend in Washington state that blogs by the handle Just Fowling Around. She and her brother's farms are in the middle of one of the fire areas. His place is not that far from her where she can see it (I think) from hers on a good day but can't now because of the heavy smoke and she lost contact with him for several days because the fires destroyed the power station and torched the cell towers. Most of the roads are still closed and they had a standing potential evac order for what seems forever. If you are so inclined, a little prayer for these folks and their neighbors would be greatly appreciated.
 

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