- Thread starter
- #11
flygirl1973
Chirping
The rooster we believe was killed by George. In the small coop “Bigun” just couldn’t get away. He was often challenging George. If I were to have my druthers, he would have been the rooster to keep, he wasn’t quite as audacious as George. Honestly I thought there were going to be problems with the “boys” 4 weeks ago or more, but one day just led to the next and I never saw anything warning me otherwise. They were always able to get away. I think being in the small coop one night just drew everything to a head and the body was still in the bottom of the coop.
I would have liked to do a bachelor pad, but no money and time for that. I tried to give them away on the swap page and offered them to my fellow middle TN’s. Up until that point - just over a week ago they had generally been getting along and all sitting together at night in their coop.
Chickens mature fairly fast and we just didn’t want to kill any unless we had to. I’m down to 2 cockerels, and this last guy is super submissive. If I can keep the new chicks alive and the remaining flock I’ll have 6 girls and 2 boys. After reading “understanding rooster behavior” article on here it’s changed my perspective of roosters. I believe now that as my husband is handy, if he see’s ole yellow foot on the sidelines he may indeed build a quick shelter for him as he looks to be taking over care of the little ones when they are out in their crate.
@Criticalicious the coop is a modified pre-fab. That is something I tried to tell my husband about but as in most crappy pre-fabs the dang door has settled and even I have trouble opening it with the latches open. You have to pull up on the whole door. It also doesn’t get used much unless I’m in there stirring up the bottom so it sticks too. I do appreciate you calling attention to potential issues in case I have missed something. My husband originally thought of these chickens as disposable but he’s grown attached (probably because of the amount of money and time invested) and is fairly upset about something we have tried to prevent. It’s inevitable to form favorites.
Also from everything I’ve read, the indications say it’s a fox. We haven’t seen any but the camera caught a raccoon hanging around 2-3 times the night before, and last night, well let’s just say that one won’t be pestering them anymore. Raccoons supposably leave massive carnage and we didn’t find one body and the other one was partially buried. Thanks for everyone’s interest and questions.
I would have liked to do a bachelor pad, but no money and time for that. I tried to give them away on the swap page and offered them to my fellow middle TN’s. Up until that point - just over a week ago they had generally been getting along and all sitting together at night in their coop.
Chickens mature fairly fast and we just didn’t want to kill any unless we had to. I’m down to 2 cockerels, and this last guy is super submissive. If I can keep the new chicks alive and the remaining flock I’ll have 6 girls and 2 boys. After reading “understanding rooster behavior” article on here it’s changed my perspective of roosters. I believe now that as my husband is handy, if he see’s ole yellow foot on the sidelines he may indeed build a quick shelter for him as he looks to be taking over care of the little ones when they are out in their crate.
@Criticalicious the coop is a modified pre-fab. That is something I tried to tell my husband about but as in most crappy pre-fabs the dang door has settled and even I have trouble opening it with the latches open. You have to pull up on the whole door. It also doesn’t get used much unless I’m in there stirring up the bottom so it sticks too. I do appreciate you calling attention to potential issues in case I have missed something. My husband originally thought of these chickens as disposable but he’s grown attached (probably because of the amount of money and time invested) and is fairly upset about something we have tried to prevent. It’s inevitable to form favorites.
Also from everything I’ve read, the indications say it’s a fox. We haven’t seen any but the camera caught a raccoon hanging around 2-3 times the night before, and last night, well let’s just say that one won’t be pestering them anymore. Raccoons supposably leave massive carnage and we didn’t find one body and the other one was partially buried. Thanks for everyone’s interest and questions.
