Hi everyone!
I will say first that I am a midwife and a beekeeper, hence the name.
I am here to find out about discouraging predators and identifying some mystery babies.
As brief as I can tell it, my story:
My husband and I got our first chickens last year. We live on a 30 acre farm with a barn and pastures. I had and exterior stall enclosed for a night time coop and meant to let them free during the day.
We got 10 pullets: 4 Golden Comet, 3 Black Sex Link/Black Rock, and 3 Speckled Sussex. It breaks my heart to say only two of these survive.
We have red tailed hawks that nest on our farm. I knew this and got more chickens than I thought we would need. But we only lost one over the summer. I thought that was an acceptable loss. Then this winter we lost one, then a month later another, then the next week 2 more!
I replaced the lost ones this spring with three Brown Leghorn and two Barred Plymouth Rock. I went back later to order some geese and bought 8 mystery, straight run, 'rare breed' chicks.
We were out of town over Mother's Day. When we returned the house sitter (my son) said we lost three grown chickens in one day. This is just so heartbreaking. The two remaining are Black Rock. It is interesting that the first and only Black Rock we lost was one of the last three to go. I wonder if they are harder to see.
The coop has never been broken into and we have never seen any feathers. Once I saw two coyotes running out of the pasture, frightened by my car coming down the drive.
The babies are now in the coop. The two hens chase them away from the food, but are otherwise ignoring them.
I look forward to hearing what you have to say. Look for my posts about coyotes and identifying some of my rare breed babies.
I will say first that I am a midwife and a beekeeper, hence the name.
I am here to find out about discouraging predators and identifying some mystery babies.
As brief as I can tell it, my story:
My husband and I got our first chickens last year. We live on a 30 acre farm with a barn and pastures. I had and exterior stall enclosed for a night time coop and meant to let them free during the day.
We got 10 pullets: 4 Golden Comet, 3 Black Sex Link/Black Rock, and 3 Speckled Sussex. It breaks my heart to say only two of these survive.
We have red tailed hawks that nest on our farm. I knew this and got more chickens than I thought we would need. But we only lost one over the summer. I thought that was an acceptable loss. Then this winter we lost one, then a month later another, then the next week 2 more!
I replaced the lost ones this spring with three Brown Leghorn and two Barred Plymouth Rock. I went back later to order some geese and bought 8 mystery, straight run, 'rare breed' chicks.
We were out of town over Mother's Day. When we returned the house sitter (my son) said we lost three grown chickens in one day. This is just so heartbreaking. The two remaining are Black Rock. It is interesting that the first and only Black Rock we lost was one of the last three to go. I wonder if they are harder to see.
The coop has never been broken into and we have never seen any feathers. Once I saw two coyotes running out of the pasture, frightened by my car coming down the drive.
The babies are now in the coop. The two hens chase them away from the food, but are otherwise ignoring them.
I look forward to hearing what you have to say. Look for my posts about coyotes and identifying some of my rare breed babies.
