- Jun 9, 2017
- 173
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Hi, everyone,
I just got here. I live in rural Southeastern Alabama, a hop, skip and jump from Florida, and am a retired teacher (my wife is a retired teacher, too). We are new to raising chickens but enjoy it very much. We have eight birds of mixed and uncertain breeds: a rooster named Elvis (he sings and croons all the time) and seven hens named Bar None, Misty, Mysteria, Peck-Peck, Lacey, Houdini (she's the escape artist and we had to find and catch her several times), and Whodunit. We had two more, Bonnie and Clyde, my wife's pets, but a predator killed and ate them. I set traps and caught and killed five raccoons and a feral cat, and we lost no more chickens after the demise of the local predators. But we remain vigilant. The day before yesterday I whacked a coyote that was chasing a newborn calf on our pasture, and a couple of months ago our horse chased away another coyote, a really large one, that was sniffing around the chicken house. If the coyote had not been able to crawl under the electrified fence fast enough, the horse would have caught up with him and killed him. He hates anything that resembles a dog. There are lots of hawks and owls around here, but the chicken pen is covered with chicken wire, and the chickens spend the night in a solid house nearly predator-proof.
We love the fresh eggs but we get so many we have to give them away often to friends and neighbors. 30-40 eggs a week are more than we can (or should) eat.
Love this forum. Lots to learn here.
I just got here. I live in rural Southeastern Alabama, a hop, skip and jump from Florida, and am a retired teacher (my wife is a retired teacher, too). We are new to raising chickens but enjoy it very much. We have eight birds of mixed and uncertain breeds: a rooster named Elvis (he sings and croons all the time) and seven hens named Bar None, Misty, Mysteria, Peck-Peck, Lacey, Houdini (she's the escape artist and we had to find and catch her several times), and Whodunit. We had two more, Bonnie and Clyde, my wife's pets, but a predator killed and ate them. I set traps and caught and killed five raccoons and a feral cat, and we lost no more chickens after the demise of the local predators. But we remain vigilant. The day before yesterday I whacked a coyote that was chasing a newborn calf on our pasture, and a couple of months ago our horse chased away another coyote, a really large one, that was sniffing around the chicken house. If the coyote had not been able to crawl under the electrified fence fast enough, the horse would have caught up with him and killed him. He hates anything that resembles a dog. There are lots of hawks and owls around here, but the chicken pen is covered with chicken wire, and the chickens spend the night in a solid house nearly predator-proof.
We love the fresh eggs but we get so many we have to give them away often to friends and neighbors. 30-40 eggs a week are more than we can (or should) eat.
Love this forum. Lots to learn here.
