gagging chicken and refusal to go in the coop *Update* She died.

[luvmyfowl]

So sorry to hear about the demise of your girl. Its always upsetting to lose one. It never gets any easier. As far as the rodents are concerned, if you havent already, adopt a few barn cats. We have one huge barn cat, Abbey who is an excellent rodent terminator. There are cat rescues in the area who collect up feral cat kittens and adopt them out. We recently added 2 more kittens to the barn. Charlie and Karlie. Its hilarious to watch the kittens and chickens get to know each other. The best time to introduce the kittens to the chickens is when one chicken is broody. The broody hen (in this case a little silkie, Ragmop) will scream, flap her wings, peck and chase the kittens. The kittens remember this lesson and respect the chickens. Its a riot to watch a little silkie chase a huge fluffy barn cat down the isle of the barn. The little hen sends the cat up into the rafters. At this point I have 3 cats who just lay around in the straw while the chicks walk all around them. The cats know they will catch a beating if they even think about getting after the chicks. And we haven't seen hide nor hair of a rodent. Sometimes we do see the occasional bowels and head left for our observation. The only problem we have is an occasional hawk attack. The girls are all free rangers so that danger will always exist. We have cut way back on the our hawk attacks with dummies, roos, hawk wire and hanging CD's. Bust of luck.

 

[Mylied]

Thank you for the sympathy. This was two years ago. I've lost a couple since then, sadly. One to a dog and one to a messed up crop. It sure has been a rough learning experience, that's for sure. But I love my chickens and have 4 new chicks in the brooder.