Greetings from my mountain eyrie

[Flaymm]

I live in SE Queensland, Australia and have 13 hens, of varying breeds, and only about 5-6 of them lay daily. I used to fully free range them on my 1/4 acre block but sadly a neighbours dogs (2 x Shar Peis) decimated my flock by 4 and I am now forced to keep them in a big chook run most of the day. I try to let them out for a dust bath and general hunt n peck look around in the last hour of daylight most days. They are real personalities, I call them all by name and they make me smile, in fact I can’t imagine life without them now!

 

[DobieLover]

Hello and welcome to BYC! Glad you joined.
I agree! I plan to put instructions in my will on what to do with my chickens when I'm gone.

 

[ValerieJ]

Hi! Welcome to BYC! I'm so sorry about the dog attack. Are you able to fence in the free range area? Or did the dogs jump your fence? If my dog attacked the neighbors unfenced free range chickens anywhere but on my own property, I'm pretty sure she would be shot on sight.

 

[Flaymm]

Hi! Welcome to BYC! I'm so sorry about the dog attack. Are you able to fence in the free range area? Or did the dogs jump your fence? If my dog attacked the neighbors unfenced free range chickens anywhere but on my own property, I'm pretty sure she would be shot on sight.

I live in a rural area but there aren’t a lot of fences. I have tolerated numerous dog attacks for nearly 12 months, the last was in August and her dogs tried to attack the hens through the mesh but thankfully couldn’t break in. She insists she can’t always control them and I reminded her that as a dog owner she has both responsibility and obligation to do exactly that. The shire council have now spoken with her and we’ve been incident free for almost 8 weeks now. But yes hubby is talking of fencing out a larger area under the trees for them to forage in safety

 

[BullChick]

 

[ChemicalchiCkns]

That is near North South West?

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Hi!

 

[ValerieJ]

I live in a rural area but there aren’t a lot of fences. I have tolerated numerous dog attacks for nearly 12 months, the last was in August and her dogs tried to attack the hens through the mesh but thankfully couldn’t break in. She insists she can’t always control them and I reminded her that as a dog owner she has both responsibility and obligation to do exactly that. The shire council have now spoken with her and we’ve been incident free for almost 8 weeks now. But yes hubby is talking of fencing out a larger area under the trees for them to forage in safety

My dog is fenced in with an invisible fence from Pet Safe. Wouldn't it be nice if your neighbor could do that with her/his dogs. You could offer to help put it in.

 

[MaryJanet]

Hi! Welcome from me in Adelaide My friend @Ribh is up in Queensland, hopefully she'll come by and say hello. If you're interested in other people's hens, I started a thread called MJ's little flock and it has descriptions of my chooks and cat, plus an ongoing chat (https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mjs-little-flock.1334809/)

Sounds like talking to the shire was a good move. I know how hard it is to lose chooks like that - a few years ago I lost three in a fox raid and I'm still a bit angry.

 

[Ribh]

I live in SE Queensland, Australia and have 13 hens, of varying breeds, and only about 5-6 of them lay daily. I used to fully free range them on my 1/4 acre block but sadly a neighbours dogs (2 x Shar Peis) decimated my flock by 4 and I am now forced to keep them in a big chook run most of the day. I try to let them out for a dust bath and general hunt n peck look around in the last hour of daylight most days. They are real personalities, I call them all by name and they make me smile, in fact I can’t imagine life without them now!

WELCOME TO BYC.​

Love, love, love Tambourine Mountain! I had family up there for a while. I'm up the coast from you out on the islands but there's plenty of Aussies on here: @Aussie-Chookmum , @LozzyR . There is an official Aussie thread; it's not used much but you can find some of us here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/ribhs-dcoopage.1295189/
or here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mjs-little-flock.1334809/
or here:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...s-of-our-flock.1286630/page-194#post-21888584
& even here : https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...rming-ventures.1295522/page-163#post-21887606