Hello from Indiana!

[DobieLover]

Thank you!

Actually, I’m a little ashamed to admit this, but the raccoon attack pretty much boiled down to our own negligence and stupidity. And unfortunately, also a case of my husband....well, just not wanting to listen to me, pigheadedly believing he know more about country-living and backyard chickens than me. What I was praying would not be another “I told you so” moment , but unfortunately was.

The somewhat condensed version: my husband believed there were no raccoons to fear because he had never seen them; that even if there were raccoons around, they would not be able to climb over a 4 foot fence; that it wouldn’t be called chicken wire if it weren’t meant for use with chickens (as opposed to my suggestion of hardware cloth); that as long as they were fenced in, overhead protection was overkill and just meant to keep chickens from escaping over the top; ducks were fine sleeping outdoors outside of the coop; that nothing but a wolf or coyote would mess with a duck the size of the Pekin and they couldn’t get over the fence; and we didn’t have to worry too much about any other animals, especially with our [indoor] dogs.

He has since learned that sometimes I do know what I’m talking about, and we BOTH worked together to ensure the setup was as predator-proof as possible.

It's good that you made a more secure home. I was so paranoid when I first started out that I wrapped everything up in electric fencing.

 

[Villainess]

I'm so sorry you had to go through that.
I hope he understands better now.

He has gotten better about it, thank you. And I think he’s finally realized that to me they are more than “just chickens” or “just ducks” when I carried the body of my Jade into the house, waking him up at 5 in the morning, bawling. That was the first thing I had told him when we got married: you bring an animal home, I’m going to get attached to it. When it dies, I’m more than likely going to cry. And he knows I am not typically an overly emotional or crying person.

 

[Villainess]

It's good that you made a more secure home. I was so paranoid when I first started out that I wrapped everything up in electric fencing.

I’m really thinking that’s going to be my next step, too. Well, after I add some overhead protection to keep out hawks and the like. Thankfully, I don’t think anything is going to get into the coop when they’re bedded down at night, but I’m doing daily inspections around the structure to ensure everything is sound—I’m that paranoid now.

 

[Quackter]

Hahaha! I’m not a Hoosier by birth, does that make a difference? Someone once told me if I’ve been in Indiana for 20 years or more it makes me a Hoosier. I’ve been here 25 years now, so I guess I’m a lifer?

Yep, I didn't think it too long. I used to work around the state line, worked with a lot of good people out that way. If somebody wan't talking some kind of smack, somebody was mad.

 

[Villainess]

Hello and welcome to BYC!
We're so glad to have you here with us!
Thank you for joining our wonderful community of fellow poultry enthusiasts!

Sounds like you have quite the flock! Any pics?
We all love pics!

And thank you for the welcome

I do have some pics. I’ll have to see which ones are the better ones to try posting. They’re kind of like children in that they don’t want to hold still long enough for a good picture. Plus, the initial post was pretty long in itself, I didn’t want to push my luck by scaring others off....hahaha.

 

[CarpCharacin]

Welcome to BYC! We're glad you decided to join our wonderful community!

 

[sourland]

A belated welcome to BYC - good luck in protecting your flock.

 

[Villainess]

Some pictures of my flock. I can usually catch more pics of the RIR’s than the others because my Reds run to me, the others run from me. LOL

Please don’t hesitate to point out any issues any of you may see, either.

 

[DobieLover]

Some pictures of my flock. I can usually catch more pics of the RIR’s than the others because my Reds run to me, the others run from me. LOL

Please don’t hesitate to point out any issues any of you may see, either.
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That's quite the flock you have there!

 

[slordaz]

Welcome to BYC,eggcited to have you here with us, we will gladly help out where we can and if we can't know who to tag for most part to help