- Sep 27, 2013
- 14
- 5
- 24
Hi!
I'm new to BYC and actually new to chickens, too. We live in NH with our 100lb German Shepherd, Sigg. We've always wanted chickens and finally own a home with plenty of land to do it. We got 24 chicks in May of this year. We built a beautiful oversized coop and a 400sqft predator proof pen. They have an automatic coop door that opens at sunrise and closes at sunset. They are allowed to free range when I'm home, which is about 3-4 days a week. We have Silkies, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Barred Rocks, Ameracaunas, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Golden Laced Wyandottes, and Golden Comets.
I recently allowed them to free range and left for about 2 hours and sadly, a sly little fox paid us a visit. He took 7 hens and badly injured 2 (buff orpington and a silkie). I'm a nurse so I tended to their wounds as best as I knew how and isolated them in a hospital pen in our basement. I didn't think they would make it, especially the silkie. They were in total shock. I added electrolytes to the water and did wound care everyday. I'm happy to report that 3 weeks later, they have been reintroduced to the flock and are doing awesome! I did have to give up 2 Australorps and a Wyandotte as they refused to accept the 2 injured (although completely healed) hens back into the flock. The more I watched them, the more I realized they were just sort of bullying everyone. A friend of mine took them and they are doing great now that they are low bird on the totem pole. It's nice to have harmony back in the flock.
I found BYC when I started researching chickens. Everything I googled, BYC had an answer. I learned a lot from BYC when I googled "how to reintroduce injured hens". Unfortunately, nothing I tried worked, hence giving up the 3 bullies.
Looking forward to learning so much from all the experts here!
I'm new to BYC and actually new to chickens, too. We live in NH with our 100lb German Shepherd, Sigg. We've always wanted chickens and finally own a home with plenty of land to do it. We got 24 chicks in May of this year. We built a beautiful oversized coop and a 400sqft predator proof pen. They have an automatic coop door that opens at sunrise and closes at sunset. They are allowed to free range when I'm home, which is about 3-4 days a week. We have Silkies, Buff Orpingtons, Black Australorps, Barred Rocks, Ameracaunas, Silver Laced Wyandottes, Golden Laced Wyandottes, and Golden Comets.
I recently allowed them to free range and left for about 2 hours and sadly, a sly little fox paid us a visit. He took 7 hens and badly injured 2 (buff orpington and a silkie). I'm a nurse so I tended to their wounds as best as I knew how and isolated them in a hospital pen in our basement. I didn't think they would make it, especially the silkie. They were in total shock. I added electrolytes to the water and did wound care everyday. I'm happy to report that 3 weeks later, they have been reintroduced to the flock and are doing awesome! I did have to give up 2 Australorps and a Wyandotte as they refused to accept the 2 injured (although completely healed) hens back into the flock. The more I watched them, the more I realized they were just sort of bullying everyone. A friend of mine took them and they are doing great now that they are low bird on the totem pole. It's nice to have harmony back in the flock.
I found BYC when I started researching chickens. Everything I googled, BYC had an answer. I learned a lot from BYC when I googled "how to reintroduce injured hens". Unfortunately, nothing I tried worked, hence giving up the 3 bullies.
Looking forward to learning so much from all the experts here!
