chick-mccrea
Hatching
- Nov 8, 2015
- 1
- 0
- 7
I'm new to raising backyard chickens, having only started this past March. We started with a few white hens, but I wanted brown-egg layers so we added to our little flock. Our first eggs arrived just before the end of summer and so far so good...
Until just the past two weeks our hens enjoyed free roaming in our completely fenced in yard when we were home, they had lots of herbs, fruits, veggies, etc. to balance their chicken feed diet, but once they started finding ways out of the yard...I never knew chickens could jump that high...we started restricting the time they spent outside their coops/run. Then a few mornings we saw evidence of predators. First it was just a skunk which we trapped and released...we live on the east-side of Madison so our neighbors were happy little stinky was relocated. Then this morning we found the chicken wire between the two coops torn off, and most of our chickens roaming free...unfortunately we found one dead and the most friendly hen we have injured. Our neighbor later sent us a text apologizing for her dog getting into our yard this morning! I was so mad, I couldn't blame the dog, he was just tired of being caged up in a tiny yard...but mostly because the two hens were the friendliest in our flock.
We are new to this, and really want to nurse the injured hen if possible, but are not sure what is the best way to determine that...we do not have an established relationship with a vet, and our funds are limited, but we'd hate to see our girl suffer needlessly.
So, any and all advice is welcome!
Until just the past two weeks our hens enjoyed free roaming in our completely fenced in yard when we were home, they had lots of herbs, fruits, veggies, etc. to balance their chicken feed diet, but once they started finding ways out of the yard...I never knew chickens could jump that high...we started restricting the time they spent outside their coops/run. Then a few mornings we saw evidence of predators. First it was just a skunk which we trapped and released...we live on the east-side of Madison so our neighbors were happy little stinky was relocated. Then this morning we found the chicken wire between the two coops torn off, and most of our chickens roaming free...unfortunately we found one dead and the most friendly hen we have injured. Our neighbor later sent us a text apologizing for her dog getting into our yard this morning! I was so mad, I couldn't blame the dog, he was just tired of being caged up in a tiny yard...but mostly because the two hens were the friendliest in our flock.
We are new to this, and really want to nurse the injured hen if possible, but are not sure what is the best way to determine that...we do not have an established relationship with a vet, and our funds are limited, but we'd hate to see our girl suffer needlessly.
So, any and all advice is welcome!