I do the Stupidist Things!

[tfpets]

I try to re-use things at home, so when we took the top of my deck down, I used the boards in my chicken house as a roost. I left a couple of large cup hooks on it, because they were handy for putting things on when I'm out there....I didnt think it was any big deal???
Tonight, I had already laid down for the night, when I decided to go out and do one more check of the coops out in the pet area, and to look in the brooder at the 2 new chickies my Dark Cornish insisted on hatching yesterday.....I was pretty surprised to see my one and only Black Copper Marans Rooster hanging by his leg, his zip tied ankle was caught on the Cup Hook!! He was very calm, and let me lift him off the hook and settle him on the shelf...he doesnt seem injured, except maybe his pride, but I'll check him over in the morning....
I used the zip ties to mark everyone who had been dusted and wormed for fall....but I may need another method! And now I think I'm pretty stupid for leaving the cup hook on the board, where a chicken may get hurt! It's like having little children around all over again, they get into and onto everything!! How can I keep them all safe?? Who would think a cup hook on a board would be such an issue. Thanks for listening, I felt pretty bad seeing him there, and it was a fluke I even went back out tonight, you know?

Tina/tfpets

 

[d.k]

*~ ~ Poor Roo!! I was looking tonight at some tiny girl's hair stretchies and the like, just in case I need to mark my girls by the leg for some reason. Only other thing I could think of is color file folder labels. . . .

 

[kstaven]

I used bands for years without incident and then in one summer lost 3 of my best breeders because of them. I use NOTHING but bandettes for ID purposes now, because if the chicken gets caught on anything they will snap open and release from it or at worst come off the chicken and get lost.

What you did wasn't stupid. Millions of birds free range and never have an issue getting bands caught on anything.

 

[d.k]

* Where do you get them, ks?

 

[kstaven]

Google cutler poultry supply for some of the best prices and size availability.

 

[d.k]

*

Thank you!!

 

[rebecca10782]

You can paint them

Just kidding. My mom marks the kittens with food coloring

 

[hoosier]

Quote:
That was your 'mom' instinct that sent you back out!

 

[warcard]

We lost our beautiful Silver Pheasant male to something similiar.

We use Top Flight netting over our pens and when we did an addition we only had some 4 ft fencing and a gate so we brought the netting down to the top of the fence. We put a board over the gate to attach the netting to and the birds kept flying up a sitting there. Not a problem, right.

SO wrong, one day hubby went out to find Mr. Heston hanging from his spur, he'd gotten it caught in the net overnight and between hanging upside down and trying to pull himself out had died.

We now make sure the there is no place to roost around the netting. You are a good birdy parent, who has now learned a valuable lesson and passed it on to others. If you want to keep the hook, consider putting it somewhere the birds will not be roosting near.

 

[tfpets]

Quote:
That is so sad abour your bird??

I feel so lucky I went back out last night. My Black Copper is such a gentle guy, when I turned the light on, it was like he looked at me like he knew I was gonna be there, so he was just waiting, hanging around, you know? He was fully suspended, but leaning against the brooder box below, what a sight! I turned the cup hook downwards for now.

I bought the poultry bands for my birds, and I didnt use them this time. I have so many different size birds. I am going to have to rethink it, I guess, and re-tag all of them...Actually, they're all done now, I could take off all of their ties now, and they'll be safe!!
tfpets
tina/tfpets