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I feel sooo bad....lesson learned.

Discussion in 'Managing Your Flock' started by RockyToggRanch, Dec 5, 2009.

Most Liked Posts
  1. Dec 5, 2009 #1
    RockyToggRanch

    RockyToggRanch Chillin' With My Peeps

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    A few weeks back I saw an eagle swoop down over my yard. I've been doing a head count ever since. Last week I was missing a chicken. darn eagle, I thought. a few days went by and no more losses. The other morning while doing chores I heard a tap tap tapping in the barn aisle. I'd heard it the day before as well, but thought it was a wood pecker. The noise seems to be coming from the ground..... I picked up an empty corner feeder and there, wet and scraggly, was the missing hen..with an egg. She had been under the feeder bucket for at least 3 days. She acted starved, but fine otherwise. I have no idea how she got herself under the bucket, but I no longer keep loose buckets or feeders in the aisle.

    She's fine now, but I still feel bad:(
     
  3. Dec 5, 2009 #2
    annie3001

    annie3001 My Girls

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    [​IMG] glad shes found safe!!
     
  5. Dec 5, 2009 #3
    onthespot

    onthespot Deluxe Dozens

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    Riverside/Norco, CA
    Oh man! Tough on the bird, but good save! Glad the eagle didn't get her! Thanks for the heads up. If there is a possible way for a chicken to get wedged, hung up, lost or trapped, they will find it, I swear. The turned over bucket is a new one for me though. Glad she made it.
     
  7. Dec 5, 2009 #4
    3goodeggs

    3goodeggs pays attention sporadically

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    Wow. I am glad she survived. Don't feel awful, you saved her! feel good!
    I remember finding chickens in the most impossible of places when I was a kid. If it can be done, they can do it.
     
  9. Dec 5, 2009 #5
    michickenwrangler

    michickenwrangler To Finish Is To Win

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    Close call! We have to deal with hawks, owls, eagles and osprey here. When our chicken run was in the open, DH rigged up a "wigwam" of cedar branches that the hens went in for shade and protection. Now their run has cedars and balsams in it and provides enough cover that raptors can't easily get in
     
  11. Dec 5, 2009 #6
    RIVERA69R

    RIVERA69R Chillin' With My Peeps

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    LOL!!!!! I LOVE HAPPY ENDINGS [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  13. Dec 5, 2009 #7
    Casey3043

    Casey3043 Chillin' With My Peeps

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    May 19, 2009
    Simpsonville, South Carolina
    It's true, if they can find a way to get in trouble, they will do it. I had made some "droppings boards" out of 2 X 4s on edge and covered the 2 X 4 foot thing with hardware cloth. I quit using them because they were too hard to get out of the coop to clean. They fit exactly and got wedged in too tightly. I moved them to the garden and had them sort of leaning together in one corner to protect the last of my herb garden after I let the chickens in there for the winter. Of course, that's exactly where they wanted to go! One day there was a squawk and I turned around to see a BR hen under the mesh where one of them had fallen on her. Fortunately it didn't hurt her to be compressed to 3 1/2 inches thick! She couldn't get out from under it, and luckily I was there.

    No more propping the things up. I can use them flat to protect little seed beds, but that's all. Sigh.
     
    Last edited: Dec 5, 2009

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