flocking nuts
Chirping
I'm pretty new to BYC, and new to chickening. I had wanted chickens for fresh eggs since my late teens when I first had one. 15 years later we finally found a house we could rent out in an agricultural area. I grew up in Miami, and as a naturalist this is heaven. I got the chicks the second week we were here. The property we live on is a 1/4 acre that is fenced surrounded by an avocado grove and the barn that stores all the equipment for all of his different crops. I mention this because of course where there is important equipment there are guard dogs.
As I had said we got chicks the 2nd week we lived here. We bought a mixed flock of 6 week-old chicks. 2 BA pullets, a BA roo, a RIR pullet, light Brahma pullet, and white leg horn that was supposed to be a pullet.
A day or 2 before some of the farm employees stumbled on to a brooding hen along the fence while looking for some farm mesh wire fence stuff, so I could cover the gate since the guard dogs seemed to think they could come over whenever they wanted, while my daughter was out there (supervised of course), friends were over with their children, and to dig through the trash. We had a dog at the time (a stray puppy adopted us, so now 2) and she hadn't played attention to that area, so I figured she just got there. The night we brought our flock home "Mamma Hen's" eggs began hatching, she lived there longer than we did and we didn't even know it. over the next day or two 10 eggs hatched, the last of them hatch after she began foraging with the chicks, and it was a stormy day, so I stuck my hands through the something like 2x4 metal fence hole and slowly took the chick without any objections from mamma.
My inside flock became 7,and then I had a surprise flock of 10. The surprise flock slowly adopted us, mamma hen would eat out of our hand, but kept the chicks away. We put together a small outdoor precoop/play pen for our flock, and used some wood and palm fronds from the royal palms that go around the property on 3 sides.
Although the best we knew she was one of the neighbors, but I had installed the wire fence stuff on the front gate to stop the dogs from coming in the yard, so I figured they were safe. The first week we found a dead chick in the backyard. We didn't know what it was, and still don't. I didn't see any obvious trauma, but I didn't inspect it either. I had to get my daughter to preschool, so my bf dealt with it.
The next two or three weeks were going ok. A puppy showed up, I think it snuck under the fence. Duh, I should have figured the bigger dogs would be able to also. I was kinda concerned, and had started to try to figure out what to do about it. We just moved in though, I bought 6 chicks before I should have, and wound up with 15 chicks and mamma hen which was some type of game fowl. In addition to a puppy that showed up, and a bearded dragon we've been watching for a month and a half. So, instead of dragging cinder blocks across the yard to at least block the probably 30 foot long gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground, that is almost 8" in some places, I worked on unpacking and organizing my almost 4y/o daughters room. The palms are planted on raised rows, so erosion over time left the gaps.
The morning of the 4th we found that mamma hen and a chick were missing. Our "surprise flock" became "the orphans." I had heard some weird chattering (later identified as a bird) that I thought might have been raccoons. We built another temporary small coop for the orphans, put them next to ours, and started the mission of trying to tell the gender of the orphans that are hybrid game fowl chicken mix. While working in the breed and gender forums to try to figure out what the orphans were I couldn't deny that even though I don't know much about chickens, and that female white leg horns have some combs and waddles "green mallard" just seemed a little too like our cockrel goose.
While I was going crazy trying to figure out how big the coop will be, so I could build it. We hadn't planned on having that many chickens, and we had 14 chicks. Somehow we felt responsible to care for the orphans, but the two flocks still hadn't shown any sign of integrating.
Thanks to BYC members identifying mamma as some type of game fowl and some of the orphans as males I knew it would end poorly if we tried to keep them confined together, and our hen/roo ratio was way off. Last Thursday I went to speak to the lady at the feed store, she said she would exchange her for a new chick and help me find homes for others. I thought to myself how much I would love another Robin, the family favorite light Brahma. I know ya can't have just one chick, so I told her we would just like help rehoming Green Malard. (My daughter has an interesting sense of humor. The cats name is frog)
Saturday evening my bf was feeding the orphans snacks and trying to build trust and all of that, so I brought our dogs and daughter inside. Sitting in the back room I hear chicks, look out the window and see the orphans running across the backyard. I wondered what my bf was doing, but went back to what I was doing. Then I hear more cheering, and see Ducky (the surprise flock reject, turned family flock) fly into the glass door. I told my daughter to stay inside. Thank god she listened. For those of you who have spent time with almost 4 year olds you understand how miraculous this was.
I saw one of the guard dogs with robin in his mouth. My heart broke, but something in me snapped when I saw him try to run away with her. The first thing I saw was a rake, and I'm not too ashamed to say I beat that dog with it a few times until he dropped her, I had to open the gate to get him out, you know since I made sure to cover it so they couldn't go through. The rest of the pack scattered, and I'm not even totally sure how they got out. My bf had come out at this time to me screaming profanities at dog, with a rake in my hand, hysterically crying, and chasing them down the long driveway.
It was too late for robin. She was gone. It took me quite a while to pull it together. The guilt from not having gone out when I first saw the orphans running I might have been able to save my cuddly robin. I didn't know my bf had come in, and I couldn't have known, but I still felt terrible and knew I would have to tell my daughter.
I called the homeowner since its his dogs,a and his fences around the property. He loves kids, so felt terrible and said we'd find a way to fix it so it wouldn't happen again.
My daughter took it better than expected. While we were burying toddler size 9 shoe box with our favorite chicken my little human said the most amazing thing. "Mommy you didn't save Robin. Daddy didn't save her and the guard dogs dieded her. You saved our other chicks though and all of the mamma hens chicks" my girl is awesome.
When I told the owner I was thinking about an electric fence he said he would reimburse us for it. I wanted a big secure coop with run more than ever, so I needed a bird count to start. We were down to 13 chickens. We knew 2 were roos in our flock of 6,1 was intended. I was certain that 2 of the 7 orphans were make and would have to go. I know asking someone to sex a 2 month old chick of unknown breeds from pictures when they won't stay still is a lot. So I decided to get the orphans into a dog crate and take them to the feed store to see if anyone can help sex them and help me rehome them.
My trip to the feed store was good, funny, and bad, but before I left I chased the dogs back in their 4 1/2 acres, so the whole time I was gone I was anxious. I spoke to the owner, and she said to bring them around to the feed dock, and she would try to help me figure out what they were. When I pulled around back there was an old Hispanic man talking to an employee. I explained why I was there, and we started talking about them, and the employee translated during the conversation when necessary. The old man said they were all boys, and asked what I planned to do with them. After explaining I wanted to rehome the rooms, but I didn't think they all were, and pointed out that of the two black ones, one had a comb and one didn't, and the same with two more that were very similar. After a while the owner comes out and tells me they're all females. I point out my observations to her. She said I waited too long, and they were too old to tell now, the old man said they were too young. That's the good and the funny. The bad is that since our pullet roo ratio was more off now we wanted to get 2 more light Brahmas, but there weren't any left. She might get some in Friday,but after that she doesn't know when they'll be getting more. I have the old man my number so he could call me in a few days, because I couldn't just get rid of the chicks without my daughter saying goodbye. We just buried her favorite Saturday. I too pics of the orphans one by one when I took them out of the crate to post better pics in the hopes someone might be able to help with better pics.
I spent the next hour or so looking at electric fence stuff, and realized I wasn't sure about a few things, and needed more info. I realized I haven't explained that the starter coop doesn't have a run, and they free range during the day. The coop should be bigger, I'm trying to figure out how big of coop I need. We avoid leaving them in because they're really more of sleep shacks, not enough space for extended stays. The girls didn't want to go back in and the orphans wanted nothing to do with me after the car ride and being held for photos,and I had to go get my daughter.
When we got home my daughter wanted to help put her chickens away. All of our flock was in the coop, but the orphans were on top of theirs and one was missing. I searched for her. There was no response or evidence of her being killed. I'm so upset. More annoying is my pullets keep getting attacked and messaging up the pullet roo ratio.
Any guidance on electric fences, integrating the pullets from orphan flock to our flock, I'll post pics tomorrow. I know nothing about electric fences, deterring dogs until the fence arrives and is installed.
Sorry for the long post.
Thanks,
Wendy
As I had said we got chicks the 2nd week we lived here. We bought a mixed flock of 6 week-old chicks. 2 BA pullets, a BA roo, a RIR pullet, light Brahma pullet, and white leg horn that was supposed to be a pullet.
A day or 2 before some of the farm employees stumbled on to a brooding hen along the fence while looking for some farm mesh wire fence stuff, so I could cover the gate since the guard dogs seemed to think they could come over whenever they wanted, while my daughter was out there (supervised of course), friends were over with their children, and to dig through the trash. We had a dog at the time (a stray puppy adopted us, so now 2) and she hadn't played attention to that area, so I figured she just got there. The night we brought our flock home "Mamma Hen's" eggs began hatching, she lived there longer than we did and we didn't even know it. over the next day or two 10 eggs hatched, the last of them hatch after she began foraging with the chicks, and it was a stormy day, so I stuck my hands through the something like 2x4 metal fence hole and slowly took the chick without any objections from mamma.
My inside flock became 7,and then I had a surprise flock of 10. The surprise flock slowly adopted us, mamma hen would eat out of our hand, but kept the chicks away. We put together a small outdoor precoop/play pen for our flock, and used some wood and palm fronds from the royal palms that go around the property on 3 sides.
Although the best we knew she was one of the neighbors, but I had installed the wire fence stuff on the front gate to stop the dogs from coming in the yard, so I figured they were safe. The first week we found a dead chick in the backyard. We didn't know what it was, and still don't. I didn't see any obvious trauma, but I didn't inspect it either. I had to get my daughter to preschool, so my bf dealt with it.
The next two or three weeks were going ok. A puppy showed up, I think it snuck under the fence. Duh, I should have figured the bigger dogs would be able to also. I was kinda concerned, and had started to try to figure out what to do about it. We just moved in though, I bought 6 chicks before I should have, and wound up with 15 chicks and mamma hen which was some type of game fowl. In addition to a puppy that showed up, and a bearded dragon we've been watching for a month and a half. So, instead of dragging cinder blocks across the yard to at least block the probably 30 foot long gap between the bottom of the fence and the ground, that is almost 8" in some places, I worked on unpacking and organizing my almost 4y/o daughters room. The palms are planted on raised rows, so erosion over time left the gaps.
The morning of the 4th we found that mamma hen and a chick were missing. Our "surprise flock" became "the orphans." I had heard some weird chattering (later identified as a bird) that I thought might have been raccoons. We built another temporary small coop for the orphans, put them next to ours, and started the mission of trying to tell the gender of the orphans that are hybrid game fowl chicken mix. While working in the breed and gender forums to try to figure out what the orphans were I couldn't deny that even though I don't know much about chickens, and that female white leg horns have some combs and waddles "green mallard" just seemed a little too like our cockrel goose.
While I was going crazy trying to figure out how big the coop will be, so I could build it. We hadn't planned on having that many chickens, and we had 14 chicks. Somehow we felt responsible to care for the orphans, but the two flocks still hadn't shown any sign of integrating.
Thanks to BYC members identifying mamma as some type of game fowl and some of the orphans as males I knew it would end poorly if we tried to keep them confined together, and our hen/roo ratio was way off. Last Thursday I went to speak to the lady at the feed store, she said she would exchange her for a new chick and help me find homes for others. I thought to myself how much I would love another Robin, the family favorite light Brahma. I know ya can't have just one chick, so I told her we would just like help rehoming Green Malard. (My daughter has an interesting sense of humor. The cats name is frog)
Saturday evening my bf was feeding the orphans snacks and trying to build trust and all of that, so I brought our dogs and daughter inside. Sitting in the back room I hear chicks, look out the window and see the orphans running across the backyard. I wondered what my bf was doing, but went back to what I was doing. Then I hear more cheering, and see Ducky (the surprise flock reject, turned family flock) fly into the glass door. I told my daughter to stay inside. Thank god she listened. For those of you who have spent time with almost 4 year olds you understand how miraculous this was.
I saw one of the guard dogs with robin in his mouth. My heart broke, but something in me snapped when I saw him try to run away with her. The first thing I saw was a rake, and I'm not too ashamed to say I beat that dog with it a few times until he dropped her, I had to open the gate to get him out, you know since I made sure to cover it so they couldn't go through. The rest of the pack scattered, and I'm not even totally sure how they got out. My bf had come out at this time to me screaming profanities at dog, with a rake in my hand, hysterically crying, and chasing them down the long driveway.
It was too late for robin. She was gone. It took me quite a while to pull it together. The guilt from not having gone out when I first saw the orphans running I might have been able to save my cuddly robin. I didn't know my bf had come in, and I couldn't have known, but I still felt terrible and knew I would have to tell my daughter.
I called the homeowner since its his dogs,a and his fences around the property. He loves kids, so felt terrible and said we'd find a way to fix it so it wouldn't happen again.
My daughter took it better than expected. While we were burying toddler size 9 shoe box with our favorite chicken my little human said the most amazing thing. "Mommy you didn't save Robin. Daddy didn't save her and the guard dogs dieded her. You saved our other chicks though and all of the mamma hens chicks" my girl is awesome.
When I told the owner I was thinking about an electric fence he said he would reimburse us for it. I wanted a big secure coop with run more than ever, so I needed a bird count to start. We were down to 13 chickens. We knew 2 were roos in our flock of 6,1 was intended. I was certain that 2 of the 7 orphans were make and would have to go. I know asking someone to sex a 2 month old chick of unknown breeds from pictures when they won't stay still is a lot. So I decided to get the orphans into a dog crate and take them to the feed store to see if anyone can help sex them and help me rehome them.
My trip to the feed store was good, funny, and bad, but before I left I chased the dogs back in their 4 1/2 acres, so the whole time I was gone I was anxious. I spoke to the owner, and she said to bring them around to the feed dock, and she would try to help me figure out what they were. When I pulled around back there was an old Hispanic man talking to an employee. I explained why I was there, and we started talking about them, and the employee translated during the conversation when necessary. The old man said they were all boys, and asked what I planned to do with them. After explaining I wanted to rehome the rooms, but I didn't think they all were, and pointed out that of the two black ones, one had a comb and one didn't, and the same with two more that were very similar. After a while the owner comes out and tells me they're all females. I point out my observations to her. She said I waited too long, and they were too old to tell now, the old man said they were too young. That's the good and the funny. The bad is that since our pullet roo ratio was more off now we wanted to get 2 more light Brahmas, but there weren't any left. She might get some in Friday,but after that she doesn't know when they'll be getting more. I have the old man my number so he could call me in a few days, because I couldn't just get rid of the chicks without my daughter saying goodbye. We just buried her favorite Saturday. I too pics of the orphans one by one when I took them out of the crate to post better pics in the hopes someone might be able to help with better pics.
I spent the next hour or so looking at electric fence stuff, and realized I wasn't sure about a few things, and needed more info. I realized I haven't explained that the starter coop doesn't have a run, and they free range during the day. The coop should be bigger, I'm trying to figure out how big of coop I need. We avoid leaving them in because they're really more of sleep shacks, not enough space for extended stays. The girls didn't want to go back in and the orphans wanted nothing to do with me after the car ride and being held for photos,and I had to go get my daughter.
When we got home my daughter wanted to help put her chickens away. All of our flock was in the coop, but the orphans were on top of theirs and one was missing. I searched for her. There was no response or evidence of her being killed. I'm so upset. More annoying is my pullets keep getting attacked and messaging up the pullet roo ratio.
Any guidance on electric fences, integrating the pullets from orphan flock to our flock, I'll post pics tomorrow. I know nothing about electric fences, deterring dogs until the fence arrives and is installed.
Sorry for the long post.
Thanks,
Wendy
