bandittheroo
In the Brooder
nooooo! poor birdies.. sorry for your losses
Illinois...
- Thread starter mothergoose
- Start date
CC not sure what you mean by self blue. Yea I agree there is something fishy going on here. The parents are from our flock. Here are some pictures of them. I will try and get better pictures of the chicks tomorrow night. Thanks for your input everyone. Kevin
Ok, the pics solve one mystery but not the mystery of the black chicks. The Splash you have are not "Blue Splash", they are "Mauve Splash" (lucky you). That means they have both a chocolate as well as 2 blue genes in them. So some of the lavender looking chicks (also called self blue) are mauve and some splash.
also the lighting is making your pullets look chocolate. I thought you said they were black pullets. Can you kindly clarify?
Well ladies and gents idk how or when it happened but we had a buff Orpington hen missing at lock up tonight. Found a massive possum in one of the sheds with her body it had been her killer of course. Bad bad night. We snapped some pics of the possum if anyone would like to see. I don't remember if we took any of her or not. Poor baby. It was pretty horrific. Her neck, chest and back were open skin torn off most of the left breast muscle consumed. He had also eaten all of the toes off of one of her feet, and most of the meat off of her back. Like I said it was horrific. Poor baby. What a rotten creature. I know it was just trying to survive. It was obviously an older possum as like I said it was huge and it's left ear was torn from an old fight, I'd bet. Still its hard to feel remorse for something that killed one of your birds and may have been involved in other missing birds. Still our greatest culprits are the fox(or pair of foxes) and coyotes plus possibly the wolf which of course we won't shoot. The possum and fox heck yeah. We have also seen a few birds of prey mostly hawks but also eagles but have never had a bird confirmed taken by a aerial predator. Probably BC even the pidgeons that roost in the old silo scare the birds silly. Lol. So now I feel rotten BC of the possum and the bird, who's name was Clover, and BC of the flu.I really used to love wildlife and I still do but having them killing your chickens does make it much harder. The possum was in the building(Quonset hut) that our feed is stored in. We just got 1000 pounds of feed Saturday. I'm sure it could have found an easier meal than my bird. Just tear into a bag for instance. Please don't think me callous for saying this BC I absolutely feel for her and wish we could have saved her but it could have been several other birds that would have been worse. She was a good hen and a great layer of light pink eggs. She was also curious and sweet but not overly friendly. She will be missed but she was also on a list of birds to be rehomed this year and since the last possum, that ate eggs, she tried to peck at any egg we picked up. (Note: she wouldn't peck them otherwise.) So while I'm heartbroken for her and I'll miss her and her curious gentle face I am glad to know the culprit was caught and my beloved flock are now safe again, or at least as safe as they've ever been, for now. Why oh why does everything have to like to eat chicken?! I know I'll find myself looking for her in the future for just a few moments before I remember and tomorrow will be hardest but I know I'll have the memories of her. Much as I still do for Mickey and Ducky. She was one of the original five chicks we ordered that started all of our chicken math. Even before we picked up those 5 which became 9 lol in addition to 7 others we picked up from a different feed store and 8 more we hatched a month later. This brings our losses for 2016-2017 to 29 birds.
Thanks guys. At least the fox hasn't been back since I shot it hopefully I got the thing. Of course now that I've said that it will probably show back up. Fingers crossed it doesn't. Then again. Then we could finish the job but no I don't want it to come back ever. The possum last night was a surprise. (Opossum for everyone that is wondering lol around where I live people think you're a bit odd if you say the full thing.) Our last possum was much smaller but was just an egg eater. Last night I was linging for just ome of those. I knew they could be predatory but I never really expected to lose a bird to a possum. That thing was huge though. Kinda makes me wonder if it's taken any other birds before but some of you may remember that the only body we've ever found was the olive egger cockeral chick in the grow out run that something had grabbed and tried to pull through a one inch gap. A possum could not have grabbed it in the middle of the run. Due to the injuries I'm almost certain that chick was killed and partially eaten by a rat. Unfortunately we had a bad year last year and our several weeks of peace was broken by the possum last night. Hopefully we can have peace again for a while and not lose any birds or see any predators. Still no luck on the rodent front other than the one mouse I saw the chickens with. I believe the main flock is hunting the mice I just wish the rest would start in. Still under the weather hopefully on the mend. Happy Valentine's day to everyone I hope you all get to spend it with your loved ones and significant others.
They are black pullets we bought from a breeder last August. I will post better pictures tonight of the pullets and rooster
How can you tell they're mauve splash? Just trying to learn.
They're stunning stunning stunning!!!
Lol now I'm drooling all over lol
@chickendreams24
SORRY TO HEAR OF ANOTHER LOSS. Have you thought about an electric fence?
I guess I don't see the chocolate in them. Of course I've also never seen splash or mauve birds in person.
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