I'm getting frustrated - Not a good chicken monthish

[ASweetHeart]

I'm still relatively new to the whole having chickens thing. I really like them, but I'm not having a lot of luck recently. I'm getting really frustrated and discouraged.

At the end of Oct/begining of Nov 7 or 8 of my chickens went MIA, some we were really attached to. I caught a rat, posssum, and raccoon. I've critter-proofed my coop since & barricade the chickens at night. No dissappearances since.

I lost power for awhile during the last few days of hatch at begining of Nov. 6 of my 9 NN Turken egglings didn't survive.

Last week an animal got into my friend's (she's new to chickens, too) pen. Slaughtered 21 of her 28 chickens. Her mom called her at work, she txted me, I went over and disposed of the remains and fixed her pen/coop to help make the loss less devestating to her. Was not easy for me to do - scary!!

End of the week I put my 3 little NN turkens in with chicks of similar size. They seemed to do ok for about 24 hours. When I went to check on them for the night, the back of 1 of the NN's head was eaten down to the skull, and it was still alive at the time.

A few nights ago I went to barricade my chickens for the night, I found 1 that I really liked dead and I'm not sure why.

I traded a box of alot of stuff here for some eggs. 6 were packed well in foam. 12 were packed in a carton surrounded by shredded paper. 6 of those 12 were completely smashed. The eggs have been in my bator since last Saturday night, I know it's still early but I only see any development in 1 of remaining eggs. Makes me want to cry.

I've only gotten about a dozen eggs from my birds since starting my chicken venture. That one chicken that layed was one that went MIA end Oct/begin Nov.

So, I'm frustrated, discoraged, and starting to wonder if I've got completely bad anti-chicken luck.

 

[AnimalsComeFirst]

Many people think raising chickens is easy, and sometimes it is. Other times it can be sad, expensive and very frustrating. I'm sorry to here of all your chicken losses.... I think what would help you is for all of us, and yourself, to pray. Have faith, it will get better!

Good luck!

 

[pgpoultry]

Oh you have had a very rough time. It seems like most the things that can go wrong in chicken keeping did.

There may well be someone near to you who will give you a few eggs or chicks as an early Xmas present, so I'm bumping this up again so it will be re-read. Can't do this myself as I'm a whole pond away.

You WILL have success, but the learning curve can be very steep and hard.

GOOD LUCK....

 

[Dowie]

Oh, it sounds like you've had a really awful time. Traumatising in fact. Maybe try just getting a group of point of lay hens again, easy to care for and now you've critter proofed everything they should be fine. Once you've had some fun with the chickens and gotten lots of eggs, maybe you can try the eggs again! Good luck!

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:

 

[ChickenPeep]

I'm so sorry.
Don't give up! It will get better!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Most of us have been through some of those things and it helps to talk about it.
Beekissed makes good points. A few good layers so you have the fruit of your labors for a while until you can't help yourself and succumb to chicken math like the rest of us.
A predator proof coop and run come before chickens.

 

[egglicious]

Wow, you have been through a lot.

I'm sorry! I think you have really jumped in head first with the chicken thing. When I got my first chicks this year I lost two right away and it was HARD. I can't imagine getting into hatching eggs because it just overwhelms me. I won't tell you to do anything other than what you want to do but I will say that I think considering all that you are doing some setbacks are inevitable. Hang in there, you are learning a lot really fast but it will get better.