INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Chaneys Ranch]

Sad news on the urban homestead today. Our 10-12-week-old puppy killed a hen this afternoon. He'd never given any indication of that sort of behavior with them and, particularly considering his small stature and young age, I'm still a bit shocked.

Im so sorry for your loss!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Hi fellow Indiana BYCers, I need some opinions. I built a coop and a fully enclosed run for winter for my chickens. I don't close the front door (which doubles as a ramp) at the moment. The coop and run are stuffed with straw, and the run is covered with a tarp. My question is, is there a temperature where I should close them in, and if so what temp?

Welcome to our thread and BYC!

 

[kittydoc]

I am happy to report that "Oliver," our Orpacauna cockerel, is on his way to @chick rookie for her olive egger program! DH is very happy the bird was not processed (which was my solution to him tricking us into thinking he was a pullet for 4 months). We are 0 for 2 on attempts to get an olive egger pullet from breeding an Orp roo to our Ameracauna hen. Maybe by next year, we'll forget about that and try one more time. Here's a photo. Check out his funky comb!

 

[daskhan]

Sad news on the urban homestead today. Our 10-12-week-old puppy killed a hen this afternoon. He'd never given any indication of that sort of behavior with them and, particularly considering his small stature and young age, I'm still a bit shocked. 

That is so sad I hope he gets the news soon and turns out to be a good doggy and no more feathered friends go bye bye

 

[Indyshent]

I am happy to report that "Oliver," our Orpacauna cockerel, is on his way to @chick rookie for her olive egger program! DH is very happy the bird was not processed (which was my solution to him tricking us into thinking he was a pullet for 4 months). We are 0 for 2 on attempts to get an olive egger pullet from breeding an Orp roo to our Ameracauna hen. Maybe by next year, we'll forget about that and try one more time. Here's a photo. Check out his funky comb!

Try breeding your Orp roo over a different hen. Some hens prefer one sex of eggs over another. Not entirely sure how it happens, but an awful lot of people do report some hens having 70%+ one gender offspring every year. Try to keep track of who lays which eggs and pair your roo with someone who tends to lay ladies.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Sad news on the urban homestead today. Our 10-12-week-old puppy killed a hen this afternoon. He'd never given any indication of that sort of behavior with them and, particularly considering his small stature and young age, I'm still a bit shocked.

I once went to the farm to pick up my milk. They have blue healers and often are training a new puppy/teenager. In addition to the cattle, they have free ranging chickens.

Anyhow, one day when I arrived, there was one of the "teenagers" leashed up near the milk house. On a collar tied to her neck was a dead chicken. Strange, I thought, as I had no education on such matters, but I did figure it out pretty quick.

When I asked the farmer to be sure I had interpreted correctly, he said, yes...that's how we teach them not to do that again. If they are aggressive toward the chickens, they get a thorough shaming, and then the chicken hung from their collar somehow. Not sure for how long, but they stay tied to a relatively traveled area and I think they get the "shaming" a few times.

He thought that it worked for his dogs but I'm skeptical..... It was definitely an education for me to see that!!!


Though I have no experience of my own.

 

[Leahs Mom]

If you really want to try to train your puppy a "shock collar" might be an option if you learn how to properly use it.

I once read something by Joel Salatin about him training his guardian dogs that way. His experience is that this takes the association of his presence away from the situation and stops the dog from thinking that he can get away with it if the master isn't around. It seems totally random to the dog and he learns to stay away from the chickens - whether master is there or not. Have to be stealthy about it so you're watching but they don't associate it with you.

They come with a remote for the owner to use. Shock is minimal.... When the dog heads toward - or even looks at - the chickens master gives them a shock. Puppy doesn't associate the shock with the master...just every time he thinks about those chickens "shock"....
like the "invisible hand of God".

Master stays his friend, and puppy learns that chickens shouldn't be messed with.

 

[kittydoc]

@Indyshent I am SO sorry for the loss of your hen to your puppy. Nothing worse than when one of your own animals kills another one. I suggest you contact a dog trainer (preferably female--sorry guys, but too many male trainers are all about the beatings and not about the learning) who also has chickens for the best advice on how to try to keep this from happening again. Unfortunately, the death of your hen was a "success" for your puppy. No after-the-fact punishment will work, however. They have about a 10-second attention span at that age, so any punishment is completely ineffective and just takes more away from the human-dog relationship.

There is no perfect solution besides keeping either the chickens away from the puppy, or the puppy away from the chickens, whichever is easier.

It bears repeating for newer list members: the predator that kills the most chickens is our beloved domestic dog. Very sad but true.

We don't free range (we have a large fenced chicken yard with multiple coops/pens), so we just never let our dog inside with us after we figured out in 3 minutes that it was a bad idea. We'd let him run around outside the fenced area where we could see him while we worked inside, and he could be trusted out there alone for short periods since he respects the fence. He loved flushing the chickens and making them freak out at first, but we eventually did break him of that, and we could walk by him with a chicken in our arms on the way to the house/garage without any issues, but I'd never let him inside the chicken yard off lead, or even on lead unless I wanted my shoulder dislocated.

 

[kittydoc]

Try breeding your Orp roo over a different hen. Some hens prefer one sex of eggs over another. Not entirely sure how it happens, but an awful lot of people do report some hens having 70%+ one gender offspring every year. Try to keep track of who lays which eggs and pair your roo with someone who tends to lay ladies.

I would if I had more than one Ameracauna hen! 0 for 2 isn't horrible odds--yet--1 in 4 chance of that happening (same as getting two pullets). There's only a 1 in 8 chance of it happening with cockerels a third time in a row, so we'll see what happens. I am going to try to start keeping track of what combinations seem to produce more pullets than cockerels next year, though, when I can. I love it that my Bielefelder line from Megan produces predominantly pullets (both for her and for me, when I hatched her eggs). I hope it continues that way with own little flock now that they are grown!

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

Quote:
I got my first OEs using a BCM roo over my EE hens. It gave me a dark olive drab green egg in the new hens. I finally have a pink egger! Don't ask me how that happened LOL.

I once went to the farm to pick up my milk. They have blue healers and often are training a new puppy/teenager. In addition to the cattle, they have free ranging chickens.

Anyhow, one day when I arrived, there was one of the "teenagers" leashed up near the milk house. On a collar tied to her neck was a dead chicken. Strange, I thought, as I had no education on such matters, but I did figure it out pretty quick.

When I asked the farmer to be sure I had interpreted correctly, he said, yes...that's how we teach them not to do that again. If they are aggressive toward the chickens, they get a thorough shaming, and then the chicken hung from their collar somehow. Not sure for how long, but they stay tied to a relatively traveled area and I think they get the "shaming" a few times.

He thought that it worked for his dogs but I'm skeptical..... It was definitely an education for me to see that!!!


Though I have no experience of my own.
Wow, I have heard of that too. Never seen it tho! That's the exact reason I decided against the breed for an LGD though. The name is derived from how they nip at the cattle's heels, and do have some prey drive. My sweet donkey is showing good promise as a guardian so I have decided against a dog for now. She races at the owl whenever it swoops at my ducks! I love giant dog breeds but they just aren't safe around my parents.