Introduction: New to BYC and have Questions

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WendyHTN

Chirping
Apr 14, 2022
16
31
66
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?

I grew up on a hobby farm, but just got my first chicks as an adult 2 weeks ago

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?

8, hopefully 7 hens and a rooster

(3) What breeds do you have?

Rue - Rhode Island Red
Sunny - Golden Laced Wyandotte
Bonnie - Easter Egger
Bunny - Easter Egger
Rip - Americana
Fern - Olive Egger
Dotty - Silver Laced Wyandotte
Orpington - Clara

(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?

We are striving for a semi self sufficient homestead on a half acre

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?

Camping, fishing, hunting, gardening

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.

Just my husband and I, he works from home I’m in construction management. We have 3 dogs … perfect Bozley (11 yr old Schnoodle, 25 lbs), bossy Lucy (4 yr old Border Terrier mix, 20 lbs), scared but mischievous Jovi (2 yr Jack Russell/Poodle mix, 15 lbs).
We’ve already had an incident with Jovi finding a weak spot in our run and killing my 3 Lavender Orpingtons that were 7 weeks. We fixed that evening.

(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?

I found the community while Googling some of my questions and figured I’d better just join.

Current things I’m struggling with:

My 3 week old chicks are starting to fly around brooder, I’m trying to figure out if I need to modify the coop and run somehow to get them moved. In the meantime I was looking at getting a full grown rooster and 2 hens to replace my 6 week olds that Jovi got, I’m thinking they are sufficiently scary big for little dogs. However, I am unsure if I still need to quarantine the 3 full grown ones or if since they are also being moved it would be a good time to move the chicks as well and integrate.

Also any tips on acclimating dogs to chicks?
While in the brooder I’ve allowed the dogs to be exposed in order to hopefully acclimate, but we aren’t there yet. While larger pullets were in the run, before Jovi found our weak spot, I allowed the dogs free access to the yard to observe the pullets. After Jovi killed the pullets, I scolded, chased him and Lucy around the yard using the dead rooster, then made them lay down with the dead pullets out on them. I’m just trying to associate some fear of the chickens so they won’t bother them.
Once we started free ranging the chickens, dogs were going to be allowed out only 1 at a time and leashed to get used to them.
 
Hello, Wendy, and welcome to BYC! :frow Glad you joined.
Full grown chickens and a rooster are unlikely to be a good deterrent to a dog that's already killed a chicken no matter what its size. Some dogs have such a high prey drive they can never be fully trusted around the flock. It takes an awful lot of time and training to get a dog like that to be trustworthy around the flock. Personally I wouldn't do it. I would instead create a very large penned in area for the flock surrounding it with electrified poultry netting.
If you bring in adult birds they're going to have to be quarantined for 30 days before introducing them to your new chicks.
 
Welcome to BYC!

Quarantine your new birds for around 30 days or so.

The young 3 week chicks are learning to use their wings. I start giving perches and dirt to practice their chicken skills at that age. Make sure your brooder is tall enough so they can't fly out. I normally move them out of the brooder at 5 weeks old, but I don't put them with the rest of the flock until 10-12 weeks.

So sorry for your losses. :hugsOnce a dog kills a chicken, it's hard to get them to stop. Chasing them around and yelling won't do anything. To them, they won't know what they did wrong.

Good luck with your dogs and chicks.
 
WendyHTN said:
(1) Are you new to chickens / when did you first get chickens?

I grew up on a hobby farm, but just got my first chicks as an adult 2 weeks ago

(2) How many chickens do you have right now?

8, hopefully 7 hens and a rooster

(3) What breeds do you have?

Rue - Rhode Island Red
Sunny - Golden Laced Wyandotte
Bonnie - Easter Egger
Bunny - Easter Egger
Rip - Americana
Fern - Olive Egger
Dotty - Silver Laced Wyandotte
Orpington - Clara

(4) What are your favorite aspects of raising backyard chickens?

We are striving for a semi self sufficient homestead on a half acre

(5) What are some of your other hobbies?

Camping, fishing, hunting, gardening

(6) Tell us about your family, your other pets, your occupation, or anything else you'd like to share.

Just my husband and I, he works from home I’m in construction management. We have 3 dogs … perfect Bozley (11 yr old Schnoodle, 25 lbs), bossy Lucy (4 yr old Border Terrier mix, 20 lbs), scared but mischievous Jovi (2 yr Jack Russell/Poodle mix, 15 lbs).
We’ve already had an incident with Jovi finding a weak spot in our run and killing my 3 Lavender Orpingtons that were 7 weeks. We fixed that evening.

(7) Bonus: How did you find BYC, how long have you known about BYC, and what made you finally join our awesome community?

I found the community while Googling some of my questions and figured I’d better just join.

Current things I’m struggling with:

My 3 week old chicks are starting to fly around brooder, I’m trying to figure out if I need to modify the coop and run somehow to get them moved. In the meantime I was looking at getting a full grown rooster and 2 hens to replace my 6 week olds that Jovi got, I’m thinking they are sufficiently scary big for little dogs. However, I am unsure if I still need to quarantine the 3 full grown ones or if since they are also being moved it would be a good time to move the chicks as well and integrate.

Also any tips on acclimating dogs to chicks?
While in the brooder I’ve allowed the dogs to be exposed in order to hopefully acclimate, but we aren’t there yet. While larger pullets were in the run, before Jovi found our weak spot, I allowed the dogs free access to the yard to observe the pullets. After Jovi killed the pullets, I scolded, chased him and Lucy around the yard using the dead rooster, then made them lay down with the dead pullets out on them. I’m just trying to associate some fear of the chickens so they won’t bother them.
Once we started free ranging the chickens, dogs were going to be allowed out only 1 at a time and leashed to get used to them.
Click to expand...
Once my rotty ate a chicken, that was it. They are food to him now. I'm ofc no expert but you can see it in his eyes. He is definitely never going to be okay with chickens alone.
 
Sai said:
Once my rotty ate a chicken, that was it. They are food to him now. I'm ofc no expert but you can see it in his eyes. He is definitely never going to be okay with chickens alone.
Click to expand...
I'm ok with them not being alone with the chickens and due to not trusting neighbor dogs we built a larger run and planned to do supervised free range. I'd like the dogs to just be able to be ok off leash during supervised free range
 

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