I started two batches of chicks last fall from McMurray.
I raised 45 broilers for the freezer. I should have had 26 to keep over the winter, some Australorps, an EE, a Red Star, some Barred Rocks and New Hampshire Reds. I also had 8 Dark Cornish hens I bought from a neighbor. One day, my 6-month old Std. Poodle Puppy thought it would be fun to "play" with the 8-week old chickens. Needless to say, I had a few dead ones in the yard. Out of the batch, I had two that survived, the EE (Lester) and an Aussie (Henny Penny) who was actually gone for two days and then came back.
After a bit of shock therapy, the dog settled down and was leaving the chickens alone. We thought. Until one day she snatched a hen out of the corn field. So, more training and uh, therapy. She got the message.
About 3-weeks ago, our other puppy, a boy this time, also a Poodle and is 6-months old, decided he needed to find out the joy of "playing" with the chickens. All winter the dogs have done nothing except go out and eat the mash out of the feed can. But after finding some dead starlings and black birds that had apparently froze to death on our property, they developed a taste for feathered things.
Now, some of you might think that we should have learned by now. We would have put up fencing last fall when the incidents occurred, but the ground froze right after and it is tough to drive stakes into frozen ground, plus, we were trying to get the "big" chicken coop done to put the remaining chickens into it. It didn't work out the way we planned.
This winter, went it warmed up to -20 degrees, (Yes, that is minus 20), my remaining hens and Henny Penny began laying. We were overjoyed and overloaded with eggs. I started getting a couple of friends to start buying the extra eggs, but I still had more than we needed. I was setting some duck and Silkie eggs, so I thought "What the heck, let's put in some of our eggs too." I collected some still warm eggs and put them in when I set the others (the ducks had already been in for 10-days.) It was just a few days later that our dogs had attacked our flock and we were left with nothing except these three eggs. I was so broken hearted because I was just out that day admiring how handsome Lester was getting and so proud of all of my girls for laying so well.
I don't want to make this a thread about dogs as predators. That is for another section and I have already addressed it with folks there. We are putting up an electric fencing to solve the problem.
So, I am so glad that I did put in those three eggs because all three hatched and are looking great. Here is the proof, out of my Lester and three of my Dark Cornish girls comes the Three Amigos:
By the way, the little one on the left got startled by the flash and leaped back when I took the picture. I didn't realize until looking at it that it caught him with his wings spread
I raised 45 broilers for the freezer. I should have had 26 to keep over the winter, some Australorps, an EE, a Red Star, some Barred Rocks and New Hampshire Reds. I also had 8 Dark Cornish hens I bought from a neighbor. One day, my 6-month old Std. Poodle Puppy thought it would be fun to "play" with the 8-week old chickens. Needless to say, I had a few dead ones in the yard. Out of the batch, I had two that survived, the EE (Lester) and an Aussie (Henny Penny) who was actually gone for two days and then came back.
After a bit of shock therapy, the dog settled down and was leaving the chickens alone. We thought. Until one day she snatched a hen out of the corn field. So, more training and uh, therapy. She got the message.
About 3-weeks ago, our other puppy, a boy this time, also a Poodle and is 6-months old, decided he needed to find out the joy of "playing" with the chickens. All winter the dogs have done nothing except go out and eat the mash out of the feed can. But after finding some dead starlings and black birds that had apparently froze to death on our property, they developed a taste for feathered things.
Now, some of you might think that we should have learned by now. We would have put up fencing last fall when the incidents occurred, but the ground froze right after and it is tough to drive stakes into frozen ground, plus, we were trying to get the "big" chicken coop done to put the remaining chickens into it. It didn't work out the way we planned.
This winter, went it warmed up to -20 degrees, (Yes, that is minus 20), my remaining hens and Henny Penny began laying. We were overjoyed and overloaded with eggs. I started getting a couple of friends to start buying the extra eggs, but I still had more than we needed. I was setting some duck and Silkie eggs, so I thought "What the heck, let's put in some of our eggs too." I collected some still warm eggs and put them in when I set the others (the ducks had already been in for 10-days.) It was just a few days later that our dogs had attacked our flock and we were left with nothing except these three eggs. I was so broken hearted because I was just out that day admiring how handsome Lester was getting and so proud of all of my girls for laying so well.
I don't want to make this a thread about dogs as predators. That is for another section and I have already addressed it with folks there. We are putting up an electric fencing to solve the problem.
So, I am so glad that I did put in those three eggs because all three hatched and are looking great. Here is the proof, out of my Lester and three of my Dark Cornish girls comes the Three Amigos:
By the way, the little one on the left got startled by the flash and leaped back when I took the picture. I didn't realize until looking at it that it caught him with his wings spread
