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Hello outdoor junkie! I'm wondering what breed the black ones are. Could they be Black Copper Marans? If you don't have any luck with anyone else taking them, I may be interested in the black ones, if you wouldn't mind separating them. ChickwannaB, if you have room for all of them, go for it!
I'm sad to see them go but with how much work I put into them I wasn't getting the "joy" out of them I know I would get with the right breed. The person who took them didn't want the rooster so I still have Radar and I kept one of my hens I had hatched out earlier this spring cause she's just a big sweety
The silkies are all moved into the Speckled coop and the two speckleds are moved into a small chicken tractor for now. We haven't finished the A-frame but here's where we stopped...
My son Aaron wanted to help too...he loved playing with the hammers!
How does this thing work? maybe if I add some drool.....
We have a flock of 17 silkies now! We have blue, black, splash, naked neck(in white only), partridge and blue partridge! (thanks to Courtney!) Next year I'll break them down into color coops for breeding for specific colors. Momma hen and her two chicks are doing great and are now in general population. Our white roo kept looking over at the chicks popping out from beneith her wings...but one growly-cluck from momma hen sent him running away!
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Hello outdoor junkie! I'm wondering what breed the black ones are. Could they be Black Copper Marans? If you don't have any luck with anyone else taking them, I may be interested in the black ones, if you wouldn't mind separating them. ChickwannaB, if you have room for all of them, go for it!
I never heard back from him, he went offline right away. I did let him know I need to get rid of a couple roosters, he could have them to butcher if he wanted to. If my roos go I would have room for the 4 OF HIS, but if you waNT THOSE BLACK ONES YOU gO RIGHT AHEAD. i DO already have a couple RIR, but I room to add his 2, or 4. And I have anti freeze waTER THINGS.
Warning: later in post graphic description of chicken partially eaten by a predator. Not gratuitous, I promise. But skip if you'd rather.
Well, just lost one of the Speckled Sussex chicks--almost 10 weeks old--a very sweet and spirited little cockerel whom I'd named Robert.
(One of three chicks my broody hen hatched from eggs I got from FarmerBoy16). All my chickens were out free-ranging, and I happened to be in our back yard, which adjoins the chicken pasture, when heard some loud chicken yelling--almost like an "egg song" but much more alarmed sounding, and also coming from way past the coop where they lay the eggs. So I bounced over the fence to the chicken pasture and went crashing around through the brush/trees/brambles/overgrown jungle where the sound seemed to come from. The chicken area is maybe 3/4 to one acre in size, partly mowed grass and partly wild. I went around and around the whole area several times, did not see or hear the tiniest peep from a chicken--and this never happens, even if they're in deep brush I always hear them gossiping among themselves and can find them. Went back to check the coop--my BO was in a nest box, the GLW was hunkered down on the floor, both not moving, not making a sound. Underneath the coop were the two Golden Sebright chicks that I got from Theron at ChickenStock. So, I said to myself, at least four are still alive, but something is definitely gong on... (Seven missing at this point). Went into the house, told the story to the DH, he got out his shotgun on spec and followed me back out. Finally in some fairly deep brush cover I found the little cockerel, dead, partly eaten. Walked around some more, finally heard the other six starting to talk it up a bit, lured everyone back to the coop and locked them up.
So what do you think got poor little Robert? I don't think hawk as he was under some good cover. It was somewhere between 4 and 4:30 pm, so still completely light out. (Bit of graphic description of parts eaten coming up here, sorry...) His head was still attached to the rest of the body, but his entire neck from the head down to where it met the shoulders was eaten bare, to the point you could see the individual vertebrae. Very thorough job! Then the meat from one wing, one breast side and a little of the thigh were eaten. What eats the neck preferentially, but so delicately that the vertebrae remain attached to each other? Earlier this year (late winter) there were several sightings on our road of a mink and I saw tracks in the snow near the coop in the last light snow of the year, but nobody's reported seeing it since. Another possibility is a cat, since there are a few feral cats around and also some of the neighbors have indoor/outdoor cats...
I went right out and bought a live trap, put poor Robert's body in as bait. It didn't look like whatever killed him had come back for a further snack in the time I left him sitting there. I expect I'll catch *something* tonight, though of course not necessarily the culprit. And I'll never really know for sure. If it's a mink, I'll be very suspicious. But if it's an opossum or a skunk or a raccoon or a cat... I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it... But if anyone sees a "smoking gun" here as to what the guilty party is, I'd appreciate your thoughts.
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Hello outdoor junkie! I'm wondering what breed the black ones are. Could they be Black Copper Marans? If you don't have any luck with anyone else taking them, I may be interested in the black ones, if you wouldn't mind separating them. ChickwannaB, if you have room for all of them, go for it!
I never heard back from him, he went offline right away. I did let him know I need to get rid of a couple roosters, he could have them to butcher if he wanted to. If my roos go I would have room for the 4 OF HIS, but if you waNT THOSE BLACK ONES YOU gO RIGHT AHEAD. i DO already have a couple RIR, but I room to add his 2, or 4. And I have anti freeze waTER THINGS.
I messaged you back just now Chic, sorry I didn't see it earlier, and thank you so much for your interest.
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I never heard back from him, he went offline right away. I did let him know I need to get rid of a couple roosters, he could have them to butcher if he wanted to. If my roos go I would have room for the 4 OF HIS, but if you waNT THOSE BLACK ONES YOU gO RIGHT AHEAD. i DO already have a couple RIR, but I room to add his 2, or 4. And I have anti freeze waTER THINGS.
I messaged you back just now Chic, sorry I didn't see it earlier, and thank you so much for your interest.
Ok, Im on again, answered your PM, hope to hear from you tromorrow. Good night.
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Oh brother, sorry for your loss Susan. I may possibly be getting 4 new ones soon, but still haven't found homes for buff Chante roos. If I don't get rid of my boys I'll have chickens galore!!
The yard is filling up with feathers. The white ones from the ducks are the most obvious. But if you look closer you see the barred rock and rhode island red feathers out there too. ANybody know if chickens like to play in leaves?? I get alot of maple and locust leaves that either go on the garden and get tilled in or get tossed out in the run, eventually those get mowed up to bits and pieces.
Guess I'll toss some of them out there and see what happens, if nothing more they can become a hidie hole for bugs and the chickens can scratch em up.
Frost warnings? You've got to love Michigan weather. While I'm not overly thrilled with winter anymore, I definately prefer cool weather over hot. With cold you can always add another layer of clothing. With hot there is a limit to the number of clothes you can remove. I've seen many days when it was so hot and uncomfortable that even a birthday suit is to much.
York, I think that your predator was probably a Cooper's hawk. Red shouldered hawks prefer to hunt in open fields with rabbits and mice being their primary food source. Coopers hawk are quite adept at hunting thick cover. I've watched them literal dive into a brush pile to get at a rabbit. The two birds I lost last year were both victims of a Coopers hawk. If your bird had been inside a coop I would agree with the possibility that it was a mink. They are notorious for picking birds off the roost but it would be unlikely to occur outdoors.
