NY chicken lover!!!!

[Lapeerian]

Lynzii- So sorry for your lost littles. Perhaps with the heat they were all staying near the wire front where it was cooler and since chickens cannot see in the dark, they were too scared to move away.

I have little chick that is failing to thrive. Seems to have chronic diarrhea, but it is only just this one chick. The others are all healthy, running around, eating, drinking and growing like weeds. The sickly one stays puffed up under the heat lamp, peeping constantly and almost always standing. Did see it pecking at food this morning. It isn't pasted over the vent, more runs all down it's backside and belly. Have washed it off a couple times and applied A&D ointment, almost like 'diaper' rash. I feed medicated chick starter, but will double check the bag tonight to make sure. I also give them the Manna-Pro Life-Lytes in water for half the day, other half the day is plain water. Everyone else is fine and growing, sickly one is becoming the runt.

 

[hugz4all4]

Im so sorry Lynzi on the loss chicks and ducking..

 

[Glasshen]

Oh Lap, sorry about that baby. If it is hanging out under the heat lamp today, imagine how uncomfortable it would be if it had hatched in February. Poor thing.

I am upset with Flavia, Fawn and Butter. They are excitedly and demandingly milling around in the coop bedeviling the hen in the nest box. And there is egg white in several globs on the floor.

I started brush hogging yesterday so I can see into the woods in case that coyote comes by.

Lynzi, do you think the weasel was your attacker?

 

[wny egger]

sorry to read that you lost your flock lynzi..i no its one of my biggest fears is that something like a coon would get at my birds and i wouldnt be able to stop it .. you may want a little bigger gun then a bb gun tho ..you dont want to just piss him off you want him gone ..as long as that coon lives near by he is always going to think of your coop as an easy meal..its hard to secure our chickens and we go far out of our way to always make sure they are safe ..it just seems the more things we think of to use to protect them that the preditors always find away around it ..i no i have sat up all nite with nothing but rocks to throw to protect them when i heard a family of coons or possums behind the coop ..i chased them off but i no they will be back at some point ..i now have my shotgun back from my son..i wont be throwing rocks the next time they come back..

again sorry to hear about your flock..

 

[Lynzi777]

Glass I'm thinking it was a raccoon based on the paw prints left all over the front of the hutch. Thinking of buying a trap today....

 

[Glasshen]

A trap is good. What will you bait it with? I think they eats lots of stuff. Camping once they came and took all the minnows from the special can/bucket they were in, snarling and growling the whole time. And when I was a kid, some got in our cook tent and got into lots of stuff, the worst was the huge container of apple butter.

 

[Lynzi777]

Well considering he dragged my garbage can down to the road and took off with my the lid to another garbage can, I could probably bait it with a couple of empty K-Cups, chicken nuggets from the kids dinner, some ketchup, a pickle or two and the crust to a PB&J! That should get him in there! ;-)

 

[pharmchickrnmom]

Lynzi--so very sorry to hear of your loss. What a horrible way to start your day and after all the hard work and money spent on those babies. Get a heavy duty trap and use marshmallows for bait. Keep resetting the trap as you catch/kill the coons. You need more than a bb gun to kill coons as well.

Hotter than Hades out there. Have to go out soon and bring fresh water to the cheeps. I let the silkies out to find a cool spot to lay in. My friend who got chicks from me has two roosters now that are driving her crazy. I will be picking them up to dinner purposes soon. They wont even get a chance to touch the ground here before they are gone. It will give me a chance to see how they dress out at this age (14 weeks). I know they have been eating very well! If they do dress out nicely, then I will go ahead and can up my older brat boys now. Younger monster boys arent ready yet. Still have some growing to do.

Stay cool everyone.

 

[FritaFrittata]

It's definitely hot out, but at least we have a good breeze - we had NO wind yesterday and it was just awful.

Chicks have been outside for almost 3 hours. My neighbor mowing his lawn has them a bit nervous.

Yet another reason I think waffles is a boy... came back outside and my two buff girls were crouched down in the grass, hiding. Waffles was standing REALLY tall, looking for / at something, and was peeping SUPER loudly. He just seems to be the protector / boss of their little chicken universe.

Here's a pic from this morning:




And one of the buffs from a few days ago. They're about 7 weeks old now.

 

[LuvMyChicks1491]

Glass I'm thinking it was a raccoon based on the paw prints left all over the front of the hutch. Thinking of buying a trap today....

If you don't want to buy one, I have mine that you can borrow. It should be big enough for a coon.