Oats on a Frosty Morn (pic heavy)

[gavinandallison]

Love your pictures - sweet

 

[stuckinthecity]

Quote:
I think it is a silver Dutch, but I could be wrong. When her previous owners gave her to us, they didn't really care or know too much about names and colors. They just had too many yard birds and were giving away those they didn't bond with.

She is a lot more flightier than all our birds, in fact, she's the most wild. And I can understand why. She's a lot more aloof and detached, not keen on human touch, or eating out of hands. Only this year, I managed to start petting her while she was in a nestbox, and she started eating out of my hands this Fall. Its been 2 years!!

She's feisty and everyone in flock is afraid of her, and gives her a wide berth. She likes to spend time with the big girls, the buff orps, delawares and the rock. Her preferred male is Smokey, but I have not seen any of the boys dare to get funky with her.

That's so weird! My EE is the same way! She's the head hen of the coop, even though she's the smallest one I have, and everybody gets out of her way. Also, she's my hen that least likes human attention. How strange how many things they have in common! The only other thing they might not have in common is the beard/muff my EE has and her habit to go broody each spring. lol

 

[Kassaundra]

Love the pics, are airdales by nature good w/ chickens or is yours unique?

 

[sheilawagner]

I would NOT say that most Airedales are good with chickens, or other small prey animals, for the matter of fact.

Airedales are HUNTERS. They will hunt anything, birds, vermin, snakes, otters, you name it. They were also bred to hunt large predators, such as bears. However, as with everything, training and conditioning can do wonders. My two Airedales ARE hunters. They have hunt rabbit, mice and snakes before. But I trained them NOT to hunt our chickens.

I have also managed to train another high prey drive Airedale not to eat my chickens, when he came here to stay for holiday, while his own human went on holiday. He is also a great hunter, of beaver, squirrels and other mammals, but I taught him not to hunt my chickens. And he never even tried once.

Here's a picture of Rummy and his freshly killed garden snake

Here's Rummy and his mice, which he caught at night on our property.

But here is Rummy again, being tender with his chicks, which he is trained to guard and protect.