Ooh la la - Tweedy from France!

[Celticdragonfly]

Welcome! I suspect that's why our community has the rules carefully stating that your chickens *cannot* free-range. I didn't know cats would eat chicken food.

 

[NonnasBabies]

Welcome!

 

[feathermaid]

Wow, I'm overwhelmed at the big welcome here. Thank you everyone. Just FYI, the chicken in my avatar is Tweedy - waiting at the door. There's a white chicken you can just barely see behind her - that's the one that went missing last weekend, leaving Tweedy on her own.

What's worrying me now is that I don't see any sort of provision for feeding either the chicken or the cat over in the yard across the street - and this morning, their cat was in our haystack, eagerly awaiting breakfast. Tweedy came over, hoping to nose out the cat for the leftover catfood (there wasn't much this morning) - so I wound up taking both dishes in to fill up the chicken feed dispenser and put some fresh catfood into the cat dish. Tossed a few sunflower seeds on the ground to lure Tweedy away from the cat dish.

I really don't understand people who don't/won't take care of their animals.

Yes, irresponsible people are a big headache in the world! Have you talked to your neighbor directly about their animals? The cat must be really hungry to be eating chicken feed... I wonder if the neighbor just expects it to feed itself with mice. It seems like both animals have decided that you have better resources and decided to take up residence with you!

A couple more chickens would be a nice addition. Would you get chicks or older birds? It seems like Tweedy is doing well free ranging, just needs a secure coop at night. Chickens don't see well in the dark and are very vulnerable to sneaky nocturnal predators you may not even realize are around.

Gardens in the growing season are definitely in jeopardy with chickens around! Maybe fencing around the garden to keep chickens (and other animals) out could be a more permanent solution. Here's a few links I forgot to leave earlier that may be helpful:
Key Points to Successful Free Ranging
How Much Room Do Chickens Need
Chicken Coop Ventilation - Go Out There And Cut More Holes In Your Coop!
Best Way to Keep Chickens Out of the Garden?

Best wishes in your new chicken adventure!

 

[TweedyChick]

Thanks for the links. Our neighbor isn't terribly interested in "mixing" - shortly after they moved in, another neighbor and I approached the guy about the need to build some sort of enclosure for their chickens. (After we had chased them all back into "their" yard and closed the two gates, which the chickens could easily just squeeze under.) He gave us a bunch of bull about "oh, I only just moved in - haven't had time" and that was nearly a year ago. Obviously not a priority.

Tweedy has been laying her eggs over here in our barn for a couple of months now. No idea where the other chicken was laying hers, but there appears to be no nesting box or spot for them over in the neighbor's yard. The two white chickens used to flap up into a tree I can see from my office window every night. After the first of the white chickens got hit on the road, the other one continued finding a high perch in one of the trees for a while, but then gave up. No idea where Tweedy spends her nights. (The cat can usually be found on our big roll of hay in the barn.)

Our garden is a bit too large to be able to fence in - probably easier in the long run to confine the chickens, or just "encourage" them to stick to the donkey yard (where there are LOTS of great bugs and worms in the donkey poop).

I'm hoping we can convince Tweedy to occupy the coop once it arrives and we get it set up. Then, I'm looking at a 12 sq. meter run that we can supplement with movable fencing. Would like to get a couple nearly full grown hens. Chicks or really young chickens would be too tempting for our cats (who are pretty respectful of Tweedy, given her size).

 

[rjohns39]

@PouleChick Pop over and say hi when you have a sec.