Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[vehve]

Vehve, Lovely pics of your girls! Beautiful surroundings too. I'd say they have found a great home. Be very careful with the dogs. Some breeds feel it is their solemn duty to subdue large relatively flightless fluffy things.

Thank you, we are quite happy to of have found this place. Forrest starts at the front door, but the closest train station is 400 meters away, and it takes 20 minutes to drive into the center of our Capitol.

I'm mostly worried about the dachshund, she does have a very strong urge to chase fast moving critters. Luckily she seems to be under the impression that the chickens are her puppies, so we'll see how it goes. The labradors are used for hunting, so they have been taught quite clearly the difference between a live bird and a dead bird. You bring the dead ones, and the live ones you leave be. It's funny to see how they react to meeting a deer, the smell is wonderful and has to be inspected thoroughly, but if one actually happens to appear in front of them it totally freaks them out. No urge to chase them. The dachshund however... last time she went after a deer my better half caught her 3 kilometers from our house. At 2 am. In her PJ's. It was raining. Now we have a fence.

 

[Wrightsx4]

@@vehve We have seagulls -lots of them here by Lake Michigan but they fly over and really don't stop to bother the chickens.
Today the 6wk olds were moved out to their outdoor coop TheyThey can see the older chickens but there's a fence between their pens. They seem quite happy. So far Fancy is still in her favorite nest in the main coop. I'm having trouble with my barred rocks too. Bossy girls! They crowd into Fancy's nest and she leaves to sit in another nest. For now I've put a piece of plastic snow fence over the opening to her nest like a curtain to discourage them. I'll try moving her tonight.

 

[vehve]

Put up a "Barred Rocks barred. Violators will be put behind bars" sign.

 

[Fancychooklady]

Put up a "Barred Rocks barred. Violators will be put behind bars" sign.

Lol, or put up a ' Rock Bar ' sign next door . That ought to distract them.
Nice pics, I like the way you have incorporated a ' poop ' board on your fence. . My silver laced Wyandotte hens fly up 7-8 feet high to perch.
With clipped wings! On the other hand my coronation sussex hens are in a yard with 5 ft fences and make no attempt to leave the yard.
I consider them to be my little ' fat ladies ' and the slw are the athletes .
On the dog thing , sounds mean but the way my dogs learnt was with a piece of hollow black Polly pipe. About 3 ft long , tapped it on the side of my boot whenever they got too close the chooks and tapped their backsides if they ignored me. It doesn't hurt so much as the noise scared them.
When my shepherd was a puppy she killed 2 isa browns and the ridge back we inherited because she killed a friends chooks.
Now they happily coexist with mommas chooks, butter wouldn't melt in their mouths. I've seen LG ( little George ) walk up over the ridge backs bed and stand on her. Often the chooks will peck around inside the dogs bowl looking for scraps.

 

[vehve]

We have a spray collar that we used to discourage them from chasing wild birds and rabbits, I think it will work with this too. Press once, it gives a beep, press a second time, it gives a short spray, and the third press gives a long spray. We never needed the long spray, after a while not the short one either, and nowadays wild birds are left alone. Citronella is annoying, but doesn't do any damage. Some people only believe in positive reinforcement with their dogs, but I think a friendly smack on the head has it's uses.

 

[Fancychooklady]

We have a spray collar that we used to discourage them from chasing wild birds and rabbits, I think it will work with this too. Press once, it gives a beep, press a second time, it gives a short spray, and the third press gives a long spray. We never needed the long spray, after a while not the short one either, and nowadays wild birds are left alone. Citronella is annoying, but doesn't do any damage. Some people only believe in positive reinforcement with their dogs, but I think a friendly smack on the head has it's uses.

Mmm, a lot people also believe in positive reinforcement with their kids too. From what I've seen I'm not sure that's working. What ever form of punishment you choose , stick with it. Once my dogs identify with something being ' mine ' as in my goats, my chooks my horses they respect those animals. When the ridgey first came here she knew not what to do about the cat. She looked to the shepherd for guidance, once she saw the cat rub itself under the shepherds belly she had it sorted. Yesterday hubby dropped a huge gumtree for firewood. While we down there filling the trailer the dogs were flushing out possums, but they know the possums aren't mine.

 

[vehve]

Mmm, a lot people also believe in positive reinforcement with their kids too. From what I've seen I'm not sure that's working. What ever form of punishment you choose , stick with it. Once my dogs identify with something being ' mine ' as in my goats, my chooks my horses they respect those animals. When the ridgey first came here she knew not what to do about the cat. She looked to the shepherd for guidance, once she saw the cat rub itself under the shepherds belly she had it sorted. Yesterday hubby dropped a huge gumtree for firewood. While we down there filling the trailer the dogs were flushing out possums, but they know the possums aren't mine.

We luckily have quite few critters that could be harmful in any way, so we prefer to not let them chase anything. Those dog beds look really comfy by the way, and nice looking schäfer. Always had a soft spot for service dog breeds.

I meant to ask, any effects seen from the volcano eruption yet? Our newspapers report that your going to have the same situation as we did with Eyjafjöllajökul erupting on Iceland couple years back.

 

[Fancychooklady]

We luckily have quite few critters that could be harmful in any way, so we prefer to not let them chase anything. Those dog beds look really comfy by the way, and nice looking schäfer. Always had a soft spot for service dog breeds.

I meant to ask, any effects seen from the volcano eruption yet? Our newspapers report that your going to have the same situation as we did with Eyjafjöllajökul erupting on Iceland couple years back.

I had put their hammock beds out on the turning circle to dry and the buggers hopped into them. We are way down south so I doubt that we will be affected but @Satay and others up north could be.
It's wreaking havoc with flights in and out.

 

[vehve]

I had put their hammock beds out on the turning circle to dry and the buggers hopped into them. We are way down south so I doubt that we will be affected but @Satay and others up north could be.
It's wreaking havoc with flights in and out.

I might have to make one of those for our girls.

 

[satay]

I had put their hammock beds out on the turning circle to dry and the buggers hopped into them. We are way down south so I doubt that we will be affected but @Satay and others up north could be.
It's wreaking havoc with flights in and out.

Gosh I hope not. Nothing so far anyways .