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feliciadawn said:
Been a long time since I have written. Until recently I had 13 hens, but I have lost 3 in the last few weeks to a hawk, including my only frizzle (from Dennis). Today the hawk was loudly squawking in the tree above my pen, and my dog, who is supposed to be a herding/farm dog, was under the sofa terrified of her. I finally got the dog to go outside to chase some sticks, and the hawk flew away.

It is going to be a rough fall! I used to have some tough hens who would chase off hawks, but now they are all wimps, and I can't have a rooster unless he is very very quiet.
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Maybe you need a turkey? Wonder what the neighbors would say if they heard a turkey gobbling.
 
feliciadawn said:
Would 1 female turkey hurt my hens? Where would she sleep?
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They do take more space than chickens. Because they are larger, they are potentially more destructive of your garden than a hen also. I was "sort of" kidding about the turkey. I keep them with chickens all the time and except of that one time when a rooster tried to "have his way" with a turkey hen, all has been peaceful. Turkeys have a very different courtship routine and if the turkey hen is not inviting you, you had better steer clear of her - as that rooster discovered. Tom turkeys are even larger and their feet are huge compared to a chickens. They might stomp on some of your pretty garden plants. And they are loud! I gave up trying to have a phone conversation in the turkey pen. They gobbled over every word I said!
 
I have been busy moving around chickens and setting up breeder pens for next year. So many small groups of breeders, as I work on multiple breeding projects. My work in 2024 to recover the Tomaru breed has been very successful. In January I had a trio, and possibly the only male left in the US. Now I have 16 females and 8 males, plus a few chicks still in the brooders. With a larger set of birds, I'm finding some oddities. One of my original hens has sprouted a spur - not super rare, but not common. And one pullet has started crowing like her dad, at just 6 or 7 months of age. The roosters rarely crow until they are over a year, so I don't know what is up with her. It is possible she is a very late developing cockerel, but that would be surprising also, so I am keeping an eye on that one.
 
feliciadawn said:
Been a long time since I have written. Until recently I had 13 hens, but I have lost 3 in the last few weeks to a hawk, including my only frizzle (from Dennis). Today the hawk was loudly squawking in the tree above my pen, and my dog, who is supposed to be a herding/farm dog, was under the sofa terrified of her. I finally got the dog to go outside to chase some sticks, and the hawk flew away.

It is going to be a rough fall! I used to have some tough hens who would chase off hawks, but now they are all wimps, and I can't have a rooster unless he is very very quiet.
Click to expand...
I haven't been here for a while either. A hawk also got my buff Silkie pullet, who's my son's absolute favorite:( With the other Silkie chick died in the first week, I have no Silkie left. So I had to order him 3 more Silkies for next year. DH and I hang hundreds of feet of nettings over the trees around the chicken area. We didn't lose any since then. There was a hawk trapped in netting one day but he got out before I got there.
 
Good news is: none of my vaccinated pullets got sick from Marek's this year! I brooded them in my living room this time to avoid they got the virus too early. But I still don't know if the Silkies would survive since they died too young.
 
I haven't been on too much either. Life has been busy. I only have 2 more days of work in my season then I'm off for the winter. Day 1 off, I get my wisdom teeth out but after that, I get to enjoy my winter. I downsized my flock dramatically this summer and moved everyone to one pen. By everyone, I mean geese, turkeys and chickens. All. It has made life so much easier. A lot of my flock is getting very old. My oldest turkey hen will be 10 in the spring and my one tom, Romeo, is about 7-ish maybe? But, I was in touch with fisherlady a couple weeks ago and ended up with about 30 eggs in the incubator. It looks like I'm going to have silkies, showgirls, satins and frizzles. I don't plan on keeping them all since 28 eggs are actually developing but there's no escaping chicken math!
 
It's the "moving and sorting" chickens time of the year!
I took the day off and am making progress. I love how some of this year's growouts are looking!
The "lavender" breeds are all looking great:
Opal Legbars (blue eggs)
Isabel Welbars (dark brown)
Jade Welbars (dark green eggs, lavender and gold)
Marans
Cochin bantams
even Muscovy ducks!!

Very excited about the flock of colored sebastopols also. I acquired a buff gander to lead my flock of 3 colorful ladies. Buff is sexlinked in geese, so every female gosling will be buff, hopefully a few will be buff saddlebacks.
 
Last year I put wood chips into the outdoor run for the sebastopols, to keep their feathers from getting muddy and broken. It worked very well, so this year, chips are going into all of the runs. I used Chip Drop to sign up for the wood chips.
 

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