Most of our yard has good tree cover. I thought about using sun shades or something to cover the open areas, but the chickens hangout in the sunny spots when they dust/sunbathe. He's a sweet little stinker so I'd hate to have to give him up.
I free range everyone and my D'uccle Rooster did fine for his 2 years. I have some D'uccle mixes now and some bantam cochins that free range. My current large fowl chicks are 6 weeks old and once I was sure the adults would leave them be I don't supervise. We had a hawk in a tree just the other day and everybody just stayed near some cover. I am of the mind if they aren't smart enough to evade and survive they don't belong here.
Fair point. I wouldn't want to breed the dull ones anyway, lol.
One of those 6 week olds jumped into my dogs mouth today. So thankful it is a cockeral that I now know won't make it here. She was just laying in the shade panting and he honestly ran up and jumped her legs into her mouth. Then he freaked out. It was hilarious.
Wow! My dog loves the chicks, but I don't even she'd be able to resist that. The only time she reacts is out of reflex if on flies by her without her knowing. She does the same with flies and bees. She always looks at me like "I didn't mean it, honest."
Thankfully she didn't bite him. No blood just a lot of drool as she did try to decide if she could play with it. I called her immediately and she dropped him but she seemed disappointed he didn't really want to play with her. She is good at getting the other critters that try and brave our yard. She will go after anything but the birds now that we worked with her on it. Opossum, mice, squirrel, and rabbit all immediately regret everything when they decide to visit. Chickens she leaves be which is great.
I hatched my first chicks and did a whole acclimatization thing. https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/a-dog-and-her-chicks.1652932/#post-28417703
