Responsibility to Secure Your Birds

[drumstick diva]

What irks me the most is people that casually remark that they just bought their first chicks and their dog massacred them. Instead of doing something about the dog, they get new chicks, same thing happens to them. Apparently new chicks are pretty cheap so they don't care. It's a waste of breath to tell them check out the predator threads for ideas on safeguarding their flock.

 

[Ravynscroft]

How about the responsibility to properly care for them? That's the one that gets me... posters lately that ask for advice since their ducklings/chicks/etc just keep dying off... any suggestions to change what they're feeding, doing, etc is met with the 'but that's what I did last time and those ones did fine!'

 

[Folly's place]

Most of us started out inexperienced, and there wasn't this forum when I started either. We learned the hard way, at the expense of our birds. That's why I've now got a very good coop and run! I don't understand willfull ignorance, however, and the "It won't ever happen to me" folks. And the people who build and sell those awful little 'coops'! Mary

 

[Howard E]

Wow.....Drumstick Diva has posted nearly 62,000 times? Ouch. That is some serious dedication. And if Mary keeps going as she has been, she will get there too. Trust me, I won't.

Once upon a time, in a former life, I found myself on a professional ethics committee. We were charged with assessing charges of serious mistakes and errors made by our peers. We were judge, jury and executioner.

In almost every case it always boiled down to one of two situations. First was the case of honest errors made by people who didn't know what they didn't know. They were the incompetents. There was a set of rules to deal with them and they were given as much help as needed to correct their ways. Likely as not they were humble and grateful for the help and got better over time and we never heard from them again.

The second group were not incompetent. They knew exactly what they were doing, knew they were in the wrong and did it anyway. And likely as not, they were arrogant about it and likely as not, were repeat offenders. There was a different set of rules for them. For them it was "hang them high".

On the outfits that make these miserable little coops, I'm still trying to get my arms around this one. Are they incompetent and honestly don't know how bad these contraptions are, or do they know and make them anyway? My hope is it is the former and not the latter. I have seen a few of these live and up close and the workmanship is there, the materials are there, they simply don't anything about chickens or what is needed to raise them, so critical things are either missing or all out of proportion. If it was only one or two, we could fix that. But there are hundreds, if not thousands of them. I don't know how to fix that. There are books written long ago by folks who raised birds for years and facts on poultry husbandry were researched at the University level. The knowledge is there.........but nobody seems interested in seeking it out.

Most of them mean well (I hope)...........probably think theirs is a really great product, but miserably incompetent just the same.

 

[Birdydeb]

Boy this thread could get me going. In my lifetime, I have rescued numerous animals....cats and parrots: NEVER AGAIN! Dogs, I might rescue again. And no matter what the animal it is always the same things over and over and over again. And I just don't get it. As Howard says sometimes it is the naïveté of new owners that gets them in trouble. I can understand that. But RESPONSIBLE and caring owners take that learning curve and learn from it and do better. As that saying goes; when you know better you can do better. And I am by no means perfect. The mistakes I made years ago that cost an animal its life haunt me. I try hard not to repeat those mistakes. Chickens are prey and they know it. To put them in harm's way or in a situation where they can't use their instincts to protect themselves is to me reprehensible. I have nothing against free ranging. I can't do it at this time because my yard is such that they would have no way to hide or protect themselves...with tons of hawks overhead. In the future I may be able to change that. So for now they are in a (Fort Knox) house at night and in a run inside a pen during the day. I have been called neurotic and picky because even now I am still tweaking defenses on that house. Because they are virtually a roosting buffet at night if anything should get in. And don't think for a second that every predator out there doesn't know that a roosting chicken is an easy meal. Of course they do.

It has been mentioned that Disney has ruined us as far as animals are concerned. I couldn't agree more. That is all too many people know or understand about nature. I was in that spot at one time too. Then a little spike deer that I had been feeding for a year chased me and taught me that not even Bambi is always sweet. (an aside here: has anyone looked at how many people get injured by DEER each year?) Nature is cruel most of the time and does not care about our boundaries or that our chickens are meant to be ours and not theirs. Nature didn't get that memo.

I think too part of the problem is that people are oblivious. I spend a ton of time watching nature outside my door. I get called nutty for that too. And I guess one of my pet peeves is when people INSIST certain predators don't exist at their house. Don't bet on it! Just because you haven't seen them does not mean they are not there. Even in the city. When we lived in the city I saw and knew full well that skunks, possums and raccoons visited my yard...and one night a bear! Predators aren't going to jump out and let you know they are there. If they were always that obvious they would starve because then their prey would know they were around too! I am in the country now and I KNOW just about any predator one can imagine is close by. So I plan even for the ones I haven't seen. But I know that possibly there will be a time that something figures out my defenses and takes advantage of it. And I hope I learn from it.

As far as food. It is not one size fits all for all situations. Things will work for you until they don't work...then you need to rethink. Soooo many disagreements on this in parrot rescue. Not as many with chickens but some it seems. I preach probiotics pretty much for all animals. If you can help them keep a strong immune system they have a much better chance of fighting off stuff. If something you are feeding doesn't seem to be working ...change it! Add to it. Do something because nutrition can make a huge difference in how long they live and how well they produce. I always say variety is the spice of life and though it can get interesting doing that with a run, I still manage to throw them something to forage daily....along with their regular feed. And I guess in the scheme of things a nutritious feed alone will keep them healthy but how boring. So I do the best I can. It is all anybody can do....and listen to advice from experienced keepers when given.

And I got going....sorry.

 

[MeepBeep]

(an aside here: has anyone looked at how many people get injured by DEER each year?)

When I was doing the deer studies we were on top of the stats, but now with the Internet they are at everyone's fingertips... Deer 'attacks' are rare as they are a flight and run 'prey' animal and generally people don't come in immediate vicinity contact to get attacked, but it does happen... What they do cause is a lot of vehicle accidents and with that death or injury...

And I guess one of my pet peeves is when people INSIST certain predators don't exist at their house. Don't bet on it! Just because you haven't seen them does not mean they are not there. Even in the city.

I have posted this before, because it should really drive home to unbelievers that there most certainly are predators in your area controlling population growth of prey since almost everyone has seen a cute 'bunny' in their area....

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/scary.html

And that is just rabbits, reproductive rates of many other rodents like mice and rats could follow the same path if not held in check by predators, if there were amble food supplies and no predators even in a city we would be overrun with small animals...

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Great post MeepBeep.

It has always amazed me that these species can sustain 80% - 90% annual mortality rates and yet maintain sustainable populations.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

So I got a call last night to go and look at a coop. Seems the owners had left the pop-out door open and lost a lot of birds. The coop is about 30 yards from a river, and I was expecting the tell tail signs of raccoons.

NOPE...it was pretty graphic with lots of dead birds. I looked real close around the coop and run, I found a lot of people tracks. Looks like they had tried to look for sign as well and destroyed anything that would have been usable by me.

Based on what I'd seen in the past, my guess was a mink...a big one. Each of the dead birds had been bitten in the neck, and only one looked like any part of it had been eaten. It appeared that the mink killed one hen and ate a bit...then went on a killing spree.

Well when I said, "Mink", those people looked at me with this strange look and said, "We don't have mink in Colorado." They would not believe me at all...I've trapped many mink in Colorado, quite a few of them off their land.

But...NOPE....no mink in Colorado.

Now they think I'm crazy...oh well, probably not the only ones...

 

[Ravynscroft]

Idiots... mink and other weasels love the blood, not the meat so much... and they are vicious!

 

[Birdydeb]

Did you set a trap for them? Maybe they'll believe it when they see a mink in the trap. How silly can people be? I got some raised eyebrows when I said mink existed around here. Good heavens...we are only a few miles from the river and besides that...why don't they check their state natural resources site. The WV site says there is a thriving population of both weasel and minks.