I am a new chicken owner. My first 30 chicks died in a month. Half of them died of heat stroke when I brought them outside on a 100 degree day. I figured the lights were 100 degrees...so.... Wrong! The other half were killed by a predator when I left the coop open overnight.
So I built an extremely secure brooder, and ordered new chicks. They were 2 and a half months old on Monday and I decided to open the coop and let them range a little. My bassett hound, who showed ZERO interest in them before, killed 31/33 of them in about an hour.
So I rescued 30 white leghorns from a poultry farm. They are a year old and are laying like crazy already, and I was outside the coop, cutting boards for nest boxes on Wednesday, and the leghorns went NUTS, so I ran in there and found the bassett trying to kill the chickens, while my GSD/border collie puppy has her collar in his mouth and is trying to drag the bassett out of the coop. She had knocked the door open, jumping up on it. The bassett was actually fostered, and I went into overdrive to find her a home. Lol.
Anyone else have total crap luck?
So I built an extremely secure brooder, and ordered new chicks. They were 2 and a half months old on Monday and I decided to open the coop and let them range a little. My bassett hound, who showed ZERO interest in them before, killed 31/33 of them in about an hour.
So I rescued 30 white leghorns from a poultry farm. They are a year old and are laying like crazy already, and I was outside the coop, cutting boards for nest boxes on Wednesday, and the leghorns went NUTS, so I ran in there and found the bassett trying to kill the chickens, while my GSD/border collie puppy has her collar in his mouth and is trying to drag the bassett out of the coop. She had knocked the door open, jumping up on it. The bassett was actually fostered, and I went into overdrive to find her a home. Lol.
Anyone else have total crap luck?