Silkie thread!

[moomoodiddy]

Yes, my Pyrenees, guards the chickens. I also have an Anatolian shepherd that guards them. I love them both but Pyrenees are really sweet!

I have beagles for hunting and Australian shepherd mixes for around the farm (most of which were rescues and none I raised from puppies), they are great but I really want another puppy to raise around all types of animals and in all types of situations. Any recommendations for a multi purpose farm medium to large sized smooth coated dog? I'm thinking along the lines of a lab or something. Just gotta get the bosses approval. (this is for everybody)

 

[jessivogel]

I have beagles for hunting and Australian shepherd mixes for around the farm (most of which were rescues and none I raised from puppies), they are great but I really want another puppy to raise around all types of animals and in all types of situations. Any recommendations for a multi purpose farm medium to large sized smooth coated dog? I'm thinking along the lines of a lab or something. Just gotta get the bosses approval. (this is for everybody)

Definitely a lab or a Stanfordshire terroir

 

[silkiecuddles]

Yes, my Pyrenees, guards the chickens. I also have an Anatolian shepherd that guards them. I love them both but Pyrenees are really sweet!

I have one Australian shepherd, I love the breed! She loves to herd the chickens into the coop at night!
Now every time she gets close to them they know to go into the coop XD Pyrenees are a really gorgeous breed, but I think I like Aussies better
When my chicks go outside my Aussie watches them closely and she lies down and my chicks climbed all over her snuggling in to her warm fur! (That was from the last batch of chicks)

how sweet! I've got a collie, and he chases hawks and buzzards all day every day. The only animal that gets by him are foxes. Someone I know has a Pyrenees mix (with another Pyrenees like dog)band he killed a couple ducks. :/

 

[mom of silkies]

I have one Australian shepherd, I love the breed! She loves to herd the chickens into the coop at night!
Now every time she gets close to them they know to go into the coop XD Pyrenees are a really gorgeous breed, but I think I like Aussies better

When my chicks go outside my Aussie watches them closely and she lies down and my chicks climbed all over her snuggling in to her warm fur! (That was from the last batch of chicks)

Yeah I love Australian shepherds too, I've had several! Very sweet and energetic!

 

[mom of silkies]

how sweet! I've got a collie, and he chases hawks and buzzards all day every day. The only animal that gets by him are foxes. Someone I know has a Pyrenees mix (with another Pyrenees like dog)band he killed a couple ducks.

Yes, you have to train them chickens aren't food. It takes awhile before they can be left alone with the chickens without me worrying about them killing something.

 

[jas humbert]

Here's a question, I've got mostly silkies. I also have a australorp, a welsummer and two wyandottes in tthe same pen. The australorp is pretty big but she's bottom of the pecking order for the big girls and not aggressive at all. Its a big pen and they've all been together since they were babies and we don't have much problem with anybody being picked on. I have a couple of broody silkie girls and have been offered some lavender english orpington eggs. Their adults are huge. If I let the silkes hatch the eggs, will they be okay with the rest of the flock as they get older or are they just too much bigger and will pick on the silkies when they are adults? Anybody ever run both breeds together or had silkies hatch much larger birds and then kept them together?

 

[Silkie2]

I have two silkie chicks raised with my other chicks they're too small to be put in the big pen just yet with the others. Can't help you there though, my pen is pretty big so I'm hoping if they do get pecked on a little bit they can just run away to saftey, but if I do see that they are getting hurt,then I'll have to do something

 

[moomoodiddy]

Here's a question, I've got mostly silkies. I also have a australorp, a welsummer and two wyandottes in tthe same pen. The australorp is pretty big but she's bottom of the pecking order for the big girls and not aggressive at all. Its a big pen and they've all been together since they were babies and we don't have much problem with anybody being picked on. I have a couple of broody silkie girls and have been offered some lavender english orpington eggs. Their adults are huge. If I let the silkes hatch the eggs, will they be okay with the rest of the flock as they get older or are they just too much bigger and will pick on the silkies when they are adults? Anybody ever run both breeds together or had silkies hatch much larger birds and then kept them together?

I think as long as they are raised together they should be fine unless they are just overwhelmingly aggressive.

 

[mom of silkies]

Here's a question, I've got mostly silkies. I also have a australorp, a welsummer and two wyandottes in tthe same pen. The australorp is pretty big but she's bottom of the pecking order for the big girls and not aggressive at all. Its a big pen and they've all been together since they were babies and we don't have much problem with anybody being picked on. I have a couple of broody silkie girls and have been offered some lavender english orpington eggs. Their adults are huge. If I let the silkes hatch the eggs, will they be okay with the rest of the flock as they get older or are they just too much bigger and will pick on the silkies when they are adults? Anybody ever run both breeds together or had silkies hatch much larger birds and then kept them together?

You can absolutely get silkies to hatch out bigger chickens! I had my silkies hatch out my Cornish Rock Cross/Australorp cross chicks and they never picked on the silkies even when they out grew them!

 

[Sylvester017]

Yes, my Pyrenees, guards the chickens. I also have an Anatolian shepherd that guards them. I love them both but Pyrenees are really sweet!

I envy your ability to have your wonderful guardian dogs. My friend was looking into Anatolians but she already had 2 dogs (an Aussie Shepherd and a blind/deaf Pom mix) which were worthless as guard dogs but she couldn't part with them. I was looking into Maremmas, Caucasian Sheps, Ovtcharkas, or Pyres, but after we assessed the amount of room we needed for a large dog (unfortunately most guardian breeds are 100+lb) our property would not accommodate it for exercise and I'm too old and arthritic to take a big dog for long walks/running every day. I've had 3 Rotties and a Border Collie over the years and they are great herding or property guarddogs but not the best for flock guardianship. These large breeds are exceptionally intelligent and need a steady job and space for exercising or they get bored or possibly neurotic from the boredom. A friend got a Malinois and also ordered a Sarplaninac but I consider the Mal's more of a police or working/herd breed -- Sarpie I had never heard of before but looks related to the Caucasian Shep/Ovtcharkas. Still, out of all the guardian breeds I think the Pyres would be the best/gentlest around chicks/chickens. I fell in love with an Ovtcharka I puppy-sat and she was an amazing breed with natural guarding instincts without any formal training. She naturally considered the coyote at the back fence an intruder and was on alert but stayed on the property by us until the coyote got bored and wandered off. But she would sit or stand still as a wild rabbit bounced into the yard around her to eat lawn grass and then bounced away and she knew it was not a threat to us and just let it do its thing. My DD's Pitbull on the other hand would've ignored all our commands and gone after the coyote or shredded the rabbit - she shredded a possum despite our commands to "leave it" so I'm not a fan of Pits -- they can be incredibly sweet with their owners but are overly strong-willed and selective about what commands they choose to obey.