featherpickingfool
Songster
- Mar 22, 2022
- 89
- 149
- 116
I got my chickens a couple years ago. My sister had chickens and she was being invaded by bands of raccoons. They shot some of the coons, but the coons keep coming night after night. She said, she was getting rid of her birds. She couldn't handle dealing with the loss of her babies.
That May she had hatched her first chicks from her own eggs. They were living in her garage and summer was making the garage an oven. She tried selling her chicks on Facebook, no takers. Heck, I always kinda wanted chickens. So I became bee/chicken keeper and bundled up five black silkie chicks. I modified a plastic dog travel kennel and they began growing.
I found a coop design on backyard chickens. It was a rubbermade trashcan holder. I had drug one home after it was abandoned by tenants at rental house. It had been sitting empty at the back of my lot.
When my babies popped their feathers, two of them had wierd twisted feathers. Okay, I learned about frizzies and they became Curly and Moe. The other had names but I could never tell them apart so their names changed. Anyway, the rubbermade trashcan container coop idea worked well. I raised it up to give them space under it. I added an egg box to give extra space inside.
Easter 2021 we had our first chicks hatch. I put my always broody hen Betty(she had blue ears) in dog kennel and put outside the bigger coop.
Last spring I added an eight foot hoop run to give them covered space to protect them from the rain. I would close them up towards dark in hoop run. After dark the coop door is closed up.
Last summer we were attacked by what I believe were raccoons. Right before dark they came into my fenced yard/garden. Chickens were not yet in the hoop run that evening. I lost Moe. And my best hen.
I had two young roosters from the spring hatch. One was a black frizzle(Larry) and one was a beautiful cinnamon brown color. The attacker got Cinnamon. I took him to vet, put him in the little cage, treated him with injected antibiotics. And he healed.
That was end of free-ranging for the flock.
The second attack came as a surprise this January. I opened up the birds in the morning and went inside to make coffee. Bam. All hell broke loose. My dog(aussie--Cooper) started barking and jumping. I rush back out and there is a hawk at the edge of my garden. The birds were scattering everywhere. I saw a second hawk in large maple tree. After checking the birds, Cinnamon was gone. I found his body right inside garden fence.
I didn't figure out what happened until a couple days ago. I was inside when Cooper went crazy barking and I let him out. The birds were making noise. He went out and starting hitting the egg boxes that hang off coop with his nose and tried opening the big doors.
I rushed out and opened the top of the coop. A hawk was staring back at me. The hawk fled from the coop and it perched at the end of the hoop run where I had failed to wrap one place with the fencing wire. I just had never "seen" the hole.
We gathered up the birds. They had escaped to hide in yard. We were one bird short. I got things together to patch every single last hole.
The birds stayed in the coop all afternoon. As I started to pick up my tools I checked the coop and opened the back doors to check for eggs. And Betty with the blue ears fell out. She had gotten between the hardware cloth wall and back door. Cooper 1, Hawk 0
I thank backyard chickens for giving me tips in the last couple years and now I'm going to stop lurking.
That May she had hatched her first chicks from her own eggs. They were living in her garage and summer was making the garage an oven. She tried selling her chicks on Facebook, no takers. Heck, I always kinda wanted chickens. So I became bee/chicken keeper and bundled up five black silkie chicks. I modified a plastic dog travel kennel and they began growing.
I found a coop design on backyard chickens. It was a rubbermade trashcan holder. I had drug one home after it was abandoned by tenants at rental house. It had been sitting empty at the back of my lot.
When my babies popped their feathers, two of them had wierd twisted feathers. Okay, I learned about frizzies and they became Curly and Moe. The other had names but I could never tell them apart so their names changed. Anyway, the rubbermade trashcan container coop idea worked well. I raised it up to give them space under it. I added an egg box to give extra space inside.
Easter 2021 we had our first chicks hatch. I put my always broody hen Betty(she had blue ears) in dog kennel and put outside the bigger coop.
Last spring I added an eight foot hoop run to give them covered space to protect them from the rain. I would close them up towards dark in hoop run. After dark the coop door is closed up.
Last summer we were attacked by what I believe were raccoons. Right before dark they came into my fenced yard/garden. Chickens were not yet in the hoop run that evening. I lost Moe. And my best hen.
I had two young roosters from the spring hatch. One was a black frizzle(Larry) and one was a beautiful cinnamon brown color. The attacker got Cinnamon. I took him to vet, put him in the little cage, treated him with injected antibiotics. And he healed.
That was end of free-ranging for the flock.
The second attack came as a surprise this January. I opened up the birds in the morning and went inside to make coffee. Bam. All hell broke loose. My dog(aussie--Cooper) started barking and jumping. I rush back out and there is a hawk at the edge of my garden. The birds were scattering everywhere. I saw a second hawk in large maple tree. After checking the birds, Cinnamon was gone. I found his body right inside garden fence.
I didn't figure out what happened until a couple days ago. I was inside when Cooper went crazy barking and I let him out. The birds were making noise. He went out and starting hitting the egg boxes that hang off coop with his nose and tried opening the big doors.
I rushed out and opened the top of the coop. A hawk was staring back at me. The hawk fled from the coop and it perched at the end of the hoop run where I had failed to wrap one place with the fencing wire. I just had never "seen" the hole.
We gathered up the birds. They had escaped to hide in yard. We were one bird short. I got things together to patch every single last hole.
The birds stayed in the coop all afternoon. As I started to pick up my tools I checked the coop and opened the back doors to check for eggs. And Betty with the blue ears fell out. She had gotten between the hardware cloth wall and back door. Cooper 1, Hawk 0
I thank backyard chickens for giving me tips in the last couple years and now I'm going to stop lurking.
