Texas

[showbarnmom]

Ms Jellybean I have your crusty bread recipe in a bowl waiting until tomorrow to bake but I think I made it to runny will that keep it from rising properly?

My woodstove has been cranked up all day

Gosh that set up looks JUST LIKE our trainers wood stove!!! Same back drop and everything! But theirs is a belly stove.

 

[showbarnmom]

Update : BIL is fine, very sore, and very upset. They are going back out to look for Max. I emailed my MIL the flyer I made so she can print it out. Brads very upset over totaling an awesome truck and loosing his best friend.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I was raised in Garland-blackland

cracks would get 6" wide in our backyard in the summer. Made spagetti tonight after cleaning & bedding 6 horse stalls before the rain started up again. 34* right now & raining again

Six inches wide???? Wow! My cracks are only 3/4 of an inch wide. My property is mostly covered in live oak and my grass under the trees is usually green all through the summer. My property seems to hold water in the soil well. I sure hope it won't ever crack like that.

 

[TammyTX]

Update : BIL is fine, very sore, and very upset. They are going back out to look for Max. I emailed my MIL the flyer I made so she can print it out. Brads very upset over totaling an awesome truck and loosing his best friend.

Did you post the flyer on Craigslist?

 

[jajeanpierre]

Add my hopes that Max gets home soon. My latest rescue dog was from STAR - which is a private Aussie rescue. First one I've gotten that came to me microchipped. Hopefully Max got chipped too before your BIL got him. Melina (the dog) was dropped on the vet when she was 3 to be put down because she was too hyper. Luckily the vet said no and turned her over to STAR. Pretty stupid of that woman to get an Aussie and confine her to a condo with minimum outside activity. Anyway, Melina has turned out great and is even a good chicken dog!

I'll be looking for another dog once my four aging miniature Dachshunds go. They are getting on in age--12, 10, 10 and 8. My pit bull cross is a great dog and leaves the chickens alone but I don't really think he guards them. I think his presence on the property keeps many predators away during the day. I've been thinking of getting some sort of a livestock guard dog, but I don't want a big dog. I had thought a smaller herding dog (I wanted a Border Collie) would be a good choice, but people who actually work with livestock did not think that was a good idea. A herding dog is just going to do what herding dogs do, which is basically chasing the livestock.

I've also thought about just going to an animal shelter and finding a mutt with a low prey drive. Farm dogs in the past were not purebreds, just dogs that fit in and any that didn't were culled.

Your Australian Shepherd looks as though she leaves the chickens alone.

Thoughts?

 

[jajeanpierre]

He had a huge bump by his eye that wasnt there yesterday, but after checking him thoroughly i didnt find an injury, i did see a hawk perching on a tree about 12 feet from the coop and run yesterday,so he was my main culprit, but i guess the cold just got him. Beautiful bird too

Hawks are going to leave a wound. There is a big risk of infection from a little scratch from a hawk because the raptors' talons are covered in bacteria. Same thing with cats. I miniscule scratch can easily kill birds very quickly. Birds are very susceptible to the two bacteria that are on the claws of most cats. "Cat Scratch Fever" is no laughing matter for people, either. My son almost died from "Cat Scratch Fever" when he was six.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I am reading of so many chicken deaths on this thread. I wonder if people who are losing birds to the cold might have a very heavy parasite load and the cold is just one stress too much for the weakened birds. A healthy bird should have no trouble coping with severe cold as long as they are dry, and near freezing isn't severe cold. Either that or the birds are getting wet and the feathers can't insulate them anymore. Most birds' feathers, other than the unusual feathers of Silkies or frizzles, should be able repel most water. Yesterday, my birds were out all day in the rain and the birds with good plumage were dry and warm under their top wet feathers. I did bring the Silkies into the garage and dried them under a heat lamp. I'll keep them in until the rain stops tomorrow.

If birds get wet to the skin, they can get into a lot of trouble trying to keep warm. The reason water birds die after oil spills is because the oil soaks the feathers and they can't insulate themselves anymore and they get chilled.

 

[NickyPick]

Melina is my 3rd Aussie. I got one from a show breeder and two from a rescue. None of them have had a super strong herding drive. All 3 have glued themselves to me and won't even go outside unless I go too. Melina was pretty fascinated with the chickens in the beginning. I spent a lot of time with her on a leash walking through them, telling her to "leave it." It helps that we also have to use that command a lot in the house when she's around my sister's scottie, Becky. For some reason, Melina really doesn't like Becky and will try to intimidate her (walking next to her, glaring and growling. Becky completely ignores her, which is pretty funny). I've found the breed really wants to please, so it wasn't too hard to get her to ignore the chickens. It's nice - when I go out in the evening, they all gather at the barn door, waiting for me to come out with their nightly snack. I'll open that door to 40+ chickens and 3 dogs behind me. The dogs wade through the chickens to go bark at the horses and no one pays the other much mind. I'll have to get a video sometime.
On the whole, I've found Border Collies to be really intense and Aussies more relaxed. I don't think either would make the best guardian dog, but the Aussies's I've been around learn to respect your property and will leave it alone.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Update : BIL is fine, very sore, and very upset. They are going back out to look for Max. I emailed my MIL the flyer I made so she can print it out. Brads very upset over totaling an awesome truck and loosing his best friend.

I've had to look for the occasional lost animal. Here's my suggestions:

Have flyers made up. A printer can print them up for very little money. Make the paper a bright color but fluorescent paper fades fast. Plaster them at (driver) eye level around the main intersections in the area he was last seen for at least a mile. Make sure they will be noticed by drivers so think of the line of sight. Put them around schools in the area. Kids see more than adults. Put something in that makes it personal, that motivates the public to get involved and look out for the dog. Something like, "I lost my best buddy when I rolled my car (give location and date). Please help me find my best friend." Use a picture--it can be a black and white printing.

Take/fax the flyer to every vet, animal shelter and pet shop in the area. I would do this in person to make sure the flyer gets posted on the walls, rather than on the desk or in the garbage. Post it in grocery stores. Saturate the area for about three miles from where the accident happened.


Offer a reward, and put it in big letters.

Put an add in the newspapers' lost and found.

Contact the rescue he came from and give them a heads up. They might have some connections.

You need to make sure you are in constant contact with the animal shelters because some shelters only keep strays a few days. Also, any injured or sick animals are usually put down very quickly, even in non-kill shelters.

Check the lost and found, looking for any dog that even remotely fits the description. Some people are really bad at describing a dog accurately, even the size. Call them all and don't limit your search to just the area the dog was lost in. Dogs can travel a long way and sometimes people find a dog in one location and then take them home, far from where they found them.

Don't give up hope. Sometimes animals just get so shocked by something like this they go into hiding for a day or so. Sometimes people find them and it just takes awhile for them to start looking for the owner.

Last, but not least, once you have the dog back, go to all the places you put up the flyer and take them down--there's the issue of littering.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Melina is my 3rd Aussie. I got one from a show breeder and two from a rescue. None of them have had a super strong herding drive. All 3 have glued themselves to me and won't even go outside unless I go too. Melina was pretty fascinated with the chickens in the beginning. I spent a lot of time with her on a leash walking through them, telling her to "leave it." It helps that we also have to use that command a lot in the house when she's around my sister's scottie, Becky. For some reason, Melina really doesn't like Becky and will try to intimidate her (walking next to her, glaring and growling. Becky completely ignores her, which is pretty funny). I've found the breed really wants to please, so it wasn't too hard to get her to ignore the chickens. It's nice - when I go out in the evening, they all gather at the barn door, waiting for me to come out with their nightly snack. I'll open that door to 40+ chickens and 3 dogs behind me. The dogs wade through the chickens to go bark at the horses and no one pays the other much mind. I'll have to get a video sometime.
On the whole, I've found Border Collies to be really intense and Aussies more relaxed. I don't think either would make the best guardian dog, but the Aussies's I've been around learn to respect your property and will leave it alone.

I suspect a Border Collie from working stock wouldn't have enough to do and would make their own job, which might be herding the chickens. I know I don't want a big dog, so really a livestock guard dog is out of the question. I think I really want a dog that can be outside around the chickens and just be there to dissuade any predation. Even hawks will think long and hard about attacking when there is a dog present. I'm tempted to find a mutt with a low prey drive from an animal shelter. Thanks for your comments on your experience with Australian Shepherds.