The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Mrs.SB]

BEARS!!!

This morning as always my husband opened the pop door at 5 am. I get up at 5:45 and the girls are just starting to come out.

6am they were all out milling around. 6:45 I got out of the shower and looked out the window to see no chickens and lots of feathers. Ran out and one bird came flying out of the brush clearly terrified. Carried her inside and saw another running around the yard.(outside the run). Went to go pick her up, dog went balistic, turned around to face 2 black bears. About 20 feet from me, I was about 30 feet from the coop and 60 from the house.

I raised my arms(yeah right I'm going to look huge with my spindly arms over my 5'2" self), yelled like heck and they did nothing but drool. Needless to say I ran for the coop, slammed my way in and tried to breathe. Waited 15 minutes and they just stared and moved a bit closer.

So I stepped onto the porch of the coop armed with a dull knife and a garbage can lid, threw everything in reach at them. Surprised myself by hitting them a few times but they still did not move.

I ended up waiting them out. Once I could see them through the opposite end of the building I ran to the house, loaded 2 buckshots and a slug and called my husband.

They never came back. Me and my FIL put the fences back up and repaired where we could. Hoping all missing birds will come back but guessing a few met their fate. The others won't let me near them going to have to wait until they are roosting to check everyone out.

A couple things are resulting from this. Firstly, bear hunting tonight (yes they are in season and tags have been bought) these are 3 yr old cubs whose mom used to visit. I hate to kill anything but you killed my livestock and would have had me too. Secondly, we are building gun safes in each of the outbuildings and will be storing loaded shot guns in each. Turns out this is legal even without safes.

Other than removing the threat, there is nothing I can do. Bears can not be stopped by fencing or even walls. If they had decided to come in the coop they would have. I have never felt that kind of adrenaline, these guys were so close I could smell them.

Something has changed with the bears here. They don't run like they used to. I'm wondering whether they are just running out of food and hungrier or if they have gotten used to us.

Sorry for the super long story! Had to share.

OMG! So glad they didn't decide to come on in the coop! Whew!!

 

[Eggcessive]

Worth a try, indeed! Thank you! This gives me something great to go on since my coop will be about 8 x 8 as well.

A question about the poop board... If I had a poop board under the roost, what if they tried to roost on the board? That would kinda defeat the cleanliness purpose, and I'm afraid the chickens wouldn't really mind.

Any thoughts?

Thanks so much for all the help, by the way, y'all are awesome here!!!

I use poop boards with PDZ and there are some low pecking order hens who all want to sleep near the rooster, so they will sleep on the board. It doesn't really matter. The roosts are 11 inches off the boards which are covered with Sweet PDZ. I think this set-up works well in a small coop, but mine is 12X24, so I probably would have left my ladder roosts in there if I knew what I know now. I put in 32 feet of poop boards, and they take 15-20 minutes to clean. I do have deep litter going under my poop boards on the floor.

 

[BlueMouse]

Is my broody crazy or is this normal broody behavior? (I have no idea, this is my first broody experience) My broody has been sitting tight on her nest of plastic easter eggs since saturday. Every day the other hen lays in the nest while she gets off and looks around for a few minutes, then she goes straight back. I take the fresh egg out when she gets off the nest in the evening when I feed everyone. I've gone in and checked on her and she's sitting tight at night too apparently. This afternoon I noticed that she was out with the rest of the flock. I figured Mrs. Henny Penny was laying. Then I noticed Mrs. Henny penny out too. My broody spent probably a good two hours running around the yard puffed up like a puffer fish yelling at people, PECKED the rooster and screamed at him when he tried to mate her, and generally acted irate. Then she went back in and sat on the nest again.

I am completely confused. While she was running around the yard puffed up like a puff adder screaming at people I went in and collected the (real) egg out of her nest. it was cool. The plastic easter eggs don't care but this wouldn't be good for real eggs. I was going to give her some real eggs if she was still sitting by the end of the week but now I'm not sure.... Is it just that she's being excessively distrubed by Mrs. henny Penny kicking her out of the nestbox to lay? (there is another nestbox available, but evidently it's not as good....

)

 

[Kassaundra]

Is my broody crazy or is this normal broody behavior? (I have no idea, this is my first broody experience) My broody has been sitting tight on her nest of plastic easter eggs since saturday. Every day the other hen lays in the nest while she gets off and looks around for a few minutes, then she goes straight back. I take the fresh egg out when she gets off the nest in the evening when I feed everyone. I've gone in and checked on her and she's sitting tight at night too apparently. This afternoon I noticed that she was out with the rest of the flock. I figured Mrs. Henny Penny was laying. Then I noticed Mrs. Henny penny out too. My broody spent probably a good two hours running around the yard puffed up like a puffer fish yelling at people, PECKED the rooster and screamed at him when he tried to mate her, and generally acted irate. Then she went back in and sat on the nest again.

I am completely confused. While she was running around the yard puffed up like a puff adder screaming at people I went in and collected the (real) egg out of her nest. it was cool. The plastic easter eggs don't care but this wouldn't be good for real eggs. I was going to give her some real eggs if she was still sitting by the end of the week but now I'm not sure.... Is it just that she's being excessively distrubed by Mrs. henny Penny kicking her out of the nestbox to lay? (there is another nestbox available, but evidently it's not as good....

)

I don't have much broody experience, but the broody that is sitting for us now did that for almost 2 weeks, like she was "practicing" before she decided to set for real.

 

[Toast n Jelly]

Quote: That is a great image! Wow he stuck his tongue out at you...

 

[CoopChick719]

Anyone else have a chicken that wanders about the yard eating dandelion fluff? I watched my little EE spend about an hour walking around the yard denuding all of the dandelion seedheads.

Yes, I noticed my BR cross hen doing that the other day. I also has a dog that does it then sneezes when the fluff goes up his nose.

yuk. I prefer snakes dead

x2 Thankfully we don't have any poisonous ones!

Ah! This has been an interesting week for us! Biggest was my m-i-l being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer on Tuesday, then having to have our 15 yr old family dog put down last night (everyone was at peace with the decision) & next, culling our 1st chick (1 month old) from the flock this morning...
This is my ? concerning the chick - everyone looked fine last night. This morn I noticed one of my Doms trying to walk but legs kept giving on her, she finally succumbed and just laid there. Did some quick research & with the fear that it may have been Marek's, we removed her from the flock. It may have been rash for me to have acted so quickly but can not afford to otherwise. We chose not to vaccinate our flock and this has honestly been one of my biggest fears, how to handle, if & when it occurs...

Blessed weekend to you all ~ Kendra

PS ~ Always enjoy the wealth of knowledge represented on this thread and wish I had the time to follower more regularly!

Sorry to hear of all the troubles, ramblinH.

I am constantly adjusting the amount of FF I feed per day. If they finish it all and act like they are dying, I increase the next day. If they don't eat it all, I throw whatever did not get eaten on the ground and cut back on the current day ration. It all gets eaten.

x2--I do the same thing too wet--add some dry. If they don't eat it all, I throw it on the ground and they act like it's a gourmet treat.

It can be hard to tell from pictures - but a few of those eggs look fertile to me. LOL!

I thought so too!

Some pictures from today. Henry enjoying the water. Makes me want to build a pond so he can swim with the geese and ducks

Awwww such a handsome boy!! We just love Henry in our house!!

Little sad tonight, I had to let 3 of my roos go to a new home. My head roo was just crowing too early in the morning. We are not in the country. Although we have no code or zoning regarding chickens or farm animals, I didn't want to be THAT neighbor. So my good boy, who was so good with the chicks that hatched back in Feb., had to go along with the 2 10 week old bantam Silkie roos from TSC. I have one more roo that's going to a co-worker and then it will be just the girls.

 

[camilleathome]

Holy cow that's an awesome shot! What kind of snake is that, and is it albino or is that the natural coloring? I love snakes... as long as they don't surprise me, and I have shoes on. (I know, I'm a freak- I'm the same way with spiders).

Its an albino burmese python

 

[mikkles]

I have a non-chicken related issue, but I know this is the place to ask this because in pretty much any other place I know what the answer will be...

My dog is off his food, and he's been puking since Friday.  He seems mostly fine otherwise, although his energy is low for obvious reasons (not eating much for three days), but he still follows me around the yard, chases anything that moves (other than chickens), and plays with my other dog.  He's eaten a little- I've been giving him eggs poached in chicken stock (which he kept down, although he puked up some water several hours later) and plan to give him some ground beef later today.  Normally I would take him to the vet today just to be sure, but we are BROKE and the vet requires payment at the time of service.  I know having a dog means financial responsibility, blah blah blah, but we're not like permanently broke, we're broke until Friday.  Besides (and hate on me for this if you want, but it is what it is) our dogs are not our children.  If we were to take him to the vet and he had some obstruction that needed surgery or something, I would either have him put down or I would see if the no kill shelter wanted to do something (see if someone else wants him who is willing to pay for the surgery or whatever).  I won't spend hundreds of dollars on a dog.  I know, I'm an awful person.  But I'm okay with it.

Anyway, like I said, I knew anywhere else I'd ask the answer would be "go to the vet."  End of story.  But I know there are people here who do things a little different, so I guess I'm asking what would you do in my situation?  Should I keep feeding him eggs/stock/meat until he starts to feel better?  Could worms be causing this (I did see some funny stuff in his stool, which was a little runny, but I wasn't sure if it was grass or not- he's been eating a lot of grass)?  Any other suggestions?  My gut is saying keep him home until he starts to actually act more sick, and keep feeding him the good stuff in the mean time.

it does sound like some kind of ;obstruction. you could try mineral oil to get it to pass...

 

[Shan30]

They already did come back. Fences are down, feathers everywhere, at least 4 more dead. One bear down, we stalked the other for a while but couldn't get a clean shot on it. It had one of my chickens in it's mouth as it ran away. Since my husband works away I will be having an interesting time doing all my chores while holding a shotgun for a while. Exhausted and off to bed. Rest in peace girls

 

[OohLaLa]

BEARS!!!

This morning as always my husband opened the pop door at 5 am. I get up at 5:45 and the girls are just starting to come out.

6am they were all out milling around. 6:45 I got out of the shower and looked out the window to see no chickens and lots of feathers. Ran out and one bird came flying out of the brush clearly terrified. Carried her inside and saw another running around the yard.(outside the run). Went to go pick her up, dog went balistic, turned around to face 2 black bears. About 20 feet from me, I was about 30 feet from the coop and 60 from the house.

I raised my arms(yeah right I'm going to look huge with my spindly arms over my 5'2" self), yelled like heck and they did nothing but drool. Needless to say I ran for the coop, slammed my way in and tried to breathe. Waited 15 minutes and they just stared and moved a bit closer.

So I stepped onto the porch of the coop armed with a dull knife and a garbage can lid, threw everything in reach at them. Surprised myself by hitting them a few times but they still did not move.

I ended up waiting them out. Once I could see them through the opposite end of the building I ran to the house, loaded 2 buckshots and a slug and called my husband.

They never came back. Me and my FIL put the fences back up and repaired where we could. Hoping all missing birds will come back but guessing a few met their fate. The others won't let me near them

going to have to wait until they are roosting to check everyone out.

A couple things are resulting from this. Firstly, bear hunting tonight (yes they are in season and tags have been bought) these are 3 yr old cubs whose mom used to visit. I hate to kill anything but you killed my livestock and would have had me too. Secondly, we are building gun safes in each of the outbuildings and will be storing loaded shot guns in each. Turns out this is legal even without safes.

Other than removing the threat, there is nothing I can do. Bears can not be stopped by fencing or even walls. If they had decided to come in the coop they would have. I have never felt that kind of adrenaline, these guys were so close I could smell them.

Something has changed with the bears here. They don't run like they used to. I'm wondering whether they are just running out of food and hungrier or if they have gotten used to us.

Sorry for the super long story! Had to share.

Bless your sole, glad your okay. I hope for the best. You are right for warned and armed is best in your situation.