The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[ki4got]

Eggcessive and I must have been posting at the same time. Yes...head off doesn't sound like a chicken attack to me.

classic for raccoons around here. mine have all been pulled thru wire tho. a weasel probably could get in to eat if it wanted to...

 

[Eggcessive]

I have always heard that weasels can fit through 1 inch chicken wire, so for that reason most people use 1/2 inch hardware cloth. Tea Chick, I've never seen a weasel in southern Ohio, but we have them. I have seen dead mink on the roads. If I were you, I would go over every inch of the coop looking for a tiny hole that might have let something. in.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Owls and hawks bite the heads off if they are pulling a chicken through chainlink or 2 x 4 inch welded wire. Hey it happened to my flock. I saw the action so I am sure of the type of predator. They flew away as I ran out there but too late to save my chickies.

 

[Scott H]

Teachick, sorry for your losses...

 

[Leahs Mom]

So this morning I noticed that Tank, my Black Orp, is limping..... and standing on one foot and then laying down and hobbling around. I looked at her foot and besides just stepping in a big wet poo before I picked her up I couldn't see and kind of cut or sore.... I rinsed her foot & felt her leg. She did not whine or squirm when I put pressure on any particular area... but the pad of the foot felt a little warm in comparison to the other foot. She is a heavy girl so I wonder if she hurt it jumping down from the roost?? I won't be able to look at her again until tomorrow morning .... I plan on trying to give her an epsom salt soak. Anything else I should look for or try??


Thanks!

My rooster, when he was young but pretty much full size, started acting just like you describe. It was summertime. I did the same thing - felt his legs, looked at feet, etc. Nothing I could feel or see.

I never did do a soak on him but strangest thing - since he was the "man of the house" he still felt it was necessary to guard the ladies. The first couple of weeks he was mostly hlaying on the ground but He would stand on 1 foot whenever he wanted to get up. He finally learned to hop on 1 foot very fast at a running pace. I kept wondering if I should do him in but he looked healthy otherwise and acted quite normal except for not wanting to put a lot of weight on that leg. So...he went on like that for almost 6 weeks if I recall. Was the funniest thing I ever saw to see him hopping on 1 leg as fast as everyone else was moving on 2.

Over the weeks he'd put more weight on the other leg until it healed and he is completely normal now. You wouldn't know there was an issue.

I think it was a sprained knee or ankle joint - probably from jumping down from the roosts. At night he insisted on getting on the roost. I tried to isolate him the first night or so but it drove him absolutely crazy so I gave up. I'd go out early in the morning for the first 2 weeks and put him on the floor just before full light so he wouldn't jump down. But after that I missed a day and he was down and got down on his own after that. I would have preferred he not use the roost at all but it's a guy thing (or chicken thing I guess)...

 

[Shan30]

I lost another jr. roo last night.  I put Picard (SLW cockerel) and Marigold (SLW x BO pullet) in with the regular flock last night.  (I've been housing them in the juvenile pen set up as a temporary coop for them.)  This morning, I looked into the coop and couldn't see Picard; I looked through a different side and there he was lying in the corner.  Both Picard and Will were minus their heads.  Speckles (my first jr. roo) was starving when he got bit by the snake (the COD).  Eddie has been chasing all three jr roos off of food every chance he gets, running from across the yard to do so.
I put Picard (and Marigold) in the coop last night b/c Speckles had died of a snake bite and I thought that Will was killed by a hen while protecting Marigold (and Picard at the time) and I had gotten rid of the aggressive hen I thought Marigold needed protecting from.
Now, I think that Eddie is the one who killed Will and Picard.
Any advice, input, info, experience, etc. would be greatly appreciated!!!

I have to agree, sounds like the work of a predator. Something from the weasel family most likely. Chickens will cannibalize but they I've never seen them decapitate another bird. It's not usually the part they go for...sorry for the image. If you have a trap I would set it and use the remains of one of your poor birds for bait. Maybe even freeze the other for future bait. I know if sounds morbid but its the only thing that worked for us. We lost 4 before catching a mink here and the chicken was the only bait it went for. I'm pretty sure there are members of the weasel family North America wide but other predators will do this too.

So sorry for your loss. I know it can be pretty upsetting to find them like that.

 

[Leahs Mom]

I have to agree, sounds like the work of a predator. Something from the weasel family most likely. Chickens will cannibalize but they I've never seen them decapitate another bird. It's not usually the part they go for...sorry for the image. If you have a trap I would set it and use the remains of one of your poor birds for bait. Maybe even freeze the other for future bait. I know if sounds morbid but its the only thing that worked for us. We lost 4 before catching a mink here and the chicken was the only bait it went for. I'm pretty sure there are members of the weasel family North America wide but other predators will do this too.

So sorry for your loss. I know it can be pretty upsetting to find them like that.

What kind of trap did you use?

 

[Jewelwing]

According to this site, http://icwdm.org/handbook/carnivor/mink.asp,

Mink are found throughout North America, with the exception of the desert southwest and tundra areas:

I've tried to post the map of the long-tailed weasel, but for some reason it's not showing up. But its range covers even more of the US (less of Canada).

So it looks like most of us in North America have to worry about both of these predators, among all the others!

I hope that if it was a predator, you can find and fix the hole it used to get in, TeaChick. I'm so sorry about your jr roos. What an awful thing to discover in the morning.

 

[delisha]

Aoxa- I googled ear lobe colors in chickens & the 1st 10 sights say that the color of a chickens ears indicate the color of their eggs.

Hmmmm makes me wonder if there is some truth in it but mutts/mixes are the exception to the rule? I am going to have to look at everyones ears when I get home now

I wish it was true all the time..the silkies would lay such a pretty colored eggs

Teachick, sorry for your losses...

x2


Teachick

no chicken will remove another chickens head

even in a fight..eating is not part of the fight..males will make the other males pretty bloody..but death is pretty rare.

eating another chicken has to do with room and lack of feed and they eat the butt first.

Head removal is from a predator..and they will be back..they now know where dinner is..they will wipe out your whole flock..you need to protect that flock.

 

[ki4got]

Quote:
I agree. I freeze any chicks that don't make it and ones that are taken by other predators, and use them for bait in the trap... if I don't have anything else to use, i'll put a chicken wing (raw from the grocery) or some chicken livers in there but if I don't get anything, I have to trigger the trap during the day or i'll catch a chicken! LOL

edit: they don't bother the dead chicks, just the wings and livers. LOL