The road less traveled...back to good health! They have lice, mites, scale mites, worms, anemia, gl

[Beekissed]

Well now me too. Came home to a slaughter. 2 pitbulls probably about 9 months old in one of my pens. Lost my 3 barred banties and two of the BO pullets. Lost 2 Muscovy girls. I have 2 Muscovy ducks, a drake, my BO roo and two pullets in the house with severe injuries. Not really a lot I can do for any of them. Trying to get some molasses and ACV water down them for shock; washed off wounds and covered with NS> I have a light on them to keep them warm b/c they are all in shock

the dogs will not be going home

It's an epidemic!!! Did all the predators of the world have a meeting and plan a concerted attack on the BYC chickens this week????

I am so proud of you for taking care of this problem with a solid solution. Good for you! I'm so sorry your birds had to go through this...all of you out there...so sorry about this trauma on the flocks. It's upsetting, to say the least.

sorry every one Im new and couldnt quite figure out how to ask a question soooo.... with your kind indulgence.I looks as if the gardner got one of our chickens with a weed wacker as right to the left of her throar she has a clean cur loss of feathers about 3 inches lomg , cut half the feathers off but not to the skin . Luckily not injury ... Wiill the fethers grow back or do they have to fall out or ? to grow back ? Tks Oppologies if Im in the wrong place

They will grow back...no worries. Fire the gardener. Anyone with half a brain can miss a chicken while using a weed whacker.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Some time ago my husb. picked up one of these free for the taking on his way home from work on the side of the road.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_289697-7367...uctId=1241381&Ns=&pl=1&currentURL=&facetInfo=

I had planned to put it in the electric netting (or out on mid pasture when I start letting them range in the spring) for a place to hide from hawk attack but never got it cleaned up. I'm getting it cleaned up tonight...wondering if anyone has done this.

The only prob. I see is that the opening is large enough for a hawk to follow them right in. So...am I giving them a "death trap" or a shelter?

 

[just me]

Some time ago my husb. picked up one of these free for the taking on his way home from work on the side of the road.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_289697-7367...uctId=1241381&Ns=&pl=1&currentURL=&facetInfo=

I had planned to put it in the electric netting (or out on mid pasture when I start letting them range in the spring) for a place to hide from hawk attack but never got it cleaned up. I'm getting it cleaned up tonight...wondering if anyone has done this.

The only prob. I see is that the opening is large enough for a hawk to follow them right in. So...am I giving them a "death trap" or a shelter?

Score!! It's hard for me to believe what people will put on the side of the road.....Perhaps you could screw some hardwire or something across a part of the opening to make it just big enough for the chickens...or maybe you could take the top off, turn the bottom upside down and have 2 covers??

Sorry to hear about the losses!!

 

[bargain]

sorry every one Im new and couldnt quite figure out how to ask a question soooo.... with your kind indulgence.I looks as if the gardner got one of our chickens with a weed wacker as right to the left of her throar she has a clean cur loss of feathers about 3 inches lomg , cut half the feathers off but not to the skin . Luckily not injury ... Wiill the fethers grow back or do they have to fall out or ? to grow back ? Tks Oppologies if Im in the wrong place

Did you ask your gardener if this happened? It might also be that there was an attempted hit by a predator that she somehow managed to escape. Feathers should grow back but I would definitely talk this over with your helper as well a thing about flock predators. Good luck

 

[Beekissed]

Some time ago my husb. picked up one of these free for the taking on his way home from work on the side of the road.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_289697-7367...uctId=1241381&Ns=&pl=1&currentURL=&facetInfo=

I had planned to put it in the electric netting (or out on mid pasture when I start letting them range in the spring) for a place to hide from hawk attack but never got it cleaned up. I'm getting it cleaned up tonight...wondering if anyone has done this.

The only prob. I see is that the opening is large enough for a hawk to follow them right in. So...am I giving them a "death trap" or a shelter?

Shelter! Hawks don't like enclosed spaces much...they can be turned into food too. These make the best broody nests in the world! Great score!

 

[Sally8]

Unbelievable!!!! We've had coyotes running for several weeks now. We can hear them just across the creek (not far from the house). I'm thinking that I need to re enforce the one coop door. The coyotes have been known to snatch cats and dogs from back yards during the daytime. They are very hard to get. Two nights ago my son had set a box trap using apples and my huge cat got in there and spent the night in there. My son feels he did us a huge favor as Mittens wasn't lunch for someone.
I'm so sorry everyone.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Unbelievable!!!! We've had coyotes running for several weeks now. We can hear them just across the creek (not far from the house). I'm thinking that I need to re enforce the one coop door. The coyotes have been known to snatch cats and dogs from back yards during the daytime. They are very hard to get. Two nights ago my son had set a box trap using apples and my huge cat got in there and spent the night in there. My son feels he did us a huge favor as Mittens wasn't lunch for someone.
I'm so sorry everyone.

Is that a blue heeler in your photo?

 

[aoxa]

You will need to examine him. Could be he challenged your turkey.

 

aoxa, I don't mean to detract from your situation - and before I start writing, wanted to say how sorry I am for your loss.

Before I read your post, I was outside taking photos of what I came home to today.  Thankfully my story hasn't turned out like yours - at least yet.

When I got home I went out to gather eggs - around noon today.  As I was walking out there I see this:





You can see these are under the edge of the electric netting.  I did kind-of pull some of the feathers toward the camera but when I first came out they were more concentrated right under the net.

So I'm thinking - great...something tried to reach under ...or a hawk...and I was imagining having to go hunting for a body.  However when I went inside, they were all there but one of the BRs was in the nest.  I waited for them both to get out of the nests and have been observing them but don't see anything obvious.  If there weren't feathers on the ground I probably wouldn't have noticed anything - they are both behaving like normal.  It looks possible that some tail feathers are missing from one of them.

Now, after having come in and read aoxa's post and the comments that folks have made about not seeing any blood or anything obvious, I'm thinking I should probably remove them from the roost tonight and see if I can get down to skin level and look for any signs of broken skin, etc.  I guess it could be possible that she got too close to the netting - maybe sticking her head through??  And possibly got tangled up and thrashing around trying to get loose? 

Not sure - anyone have any thoughts?

 

None at all...could you describe the problem you are having and your set up with the feed...buckets, place, acv used, etc? 

I would say dog but I also know they usually wreak more havoc than one bird...they usually get into a frenzy as the chickens run around in a panic.  If it was a fox, it would have carried it away unless it was surprised and scared off by something. 

Looks like his neck was broken, so if I had to guess he was wooled about by a canine...you know, the grab and shake?  Not many feathers around about and the position of the body/neck seems to speak of a quick, violent death. 

So sorry aoxa.  

Big hugs to Aoxa!

Leah's Mom, something a bit similar here today. I was in the house and barely heard some chicken commotion outside -- alarm calls and someone (animal) screaming. I ran out as fast as I could and saw, from a distance, a hawk on a chicken. I yelled horrible things at it as I ran. It flew away, empty-clawed. When I got to the coop, all the chickens except one were inside. One quivering bantam mille fleur d'uccle was outside, hunched and shaking. She had a bloody head and swollen eyelid but I could not find other obvious injuries. She was clearly severely traumatized, though, and would not roost. She crawled under the space where the roost ladder meets the floor.

I went back outside and picked up her pile of feathers, and saw another pile of feathers --  lots and lots of barred feathers -- different bird. She was in the coop, not obviously bloody or injured, but I could not catch her as she's skittish and at that point the roos were being very protective, and everybody was already stirred up. Including me.

I don't know if the bantam will be alive in the morning, or if the barred hen suffered injuries I couldn't see, or if the bantam will be pecked by the other chickens. But I feel very lucky that the damage wasn't so much worse.

One hawk hitting two chickens -- and not immediately killing them -- I didn't know that could happen.

Tomorrow they're staying in the coop and covered run -- they'll hate that -- and Friday we're building some hideys and stringing a whole lot more fishing line.

Here's the bantam, the one on the left, before today.

Wow, everyone - sorry to hear about today's loss Aoxa... and the drama others have faced with attacks!

I hope all the surviving birds do OK.

Keep us posted!

Thank you all so much for the well wishes. I examined him, and his neck was definitely broken. He was stiff besides his neck, and it seemed like it was popped off somewhere or something. No blood other than around his wattles, and it's hard to say if that wasn't from the chickens pecking at him after. I've seen them do it.. when a chick drowned in the pool, and I removed it - only to have a chicken run away with the corpse.

He does look like it was a quick death. How slow can a broken neck be? Every other chicken is accounted for. I spent way to much time counting them all tonight. If one is missing, I would be very surprised. The turkey hens have been chasing around the roosters, but never any violent attacking. The hens aren't that much bigger than the roosters at this point, but the tom is - however, he is very laid back in comparison to the girls Maybe it was my gander? It could have been anything, but my in laws were home all day, and there wasn't any commotion. Clem puts up a huge fit if there is a stray dog in the yard, and after last time - me threatening to shoot their dog if it happened to come near my birds again.. Also that dog is the only one for miles.. Doubt foxes, because they would take more..

Thanks for all the suggestions, and I'm so sorry to the others who had attacks It sucks! I hate not knowing. This boy was really heavy when I went to move him too. They were only a few weeks from processing.

 

[Sally8]

Is that a blue heeler in your photo? 

No, he's an Australian Shepard. I call him my blockhead. He's 82 pounds of pure stubbornness. I will credit him as being very smart. He's afraid of coyotes, cows, sheep and smaller children. We moved into our home in late February and he showed up on our door step early March. Having a 4 yr old grandson and twin 2 yr old grand daughters has been very challenging with him. Sorry, Bee, he sleeps with us and likes to go to "grandma's" and his favorite foods are ff and chicken poop.
I forgot to say, we have a nice dog coop out back that the dogs don't use but I find eggs in there.
Also, there is no doubt in my mind that he would have a chicken snack if the chickens started running.

 

[lalaland]

None at all...could you describe the problem you are having and your set up with the feed...buckets, place, acv used, etc?

The problem really is that after a few days, the hens won't eat the FF. literally won't, even when it is the only feed except for foraging which isn't much at this time of the year. The first day, A few hens take a taste, but that it is. It just sits there, uneaten at the end of the day - was put out in the morning. I've started it over twice, so there have been three different batches - the first one kept going for about a week or so before they quit eating it. Then I threw it out, waited for the weekend so I could feed them in daylight, and started over. Worked ok for two days, then forget it. Each day I would strain out about 2/3rds of the mix, add more feed and water and vinegar, and by the third day, no one eats it at all.
I've tried:
reducing the vinegar after it was suggested maybe I was using too much
putting it in a heated dog bowl so it wasn't cold (temps are around 20-40 degrees)
putting it on the ground

The set up - I make it in gallon jars with the mash, adding water and braggs. let it sit 2-3 few days, stirring in the morning and the evening , it will be bubbling and smells good to me - sourdough ish. I dump it in a strainer, and from there into their feed dishes. I add the liquid that was strained out back to the jar.

Am thinking maybe I should try a mix of whole grains instead of the mash. Maybe there is something in the ingredients that isn't working fermented for the hens.

They aren't picky eaters - when I am not feeding FF, they get the mash, and every couple of days I take the powder that builds up in the feeder and mix it with a liquid (could be buttermilk, yogurt, milk, water, broth, whatever I have on hand) so they clear out the feeder. I throw groats for scratch, occasional boss, and scraps from cooking.