The Silver Laced Wyandotte Thread

[rach]

Hendaddy, if you had a whole in fence and only lost 1 bird a day I would suspect a predator

 

[HenDaddy]

Ivtbin

...

Hendaddy, if you had a whole in fence and only lost 1 bird a day I would suspect a predator[/that has to be it. I had two of my barnevelders disappear last night and they had no access to the whole on the other side.

 

[Too Fast]

My six chickens started laying this week. Since Wednesday, I've gotten nine eggs

Awesome! Did you post up on the first eggs thread? Have you eaten any yet? They are so delicously fresh and tender, almost no matter how they get cooked.

 

[Too Fast]

Hendaddy, if you had a whole in fence and only lost 1 bird a day I would suspect a predator

I agree. One per day speaks to a predator. Losing a flock must really suck! I need to go secure the run, where the birds have taken to sleeping outdoors. I'm gonna reinforce that area with some 1/2'' hardware cloth, over the 2x4 welded wire:

 

[HenDaddy]

Thanks for everyone who has responded, but do any of yall know where I can buy some really good quality SLW? The wiring where they have been getting out/disappearing is about 8 years old so it is probably time to completely replace...

 

[Critter Crue]

Of my flock of 6, these are my 2 SLW, they are about 7.5 months old now and we just adopted the whole flock at the beginning of the month.

The one up front is Isabelle, she's still having some acclimating issues when it comes to laying, I work part time so 3 days a week they are in their run more hours than out, too many predators in our area, hawks, feral cats, my dogs (though I don't think they would intentionally hurt them, just get too rough in a chase, not worth the chance) She is super happy when out all day and will lay beautiful eggs, but, so far, on the shut in days, she either skips or drops a soft shell.



This is Raven, she is one of my 3 most reliable layers


I also have two BR and 2 EE. plus 2 more EE chicks that are just 3 (ish) weeks old. I am hooked on these beautiful SLW birds and hope to, one day, add to the flock with some of the other color varieties

 

[mcgillagorilla]

Thanks for everyone who has responded, but do any of yall know where I can buy some really good quality SLW? The wiring where they have been getting out/disappearing is about 8 years old so it is probably time to completely replace...

Hendaddy
I too had a fox recently pick off a good number of my hens - we had to rewire everything and we also put up a sort of scarecrowish type of figure and left a radio on in the general area of the chickens. Maybe overkill but nothing has been missing since and it has been a few weeks now and we were missing one a day for awhile. I even saw the fox run off with a free ranger one afternoon - I was ******.
I have some SLW - I got them as day olds about three months or so ago from Jerry Foley. I have way too many roosters and they are starting to get a little pecky with each other. More than happy to part with some if you are interested - unfortunately, I did not fair out on a good number or hens so I have to keep those as two of my original SLW hens were ones that were taken by fox.
I hope your rewiring works, try the radio thing....I think it works.

 

[mcgillagorilla]

Of my flock of 6, these are my 2 SLW, they are about 7.5 months old now and we just adopted the whole flock at the beginning of the month.

The one up front is Isabelle, she's still having some acclimating issues when it comes to laying, I work part time so 3 days a week they are in their run more hours than out, too many predators in our area, hawks, feral cats, my dogs (though I don't think they would intentionally hurt them, just get too rough in a chase, not worth the chance) She is super happy when out all day and will lay beautiful eggs, but, so far, on the shut in days, she either skips or drops a soft shell.



This is Raven, she is one of my 3 most reliable layers


I also have two BR and 2 EE. plus 2 more EE chicks that are just 3 (ish) weeks old. I am hooked on these beautiful SLW birds and hope to, one day, add to the flock with some of the other color varieties

Very pretty birds!

 

[RattlesnakeRidgeWV]

HenDaddy,
Get a hold of Dracoe19 here on BYC. She has what SLW's are suppose to look like as per SOP of APA. Check recent pics of her flock.
Kurt

 

[HenDaddy]

I wil

Hendaddy
I too had a fox recently pick off a good number of my hens - we had to rewire everything and we also put up a sort of scarecrowish type of figure and left a radio on in the general area of the chickens.  Maybe overkill but nothing has been missing since and it has been a few weeks now and we were missing one a day for awhile.  I even saw the fox run off with a free ranger one afternoon - I was ******.
I have some SLW - I got them as day olds about three months or so ago from Jerry Foley.  I have way too many roosters and they are starting to get a little pecky with each other.  More than happy to part with some if you are interested - unfortunately, I did not fair out on a good number or hens so I have to keep those as two of my original SLW hens were ones that were taken by fox.
I hope your rewiring works, try the radio thing....I think it works.

l will have to try that! Thanks!!