Tom kills the chicks

[kuntrygirl]

The extra pen will definitely work. I have breeding pens, so this is where I put the babies and mama. They are away from the other animals. When they are big enough to be with others is when I let them out.

 

[spangle]

Thank you for your reply, I feel much more confident now.

 

[krazykat0373]

Thank you for your replies I appreciate them

It looks like my husband has lost his potato patch now, it will have to be a permanent pen now.

It was distressing to lose the chicks, especially in such a cruel way. He has now mated with the other 3 hens so as soon as they start laying he will be off to market as we only want one male, we are pretty sure out of the 8 chicks we have at the moment at least one has to be a male

lol....don't count your genders before they hatch

 

[spangle]

Quote:

True LOL, we do have one chick that is about 5 weeks now, so we should know which gender by then. I am not so eager to get rid of the male now we have the hen and small chicks safe.

 

[frank53061]

Quote:

True LOL, we do have one chick that is about 5 weeks now, so we should know which gender by then. I am not so eager to get rid of the male now we have the hen and small chicks safe.

this is a problem I have not had yet but I am glad to be for warned my Turkeys are coming into there first breeding season.
Unless I build yet another Pen and shelter for the Toms as a temporary holding I think I will Incubate my turkey eggs and place the Poults when old enough to touch the ground with my Chickens and then back with my Turkeys when they are old enough and fast enough to keep clear of the Toms.
I really don't want to build yet another coop and Pen this year I have one that I am going to have make Improvements on as it is

.
funny Story I have found that if I let the Chickens out early in the morning the dang Chickens will go under the wooden porch and lay there eggs there instead of doing it in there Coop my Grate Daine came in the house after going out to make 1 and 2 caring a egg in his mouth that he had found under the Porch and dropped it hole in my hand He didn't tell me if he wanted it fried or scrambled.

he likes them both ways.

 

[Coupe]

Quote:

True LOL, we do have one chick that is about 5 weeks now, so we should know which gender by then. I am not so eager to get rid of the male now we have the hen and small chicks safe.

Are your hens and your tom unrelated?
I dont understand why you would want to get rid of him and then keep a tom from the hatch? Once the young Tom matures it will do the same thing your tom is doing now, plus youll be inbreeding.

 

[Coupe]

My apologies...i read your post wrong!

 

[spangle]

this is a problem I have not had yet but I am glad to be for warned my Turkeys are coming into there first breeding season.
Unless I build yet another Pen and shelter for the Toms as a temporary holding I think I will Incubate my turkey eggs and place the Poults when old enough to touch the ground with my Chickens and then back with my Turkeys when they are old enough and fast enough to keep clear of the Toms.
I really don't want to build yet another coop and Pen this year I have one that I am going to have make Improvements on as it is

.
funny Story I have found that if I let the Chickens out early in the morning the dang Chickens will go under the wooden porch and lay there eggs there instead of doing it in there Coop my Grate Daine came in the house after going out to make 1 and 2 caring a egg in his mouth that he had found under the Porch and dropped it hole in my hand He didn't tell me if he wanted it fried or scrambled.

he likes them both ways.

I like that story..

We are always careful when disposing of eggshells when using eggs for cooking, we don't want the dogs to associate the eggs with food, as dogs have stolen eggs in the past

We have a story too....
One of our very young chicks fell into the hens drinking water, our puppy (8 months) save the chick by gently taking it out, we saw her but didn't realise what was happening until she brought the chick to the porch and carefully dropped it in the sun we were able to save the very wet chick, with some TLC, it was reunited with mama and the other chicks an hour later

 

[kuntrygirl]

When I let my girls hatch their own eggs, I put them in a stall all by themselves away from the Tom and the other animals. When they get bigger, I move them to a larger pen. And then, when they are big enough to care for themselves, I let them out.

 

[spangle]

When I let my girls hatch their own eggs, I put them in a stall all by themselves away from the Tom and the other animals. When they get bigger, I move them to a larger pen. And then, when they are big enough to care for themselves, I let them out.

Wonderful pictures thank you for sharing pics and advice...

When our hens have laid eggs they hide away in the bushes, the latest hen chose the prickly pear, so we left them there until the eggs hatch, now we know we have to put the hen and her chicks into a pen on their own.....we have only kept chickens up to last spring so assumed it would be the same for the turkeys but we learned the hard way. I did try to do research back then but missed this site which has been so helpful,

I wish I had found you all earlier.