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[hxgumdrop]

Astrid is beautiful! That may be the next breed i get!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi and welcome to Lyn

I've got 2 welsumer chicks that are 4 weeks old and I agree with LittleGecko, they are beautiful birds and of course they lay gorgeous terracotta coloured eggs. Unfortunately, my chicks are at the ugly fluff to feathers transition phase and despite doing our best to select pullet chicks, it appears I've got one of each which will unfortunately be related, so I might be looking for a swap at some point in the future.

Sadly there is no sign of Dippy still and to make things worse, Horace has also disappeared, but unfortunately from the feather trail, that appears to be a fox, so most likely that was Dippy's fate too. Margo and Matilda, who were kept with Horace are very unsettled, I think mostly from losing him, as they will almost certainly have witnessed it, but also because I am not letting them free range at the moment, until I get a bigger stronger enclosure made for them. I hope he gave the fox as hard a time as he used to give me! And at least he sacrificed his life for his ladies, so I can forgive him for some of the unpleasant confrontations that we had and it appears his defensiveness served it's purpose after all..

Yes broodies are strange. Tasha is continuing to stash eggs in her nest in the loft. I dread to think how many she has now, but it will be in excess of 11. She is still slyly adding to it each day and roosting as normal with the others, but I'm pretty sure she will set in the next couple of days. I admire her natural instinct to be sneaky. In the wild, that would help keep her brood safe, so I see it as a positive attribute even if it does cause me a little extra effort.
Frances has 7 days to go, so we will be expecting chicks about the same time. It will be good to compare notes and excitement as things happen! Have you candled your eggs? I tried it with Tasha's first brood, but gave up because we couldn't see anything. Then we candled a freshly laid egg and realised that what we couldn't see was in fact what we wanted to see.... ie all the eggs were solid dark and developing whereas the newly laid egg was translucent. Since all 14 eggs hatched from that first batch I've got no real concerns about fertility, so I'm not bothering to candle this time. What will be will be!

Anyway, I've got to head back out and start figuring out how/where I am going to build my secure enclosure for Margo and Matilda and perhaps put them with the rest of the flock up at the yard until I get it built. Maybe I will bring all the young cockerels down home into the enclosure I build and leave the egg production ladies all up at the yard, where they may be a little safer.

Best wishes to everyone

Barbara

 

[LittleGecko]

I am so sorry about the fox attack on your flock. It is always heart breaking to loose chickens in this way.
Netting has to go a foot underground and electric fencing is tricky so my heart goes out to you with sorting out an enclosure.
Yucky though it sounds if you can get a male dog to urinate around the boundary it acts as a fox deterrent and if you have the room a male goose or a trio run with the flock are more than able to chase off a fox as well as providing excellent meat and eggs.
There are foxes here but also many dogs and that seems to keep them away.
Once more I am very sorry and I hope that you and your chooks don't have any more problems with foxes.
Jo

 

[rebrascora]

Thanks for sympathy and suggestions Jo.
My neighbour stopped to speak to me tonight and said that he saw a liver and white spaniel running about in my field today, where the hens would usually be if I had let them out. It's too much of a coincidence that it was a liver and white spaniel that I chased out a few weeks ago with Emily my favourite cream legbar in it's mouth and had such a chew on with it's owner who made no attempt to get hold of the dog and take the chicken off it, letting it maul it to death in front of us whilst she argued the toss. I'll have to keep vigil tomorrow, but it looks like Mr Fox is not my problem, just an irresponsible dog owner, which makes me really, really mad!!!!
Just wondering if I can bait it with something in order to catch it and cause the owner to have to come looking for it, or hand it over to the police/dog warden and make a complaint of it worrying livestock. It doesn't seem fair to use one of my chickens as bait, even if I can keep them safe in a cage. Will have to give it some thought but any suggestions welcome!

Thanks

Barbara

 

[LittleGecko]

A small surveillance camera would work as you would have evidence that the owner couldn't get out of.
I am so sorry I know how bad dog attacks are having experienced three one of them resulted in Tinkers back being ripped open in several places.
An idiot tourist who thought that since it was open ground he could let his dog do as it pleased. And in sheep country too, if the farmer had seen it he would have shot it.
The latest was the day before yesterday, I went after it with a piece of wood and it was surprising how soon the owner got it under control when he saw me.
The law says that any dog that is off the lead and not under control is dangerous whether it has attacked or not and the owner is liable to prosecution.
You only have to feel that it is a risk. If your neighbours witnessed it all you need to do is find out who the owner is.
Dog attacks are worse than foxes, at least the fox has a good reason for what it does, dog attacks are caused by irresponsible idiots.

 

[paws]

Hi all, I'm Paula and we keep bantams as well as rhode island red and black rock hens. This yr we have gone on to have our first chicks, but appears we now have silkie/bantam mixes and very beautiful birds. It appears the cockerel has silkie in him ...

We live in Exmouth, down on the Devon coast, my partner & I, with my son and his partner and their little one on the way, 2 dogs, 2 cats, tortoise and lots of little chicks...

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Paula and welcome to our little community

I think I may have been looking at photos of your bantams earlier on another post. Your cockerel is extremely handsome even if he isn't pure bred.
I'm quite partial to quirky mongrels and my chickens seem intent on producing more of them although I do have some pure breeds. My first broody Tasha has just set today on her second brood of the season. Unfortunately my exchequer leghorn cockerel was taken by a dog or fox at the weekend, so I am going to swap Tasha's own eggs for some of his ladies eggs, which will hopefully give me a replacement for him..... probably a few more than just one although knowing my luck, when I want a male, I will get all females!

Sounds like you live in a lovely part of the world and so great to have your family around you and bring your grandchild up learning about chickens.

I look forward to hearing more about your set up and your flock.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[rebrascora]

Hi again Jo.

So sorry to hear that you have had similar problems to me. I went after this dog the last time with a lunge whip. Unfortunately it was too fast for me and the terrain was steep and overgrown. I have to confess, it was more of a temptation to use it on the dogs owner, when she started saying I should have my land fenced.... which it is to keep my horses in and my hens don't stray that far. It's so annoying to think that I am having to keep my hens locked in all day, because she thinks it's ok for her dog to roam wherever it likes on my land. She has 2 other dogs that are on leads, but they are fat and slow.
I told her last time I would have it shot if I caught it worrying my livestock. My partner has a shotgun, but the chances of him having it with him and being in the right place at the right time are slim to none, which is why I thought trapping it might be a better option.

I don't know that a surveillance camera would capture enough detail to identify a dog and I don't know of anyone I could borrow one from and who would be able to set it up for me.... I'm useless with technology.

I was thinking of approaching the local hunt to see if they would loan me a trap when I thought it was a fox. That might still be an option although I doubt a dog would be tempted into a trap for food and I couldn't bait it with a live chicken.

At least I have had no casualties today, but can't continue to keep them in all the time and an enclosure big enough for all of them up at the yard would be prohibitively expensive.
Hopefully your tourist learned their lesson and will keep their dog under control from now on. At least it will only be for a week or two and then they will be gone, whereas this dog owner lives in the village, so the problem is not going to go away until I take action.

Thanks for your input. Hope all is well in your flock today.

Regards

Barbara

 

[LittleGecko]

Hi Paula and welcome!
Your flock sounds really lovely, I love silkies and silkie crosses but sadly have not been able to find any around here to add to my flock and we are considering adding a rhode island red to our mixed flock as the more eggs we produce the more demand we get!
Barbara it sounds like you are having a terrible time with this dog and it's owner, I hope you manage to catch the dog and are able to stop the losses whether through the police or some other way.
I hope that there are still no more casualties and that Tasha is sitting firm on her clutch!
It's all a bit hectic here the new huge coop is in place and after a week of argument with the delivery company the replacement duck house has arrived (the last one vanished en route.) And should be built later today.
We are collecting the new chickens and the pair of call ducks this weekend and everything has to be ready.
The two clutches under the broodies are due to hatch on Monday and the lady who we are hatching for is visiting often for updates and to visit the cockerel chick that she is also having. We also have a lady who wants us to hatch some chicks for her in the spring but hasn't decided which hens she wants offspring from.
So its all go for the next few days and lm gonna go and have a cup of tea before work!

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Jo

It sounds like it is all go at your place. How exciting to have a new duck house today. Can you post photos of it.... would love to see it and your coup. Sadly I can't afford to buy new hen houses, as I'm throwing all my money and more at buying the land, so I have to make do and mend and scrounge for scrap to make more hen houses. I love recycling though and DIY, it's just finding the time.

Yes Tasha set tight the day before yesterday, so I climbed up into the loft last night, lifted her off her nest and into a paper sack, carried her down and put her in a nest that I had prepared with exchequer leghorn eggs.... Horace's legacy. She was somewhat disgruntled at being manhandled, but soon snuggled down onto her new nest in the sideboard(brooder), so the clock has started ticking for them. I have Frances' nest at one end and Tasha's at the other, with some chick rearing space in between. By the time Tasha's eggs are ready to hatch, Frances' chicks will be grown enough to move out into the main coup.... so good of them to stagger their broods! Hopefully my eggs will be hatching just ahead of yours, but it will be so exciting to follow each other's progress. How many eggs do your expectant broodies have?
Frances is on 9 and I've given Tasha 10..... she had laid exactly 14 again in her nest up in the loft, much as it didn't seem possible to fit many more than 7 in it when I looked last week.

Thankfully I haven't had any more losses so far but I'm not letting them out nearly as much as they, or I, would like. I'm hoping that the dog owner will find another route or if it is a fox, that I can break the cycle of it coming and finding chickens and therefore coming back, at least until I can make things a little more secure.

Hope all goes smoothly with your duck house this time and they like their new accommodation.

Best wishes

Barbara