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[Yorkshire Coop]

Thanks for the advice all. Elvis is indoors but not in a particularly dark place - I'll shut the blinds.

She's more alert and far less terrified now. She drank water when I held a bowl to her beak, but hasn't eaten yet. When I try to stand her up she's fine with being touched but puts one leg very gingerly to the floor, so I think she must have injured it when jumping out of the hen house in a hurry. I've called the hen charity I got her from to ask for advice and their vet is going to call me back, but I'm fairly hopeful. If we have to keep her in until her leg's healed then that's what we'll do, and then hopefully get some new companions for her when she's better and can sleep in the coop.

At least it looks like the coop itself is still secure - I put extra layers of chicken wire over and under everything, cement under the coop, bricks cemented into the corners, etc. They'll just need to be shut in properly kept a close eye on, I hope.

I'm so pleased to hear she seems ok You could try her with some scrambled eggs to try and temp her to eat something. Fingers crossed you can add some new friends for her when she is better. Great going on getting things more secure against the foxes.

Thanks!
I have a mixed young flock, 16 birds in total, barred rocks, silkies, cream crested legbars, light sussex, sultans and one of each wheaten marans and vorwerk. I previously raised a batch of Ross 308 to see how I liked having chickens around and to put some meat in the fridge/ freezer. That went well, so I got a couple of incubators and started hatching eBay eggs. With not wonderful success, so I ended up with small number of lots of different breeds, also my legbars are very unstandard and I expect so are all or most of the others. 
Our foxes are incredibly bold. A few months ago, I managed to sneak up on one in a rain storm and ended up with it hiding behind my firepit so I couldn't get at it and it was growling and baring it's teeth, I expect had I pushed it, I may have been bitten.

Sam, I'm glad to hear Elvis is doing okay. Do you know which fox got your birds?

That's quite an experience there with the fox in your garden!! I've never been that close to a live one but I'm sure backed into a corner they would attack.

You have quite a mix there of birds. I've never bought eggs from eBay, always used breeders which I've found to be good. If possible I always collect too as you don't get the postal damage to the eggs then. Are you planning on incubating more? I've got seven just hatched off at the weekend then another 15 in the incubator on day 12. Plus another 18 eggs arriving the last week in April so it's all go here right now. But it's lots of fun

 

[scifisam]

That's a lot of different chickens RokoKT! I once had to face down a fox in the street because it was after my puppy. This was late at night, but still!

We buried Egg and made a concrete tombstone to put over her, partly to prevent the fox from digging her up. I don't know which fox did it - haven't seen one around myself but there are tons in the area.

Elvis is still doing OK. I spoke to the vet at the British Hen Welfare Trust and she says her leg might not be broken, since there's no blood, just bruised or sprained. She's eating and drinking and seems comfortable enough - we've put straw and newspaper in a crate in my daughter's bedroom for her. It stinks! And she has laid an egg, amazingly enough.

This is her eating porrage:

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Sam this is wonderful news

She looks ok and it's great that she is eating. Looking at her I'm thinking she will make a recovery. She looks similar to one of my mums hens that got attacked by her dog. Brenda survived but it just took some time with her. She had an injured leg and could not walk so I brought her to mine to get her well again. She had a couple of days in the utility in the dog cage.

Then I moved here out to a coop by herself.

I started very slowly putting her out on the grass for just a few minutes everyday and gradually built up over time. It took a few weeks and she did limp for months after but she made a full recovery. As Elvis has done Brenda produced an egg the day after the attack!! They sure are remarkable animals.
Good luck with Elvis, I hope it's a good ending like Brenda's was.

 

[RonoKT]

City foxes are a totally different deal to the shy country foxes. The "official advice" is that foxes are no danger to cats dogs or humans. I see constant battles between foxes and cats in the local gardens, I saw a dog fox sitting at the bottom of a tree trapping a cat in the tree for hours. My male cat is usually victorious in his dealings with the foxes but he has recently been chased home. There have even been those terrible attacks on children in their beds.
I get to know the foxes in my area as we get a good view of their comings and goings. I have come to find a scared fox is the best fox, but if they get too scared, they leave and you have to start fresh with new foxes.

Elvis looks good! Great that she is still laying. I was wondering about how egg producers get constant eggs from stressed hens when it seems the advice on here when a hen stops laying is usually that she is stressed. Seems some hens won't be stopped! Will you be getting more rescue hens?

@Yorkshire coopI would like to do some more hatching and I would like to avoid shipped eggs, it's hard to know what has gone wrong and if I need to change anything with half scrambled eggs. I might wait until I am getting fertile eggs from my own birds so that I can improve my confidence/ technique and then look at better quality stock. I really enjoy hatching chicks so I may get impatient.. Do you sell chicks or do you just keep allot of birds? I have limited space in my garden so I am trying to be restrained, at the moment my brooder is full of starting seeds, I'm trying to get back some room for vegetables as the nights get warmer.

 

[scifisam]

Yeah, I was scared of my cats going out tonight because the fox might well be sniffing around again. Fortunately they prefer to stay indoors after dark.

Elvis has had some camomile tea and is in bed with a fluffy hot water bottle to somewhat simulate a chicken. Got to keep the cats away from her too! TY for the story, YorkshireCoop - it does sound similar.

I will be getting more rescues, yeah. They have such a horrible life and they're destined for a slaughter that's probably far less humane than the one the fox gave Enid and Egg.

 

[rebrascora]

You will probably find that she will knock off laying for a while. The egg she laid was already in her system and has to come out, stress or no stress. She might even lay another one and then stop until she has got over the shock and feels fully secure and settled again.

 

[hen2henjo]

Hi I'm in West Sussex new to this site.
I have hens and ducks and I totally mad about them

 

[rebrascora]

Hi Jo? and welcome to the thread.

We are all mad about our poultry here so you are in good company. Feel free to try and bore us with chicken pictures and poultry talk.... you'll almost certainly fail!

What breeds do you have?... hopefully you've got a few sussex.... it would be disloyal not too

Do you breed or just keep for pleasure and eggs?

Do you have any other animals?

Look forward to learning more about you.

Best wishes

Barbara

 

[hen2henjo]

Hi Jo? and welcome to the thread.

We are all mad about our poultry here so you are in good company. Feel free to try and bore us with chicken pictures and poultry talk.... you'll almost certainly fail!

What breeds do you have?... hopefully you've got a few sussex.... it would be disloyal not too  

Do you breed or just keep for pleasure and eggs?

Do you have any other animals?

Look forward to learning more about you.

Best wishes

Barbara 

Thank you

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi I'm in West Sussex new to this site.
I have hens and ducks and I totally mad about them

Hi welcome to the thread


@RonoKT I try to sell as many as I can Some end up staying some I give to family and friends. Many of the boys get culled as folk just don't want them. Try breeders rather than eBay they tend to package better. Non of the eggs I have received have been scrambled but you do pay that bit extra on special delivery.

@rebrascora Going to candle the Tolbunt polish tomorrow!
i have found a home for the three cockerels from this hatch, just have to keep them untill fully feathered as she does not have a brooder. A reprieve from culling a cute fluffy chick.