Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[eenie114]

Ducking in....

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/840992/time-to-make-it-byc-official-were-moving

And ducking back out...

 

[MargaretYakoda]

This is brilliant. And evil. But mostly brilliant.
http://themetapicture.com/this-is-much-more-entertaining-than-it-should-be/

 

[Tikkijane]

This is brilliant. And evil. But mostly brilliant.
http://themetapicture.com/this-is-much-more-entertaining-than-it-should-be/

 

[1TurkenLover]

x 2 and I wonder about our neighbor ...........

 

[Totalcolour]

, hmm, I wonder if himself can find the neighbour's wireless addy . . .

 

[Lutefisk]

Hey all, just popping in after staying off social media all summer. We've had our ups and downs, mostly downs where chickens are concerned. Our GSD who I thought was reliable with the chickens went on a couple of killing sprees over the past couple of months, and we are down from 16 hens to 5. Unfortunately this includes the wonderful JGs and BCMs we got from Chickielady this spring.

I've been watching Cesar Millan shows on YouTube and reading up about livestock guardians, pack dynamics and so on and have come to a tentative conclusion that the problem started when we took in an elderly Aussie mix belonging to friends who moved to the east coast, since he wasn't healthy enough to make the trip (age/Cushing's) and this upset the pack dynamic. We're working on dominance issues and have seen some improvement in behavior with all the dogs, but no way to tell if this will prevent future attacks against the flock.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season and not getting too stressed by traffic!

 

[BGMatt]

Hey all, just popping in after staying off social media all summer. We've had our ups and downs, mostly downs where chickens are concerned. Our GSD who I thought was reliable with the chickens went on a couple of killing sprees over the past couple of months, and we are down from 16 hens to 5. Unfortunately this includes the wonderful JGs and BCMs we got from Chickielady this spring.

I've been watching Cesar Millan shows on YouTube and reading up about livestock guardians, pack dynamics and so on and have come to a tentative conclusion that the problem started when we took in an elderly Aussie mix belonging to friends who moved to the east coast, since he wasn't healthy enough to make the trip (age/Cushing's) and this upset the pack dynamic. We're working on dominance issues and have seen some improvement in behavior with all the dogs, but no way to tell if this will prevent future attacks against the flock.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday season and not getting too stressed by traffic!

That's really unfortunate about the dog getting to the birds. Check out Dr. Ian Dunbar's books and videos and such. He's an excellent behaviorist, (do more poking and you'll find that Caeser Milan is pretty much a fraud) and his material might really help you out. I know quite a few people that have followed his methods and been able to really get amazing results with their dog and chickens.

 

[Chickielady]

I, too, enjoy the smell of sagebrush! It makes me sad that so much of it is gone in our area. Stupid non-native tumbleweeds seem to outnumber the sage now. It is awesome when I see people who landscape around it rather than bulldoze thru it!

I have a branch I picked off the native sage from EWA, 2 years ago...dried and in what the Natives call the smoke stick.(smudge stick)..and the awesome smell is still there, as long as I keep them rolled tightly in plastic.

 

[Chickielady]

thanks! we really live in a bad place to have chickens! all of our neighbors have chicken-eater dogs, we also have lots of bald eagles, raccoons, owls and opossums

You MUST protect your birds.
There is always a way to do so.
I take it personally when any of my birds is injured.
We lost 4 last year/Father's day / broad daylight through our penitentiary pens.
MINKS.
Little weasels crawl through any pen.
They can squirm through a 2x2 fence wire, or even smaller !
We mink proffed after that, adding hardware wire, buried 12" deep all around the pens and all over the gates, and no way for them to get through gates.
That said, any attack can come from the air...and the biggest responsibility I have, is to be here to open coops when the temperature is below freezing~~~~~~~~~~~ and then to lock them up tight, a minute after the sun is setting.
Two minutes after and every rat and possum and mink and raccon is OUT and they ALL LOVE chicken.
Owls are never an issue here.
If your coops are so insecure to allow night animals to free range on your poultry, well, maybe poultry is not for you.
One of my best galpals in Canada tells me this story, which I have told a few of you before...bear with me:

She sent her daughter, then 8 years old, out to the coop by the huge barn...at 5;30 AM on a deep dark wintery morning....
Off the girl child went, basket in hand to collect eggs for this mornings' breakfast.................but she returned...crying and saying there was a monster robot chicken in the coop.
So Kim got the flashlight & basket & went to see for herself, and spied a great horned owl, nearly 3 foot tall, walking out of the coop with a severe limp, as 1 foot was taloned to a laying hen, clump, clump, clump...off it walked and she backed off & let it go.
Morel of the story:

CLOSE your coops !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Let no flying, crawling, creeping thing in !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not days or nights !!!!!!!!!!!!



Above: NO DIG perimeter wire, no coyote can dig under the fence.


No climb wire.......................cut at an angle, strips of the 2x4 fencing you see here, wraped around the top of the fence...very sharp & no critters have ever gone over, in 3-4 years and we are in the wilderness here.



Strips of "cutting wire" all over posts...so nobody is climbing the post~
NET on top of the babies pen (to the right) also has 1/2" square plastic fencing zip tied to the regular fence...to keep babies in.

Hope this helps.
But seriously, if you are not there to protect them, and lock them up at night, they are but food for something else.


Another shot of the baby fence...no dig, no climb.

 

[Chickielady]

, hmm, I wonder if himself can find the neighbour's wireless addy . . .

I'll tell ya what, TC has a wired electrical fence that will stunn a brahma bull !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!