For all you new chicken owners, a little lesson I just learned the hard way
Submitted by MikeLawson on Tue, 06/16/2009 - 09:21
If you have 3 chickens that basically act like little puppies and are pretty attached to you, don't assume if you get 3 more that the old ones won't just pack up and leave. For about 1/2 a day after getting 3 new birds, I had 6. Now I have 3, but it ain't the old girls. They left. Weird, huh?
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Any foxes
in your part of the country??!! :>)
Quail...
Chickens are OK but I have been raising bobwhite quail for over a year now and plan to continue the brood indefinitely.
Mike, Thanks for the chicken thread---
Some days it does me good to just focus on things like chickens and gardens-----and pretend that there isn't anything bad happening in our country. Today was one of these days!
I think it's the covered wagon Mike
It has that BBQ HERE look...
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Also some chickens like to
Also some chickens like to eat eggs, those you have to eat because they will keep doing it. We've made nest for them with a door in the back, the nest is at an agle so it (eggs) rolls away into the back of the nest and they can't get to them.
Murrieta, Ca
Mike
do you have many tree's around you? if so some time's they will roost in those at night.how long have they been gone? and last question have you walked around to see if you can find any loose feathers lying on the ground, this could lead you to the scene of the crime.
I have lots of trees. I've walked and see no evidence
Today is the second full day they have been gone. They had been laying somewhere else too since the new birds came. I'm baffled.
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Aha! I may know the answer to your missing chickens!
You say they have been laying 'somewhere else' since the new birds came. Maybe their "somewhere else" is that they have hidden a nest out and are setting! It takes 3 weeks for chicks to hatch--so maybe they will show up with chicks in 3 wks.
Well does he have a Rooster?
Well does he have a Rooster? if not those chickens are just wasting their time....
Murrieta, Ca
He does not have a rooster
How long will they wait, I wonder.
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Hell hath no fury
like a hen scorned....8)
Hope you find 'em.
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I"m not sure---
Longer than 3 weeks, I do know that.
When a hen is setting, at first she doesn't get off the nest for hardly anything. Then usually later she will get off the nest once a day, bustle over to eat and drink quickly, then go back to the nest.
chicken's
will lay an egg or two aday for about a week or so, then it takes 28 day's for the egg's to hatch.
What did they pack?
If it's just a few pairs of undergarments, they'll be back soon.
Truthfully, I think they'll be back soon.l Hope so anyway.
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LOL You didn't happen to leave the coop open did you Mike?
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Caught in the middle?
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I have a really cool rooster
When ever I bring new pullets home he keeps the other hens from messing with them, and doesn't even try to mate them till they get bigger. (which is really odd rooster behavior, I had one rooster try to mate a dead rooster once). He acts like a dad to the new ones till the hens except them. Plus I have a lot of room for them. The coop is an old utility trailer and the run is a portable fence about 1600 sq feet. A lot of room helps them get along.
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1. get a burro ( ass,donkey,etc.) nothing bothers a burro and
hens will know that and will stay near it.
2. get ride of those red hens and get some barred rocks. you`ll get more and larger eggs.
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"Burro Eggs"
Don't taste too good. ;-P
have you ever tried them pickled?
?
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Introducing new chickens
Sometimes they will be accepted if you slip them in the coop at night,but otherwise they must be introduced gradually.Maybe put a fence up so they get used to each other.
hope they come back...
bump*)
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Dogs just killed my chickens
Last week, a Great Dane and a lab mutt got off their chains and went a rampaging. They killed all my free range chickens except for one little 3 week old hen and a year old layer that got her wing pretty beat up and hasn't laid an egg since.
Does anyone know how I should go about assigning a value to these chickens? The owner has agreed to reimburse me but how do I calculate the value. I had 5 one year old hens, two one year old roosters, 7 five week old cornish cross meat birds, and 3 five week old pullets. I am not trying to punish the dog owners. If I wanted to do that, I can have the dogs put down.
What I'm thinking is: replacement cost on the 10 five week old birds plus a bag of feed $20 + $15. I planned on keeping the hens for 8 months until new birds started laying good size eggs. So I figure value on the laying hens is 86 dozen free range eggs. A dozen Egglands best (close but nowhere near as good or as nutritional as free range eggs) is $3 per dozen. So $258 or replacement of 5 one year old hens.
Anyone have experience with this kind of thing?
JJames
Call your local co-op and ask them how much they charge for a 10 week old bird, exc. plus as you stated feed and loss of potential egg's, that's what I got when my neighbor's dog raided my hen house. Sorry to hear it happened to you allso.
Sorry to hear that.
One of my buddies has 5 acres in the city. His house used to be on the outskirts until everything developed out around him.He secretly keeps chickens in the back.
He has literally lost about 45 chickens in the last few years. Coyotes come over his back fence from the railroad tracks, and snag them. We would blast them, but don't want the cops called. ( mean old lady next door neighbor)
We're thinking of setting up the 308 w/high powered scope on a bi pod on the kitchen table, that has a clear view to the back, where they are entering. Hopefully his 6500 sq ft. house will absorb the soundwave. I still can't seem to sell him on my idea. It seems much more logical than his drunken dad out there with a shotty, playing Dick Cheney.
Sounds like you're on track with your expenses. I hate to see a dog put down. The owner needs to be sent a strong message, as his dogs will do it again. Once they get the taste of blood, there is no stopping them.
Good luck.
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Isn't
a 308 a little energetic for 5 acres? Unless the property is shaped pretty odd then I would guess the maximum shooting distance is only about 100 yards. I would think you could easily drop them with a 17hmr, and lower ugly possibility of a wild round. I shoot through steel targets at 100 yards with mine. Chamber a ballistic tip and you should have no problems. (Although I personally would prefer other means of discouraging the animals)
Sakes Alive Whats Wrong With You Guys???
We've got a suspected wolf eating chickens, quick get out the mini-nukes!!!!!!!
.308??? 17hmr???? Can't you guys shoot???
It's a small wild dog get a .22 rifle. Bolt/single action, semi doesn't matter. Get a box of low powered .22 shorts. Put one through the coyotes melon,case closed...............jeeze
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Actually
I think the point of the 17hmr is to insure that the coyote is dead. I wouldn't trust a .22 to do that at 100 yards. They tend to be lethargic compared to the 17. Having said that, I would still prefer either to using a .308 in a populated area.
He Has A Neighbor That Will Call The Cops Get It???
The 17hrm is still too loud and the short will do the trick if you know how to shoot.If you guys can't kill a mangy coyote with a .22 short ....And if you can't get closer than 100yrds you really need to hone your hunting skills. Jacklight the little bastards when it comes for the chickens, all is fair in raising food...
.
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I trust my .22 (over 100 years old) to anything from rats to deer, it's all a matter of knowing where your gun shoots and where your trigger breaks...
.
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Is he sure it is coyotes getting his chickens?
I would bet it is raccoons or something else. Hawks? Owls?
The reason I say this is: I had sheep, and the Predator Control man said that Coyotes do not go over fences but they will go under or find holes in the fence.
From my experience--that is true! As long as I had a sheepwire fence clear to the ground, no holes, my sheep were safe.
We had plenty of coyotes all the time, and the only time I lost lambs to coyotes was when there was a hole in the fence.
Raccoons will go over or up anything! Skunks will dig under--but coyotes don't dig.
Yep, Coyotes.
We've seen them dragging one off in broad daylight. I just assumed they were going over the fence, but now you have me thinking that he may have a hole in his fence or something.
Hey, thanks for that info. I will check it out.
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