Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

Gigervamp

Sorry to hear about your losses smileyt and Angela. It's so sad to lose a hen.

Tru, it might not be a fox. Is it a pile of earth? We get moles occasionally and they leave behind molehills which appear in the night.

Moneymaker, not sure what to suggest regarding poor little baldy. Our Tabitha is at the bottom of the pecking order and after her sister died I sometimes had to chaperone her at feeding times so that she could get some food because the others wouldn't let her have any. She seems to be accepted more now although they do still bully her a bit.

tru

Gigervamp wrote: »

Tru, it might not be a fox. Is it a pile of earth? We get moles occasionally and they leave behind molehills which appear in the night.

I sprayed Stay Off everywhere, just in case. And mr tru peed in the garden a couple of times

The pile of earth is about 7 or 8 spadefuls, is that too much for a mole?

Money_maker

Thanks anyway Gigervamp. Little Baldy is currently sleeping under the henhouse. She comes out first thing for food/water but once the others are let out she takes one look and panics. Back to under the henhouse for her. Struggled last night with bumper bits - managed to get them on 2 hens only but I'm not really happy with them. Dont want to change the dynamics of the others too much as the 6 others manage to get on quite well with just the occasional punch up. Will see what the antipecking spray does when it arrives - think they're sending a Johnsons one so hope this has some effect.

Gigervamp

tru wrote: »

I sprayed Stay Off everywhere, just in case. And mr tru peed in the garden a couple of times

The pile of earth is about 7 or 8 spadefuls, is that too much for a mole?

Hmm, possibly. The molehills we get are usually around 6 inches high I'd guess (until the girls get to them, then they love scratching in the dirt!).

ALIBOBSY

Ok so far loving our new 4 little chucks, but have a question about cats.

Our Tom cat watches the chickens and has been right up to them, but hasn't made any aggressive moves towards them.

However there is a large siamese Tom cat that ours hates and they have faced off a few times. One of our neighbours had a couple of silkies and she reckoned this siamese was desparate to get them and is sure it was this cat which finally killed them both-she found one drowned in the pond with scratch marks all over it???

We have been watching out for this cat and as I am a SAHM they don't get left alone for long.
This morning I looked out my kitchen window to see our cat stood on one side of the chicken wire doing his arched back hissy act and this other cat in the wire. I went straight out and the horribly cat was chased off by me and our cat. The birds seem fine and had all just clumped together at the side of the coop, as soon as the cat went they went straight over to their feed .

So the good news is our cat will defend our garden, but I am worried about this siamese. Will a cat really kill a chicken, or may it just chase them?? Are our hybrids bigger than silkies?

ali x

Gigervamp

Silkies come in two sizes, full size and bantam, so it depends which type your neighbour had. Siameses aren't particularly large cats, so I'd have thought your girls should be able to see it off, but I would keep an eye on it and if you have to go out, it might be an idea to keep them in a run just in case.

Muppet81

Just catching up on the recent posts.

Really sorry to hear that so many of you are losing your hens. It is awful when it happens but you just have to think about the happy lives they had with you, the sunshine they enjoyed.

Moneymaker - watching them sorting out the pecking order is hell. I hate it. There always seems to be at least one like your little baldy - bless her - that comes off worse. The only bright note is that it does calm down. Usually takes a couple of weeks though. Hope yout 2 original girls are not too annoyed at being fenced off but at lease this is giving the newbies a chance to sort themselves out. I have found that picking up the bully ad giving it a stern talking to can calm it dawn for a short time.
Interesting to hear your views on the bumper bits ... I have never tired them but had heard from others that they do seem to work.
Good luck and hang on in there.
I will be getting 3 new girls myself when we do the October Manchester rescue so I have all this to come!

ALIBOBSY

Gigervamp wrote: »

Silkies come in two sizes, full size and bantam, so it depends which type your neighbour had. Siameses aren't particularly large cats, so I'd have thought your girls should be able to see it off, but I would keep an eye on it and if you have to go out, it might be an idea to keep them in a run just in case.

Never saw them myself, but the way she described them was as a "small breed" and she talked about not wanting any bigger breeds in a back garden so I assumed they were smaller than normal?

This cat looks siamese but is about the size of our Tom cat so maybe a cross. They are in a run when we go out and locked up at night, but it is an uncovered run and is more to keep them off the veggies than anything. Alot of the day, particularly this time of year me or the kids or their friends are in and out the garden so being busy will also put the cat off. I didn't actually see this cat attack anything, just face off with our cat so perhaps it just likes chasing stuff.

ali x

coldstreamalways

We've had our 4 chickens almost a month now, one of them isn't laying though The other three lay lovely eggs, especially Steve who is always first. They all lay in the same nest box as well. They are so funny when they run round if one of them has found a worm or something. I love them!!

moominyak

Is it possible that the other one is laying out somewhere if they have access to the garden? I found seven eggs under a bush after thinking one of mine wasn't laying, she's still laying under the same bush every day!