Chick Chick Chickens

[Maxi'sMinis]

Like we needed anymore animals, but they are sooooo cute Mommy!

We now have 6 black chickens, I can't remember the breed they are.

I am pretty sure it is 2 roosters and 4 hens.

We converted a big dog pen into their home until they are big enought to be out by themselves.

We made a raised roosting house with a ramp and several roosting limbs across the pen.

How do chickens do say if any cats are around or preditors? Are they good at staying out of harms way?

Or do they get taken out pretty easy?

When they get big enough if they are let out to free range during the day will they go to roost in their pen when it gets dark?

I think I remember someone here posting a website on chickens?

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Hey Mary!

Chickens are fun! We have three little old hens. And they love getting out and eating bugs and grass. They will come home to roost. And yes, at night, they are very easy pickens! Racoons and possums will take them out very quickly. They will have to be locked up safely. We close up our chicken house at night when we fed the horses and open it in the morning.

Have fun with them! Roosters can be turds if they choose to be. Keep an eye on them when they get a little older.

 

[bevann]

Hey Mary!

Chickens are fun! We have three little old hens. And they love getting out and eating bugs and grass. They will come home to roost. And yes, at night, they are very easy pickens! Racoons and possums will take them out very quickly. They will have to be locked up safely. We close up our chicken house at night when we fed the horses and open it in the morning.

Have fun with them! Roosters can be turds if they choose to be. Keep an eye on them when they get a little older.

In Maryland you will have the threat of foxes getting your chickens.We are here in Delaware and have lots of foxes who have taken out most of our domestic rabbits which were loose on the farm.We still have 1 big doe,Mama Bunny, who has eluded Mr.fox for more than a year.Good luck with your chickens.

 

[jayne]

I have a small flock of laying hens (and one banty rooster who exists purely for our entertainment purposes) and I have to say, they are just a lot of fun! Mine live in a room off our shop that we close up tightly every night (from predators) and open up in the morning. There is an attached 10x30 run that they have access to when we're not home, but usually they get to free-range from about 1pm until dark, when they put themselves away for the night. They are little busy-bodies and I have had to fence off a few things (like our garden and a flower bed) to keep them from digging it all up. They 'supervise' me cleaning the barn every day and poop on our front porch, but we wouldn't change a thing. They are very personable and the eggs are a nice benefit as well.

Here are some of my girls:

I went to chick days at our local feed store a few years ago and just picked a couple of a bunch of different breeds. Since then I have added more Australorps (black) and barred rocks, as they are my favorites.

Have fun with your chickens. I think there are plenty of us here to answer any questions you might have.

Jayne

 

[Miniv]

If you're planning on running your chickens loose? Expect predators to show up all over the place!

There are fox (as mentioned above), coyotes, raccoons, neighborhood dogs, and even opossums. And even if you build a coop, some of the listed predators will at least ATTEMPT to get through. (The more successful coop tends to be one that has the fencing buried because many of the predators like to dig.)

I just read about the arrangement that Jayne has for her clutch and that sounds awesome!

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

Thanks for your replies. Hi Kim how are you?

They are to very busy for sure. Kristina my daughter has tamed one of the roosters, he is truely her buddy, to funny.

Our little flock has a very secure night time pen with their little roost.

When is a good time to start letting them out during the day.

They are still quite small, almost completely feathered.

When we start letting them out, what time in the AM is it safe to let them out and do they start heading in at dusk?

We do have dogs that keep the preditors away somewhat. The dogs will be trained to leave the chickens be. They are doing quite well, not showing interest in them anymore. Will be well supervised, taking no chances.

Do any of you have dogs and chickens?

 

[jayne]

Yes, we have been able to successfully have our dogs leave our chickens alone. We even trained the neighbor's new dog to leave them alone as well. Thankfully, none of them had a strong prey drive, as I'm sure we would not have been able to be as successful had that been the case.

The bad news is, that no matter how careful you are with them, if you let them free-range, you will have losses. My set up, like Maryann said, is very safe, but they so love grass and bugs that I don't have the heart to keep them locked up all the time. However, just tonight I was doing the nightly count and unfortunately one was missing. When searching for her, we did find a small pile of red feathers, so we know she is gone. It is sad to lose any of them. Today was the first time we've lost one since an illness went through my coop last summer. I honestly don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow, as now the predator (probably a coyote) knows there is easy pickings here. They beg to come out every afternoon and every day for 4 years I have let them (weather permitting). Usually, it's been safe for them if I waited until 1pm to let them out (it also insures they lay their eggs in their nest boxes instead of hiding them places around the farm). Decisions, decisions.

I just wanted to share today's experience so that you can consider all the possible outcomes of having chickens. I think the good way outweighs the bad, but I guess it's for each of us to figure that out on our own.

 

[candycar]

Have fun with your chickies! Mine get along fine with cats. Wait 'till they are grown before letting them out with the cats tho. They are still too small and prey like as babies.

The website for all things chicken is backyarchickens.com They are as nice and helpful as LB, and have a bunch of useful info.

 

[Sterling]

Here in NJ we have lost most of our chickens to sky preditors,as well as fox, coons and owls. Red Tailed hawk and even the smaller species will take out banties. When I first started out with chickens 20 years ago we let them free range. As I got into breeding and it became a hobby, one that would be very rewarding I might add, I realized that they could not free range safely. So out came the coops and the houses. Now they only free range when we're out and about the farm. Otherwise if there are no humans or dogs out with them they stay safe in their pens. We've taught all our dogs to blend in with our chickens, they are part of the "pack". This spring we are looking to expand our poultry keeping with new breeds of chickens, and possibly a new pen and chicken housing. We get a lot of 4-H-ers and hobbyists that like to come to the farm to buy. I like handling the peeps when they are newly hatched and up and running to get them as tame to humans as I can possibly can. Good luck with your new little ones....post pics when you can.

 

[NoddalottaFarm]

We tried to raise chickens (and ducks and turkeys) for 3 years, but they kept getting eaten! We live on 5 acres and 99% of it is woods. Most of the area is woods, so needless to say, we have many wild critters! We would lock the chickens (and ducks) up at night, but we still lost every bird (but TWO) to animals. We caught bobcats and coyotes taking out a couple... and our neighbor saw our ducks being carried off by foxes. Full grown ducks! We lost a couple babies and we are assuming that was to flying critters because they just disappeared on afternoon. I'd really love to have chickens again, but it's just not worth the money to raise them, only to feed the wildlife. We let our chickens run free during the day and taught our dog to "herd" them back up at night. They were a lot of fun to have around. Oh.... we also had racoons chew through the coop to get to the eggs. At least, we *think* they wanted the eggs.. they did get some once, but they also knew there was feed and water there too.

Good luck with your chickens. They can be so much fun... following you around and coming when you call.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

I have a small flock of free-ranging chickens, I've been lucky and haven't lost any to predators (except one that recently a dog my brother was dog-sitting).

I have:

3 Old English Game bantams- 2 roosters, 1 hen

3 black Easter Eggers (green egg layers) all hens

1 Silkie or Cochin cross hen

One of the Easter Eggers is sitting on two Old English bantam eggs, so I'm hoping they will hatch. I also want to order some chicks, I need to do it soon! I want to add some variety to what I have, I really enjoy watching them. My one little rooster is getting a big full of himself, he made me laugh when the vet came out to do dentals he sat on the fence and watched the whole time, I guess the horses are part of his flock now too!

Here's a link to the chicken webpage with some photos I'm still working on my website, have more photos to add. Gimpy is the one we lost to the dog, of course our favorite!

http://www.crayonboxminiatures.com/Chickens

 

[Katiean]

We have 11 hens. We only had 9 but one day we had 11. So, 11 it is. Some of our hens are very old. We just had one pass at age 10. I have a roost behind my studs stall and have not lost one hen to predators. Our neighbors lost their last years hens they bought. But it sounded more like a 2 legged predator than a 4 legged one. The heads were removed and the rest of the chicken was still there. About 2 years ago we had a big hawk come around but it wasn't after our chickens. It wanted my little Yorkie. We do have ferrets that people turn loose and other things like that. But, nothing has hurt any of our hens.

 

[Sterling]

Katiean, a usual culprit if the heads are removed and the body left there could be an owl. Also weasels do this kind of killing as well.

 

[shadowpaints]

YAY more mini people with chickens...

im not sure how many i have ( i know bad) but i have

GOlden Comets

Cochins

RIR

Silkies

cornish cross (for freezer)

i have several mixes also that i have hatched! LOL

im addicted lol

(ok i have over 100 at the moment but 35 are meat birds!)

 

[uwharrie]

We have a mixed flock

5 RIR hens

1 Silver Hamburg hen

1 Blue Orpington Hen

3 Polish Hens

1 Polish Roo

8 half grown polish whom I suspect three are roos.