Drstratton - My Backyard Journey Journal

[drstratton]

Teamwork on taking down that tree. We used that same method to get a tree to fall where we wanted it to, but we just ran a rope around another tree. It works great. You did good, gotta keep the tension on the tree and GO! GO! GO!

I love your chicken. Who says chickens are stupid? She’s pretty darn smart to have figured that out!

We've used other tree's before too. Didn't have one handy for this. Yeah, for such a quiet man, he bellows out, Go! Go! Go!, really well...lol Thank you, we work really well together and have accomplished some pretty big projects. I'm pretty dang good at anticipating what he needs next, but him knowing what I have in mind is a work in progress...

She is a smart girl, I swear I can see the wheels turning in her head! I just hope she's smart enough to fly up on top of something if any dogs roam into the yard.

 

[Mini Horses]

Like @fuzzi, no boulders here. East Coast has sand, or clay. We're both pretty far east.

Chickens are very smart actually...and extremely habitual! Nest & roost -- those locations are set in stone once established.

 

[fuzzi]

When we lived in Connecticut I had to remove rocks from my garden every Spring. I swear they were breeding over the winter!

 

[drstratton]

When we lived in Connecticut I had to remove rocks from my garden every Spring. I swear they were breeding over the winter!

Yes, they do that here too, very prolific...

 

[drstratton]

Like @fuzzi, no boulders here. East Coast has sand, or clay. We're both pretty far east.

Chickens are very smart actually...and extremely habitual! Nest & roost -- those locations are set in stone once established.

I really had no knowledge of your area just being sand or clay.

I've got to figure out how to contain her or she will eventually be killed by dogs.

 

[farmerjan]

You are going to have to clip her wing so she cannot get her balance with her wings as she climbs the grape vines. Or just let her do her thing and accept what may or MAY NOT happen. as agile as she is, I would put my money on her... as long as she does not stay out at night to be owl bait, I think she is pretty savvy.
You only clip ONE wing...

 

[drstratton]

You are going to have to clip her wing so she cannot get her balance with her wings as she climbs the grape vines. Or just let her do her thing and accept what may or MAY NOT happen. as agile as she is, I would put my money on her... as long as she does not stay out at night to be owl bait, I think she is pretty savvy.
You only clip ONE wing...

Thank you Jan! I think that's what we are going to do. My biggest concern is, she will still figure out a way and then won't be able to fly back up and get back into the pen. One of the other girls has been following her, so she will get a wing clipped too. Hopefully they will survive the next few days. I have to go help my sister in law, she's having surgery and I will be helping her when her husband can't be there.

 

[drstratton]

What I knew was going to happen, happened. My girl is gone. Hubs saw her and one of the black hens outside of the pen on Thursday morning and coaxed them back in. He went out to get eggs later and found her. A dog or more, it's usually a pack, killed her. It's my fault, I should have clipped her wing before I left instead of planning to do it when I got back home. He didn't tell me until I got back home. I'm sad and I feel guilty and I'm angry at myself and angry at the people that let their dogs roam free. I was supposed to keep her safe and I failed, knowing it would eventually happen.

I will be catching my black hen tomorrow and clip a wing.

 

[fuzzi]

What I knew was going to happen, happened. My girl is gone. Hubs saw her and one of the black hens outside of the pen on Thursday morning and coaxed them back in. He went out to get eggs later and found her. A dog or more, it's usually a pack, killed her. It's my fault, I should have clipped her wing before I left instead of planning to do it when I got back home. He didn't tell me until I got back home. I'm sad and I feel guilty and I'm angry at myself and angry at the people that let their dogs roam free. I was supposed to keep her safe and I failed, knowing it would eventually happen.

I will be catching my black hen tomorrow and clip a wing.

I'm sorry. And you did so much trying to keep her safe, don't be hard on yourself.

 

[farmerjan]

I am sorry for you, that you did not clip her wing when she first started this escaping. Chickens are smart in some ways and totally unable to reason things out...so dumb in other ways.... Just because she was smart enough to get out, she was not smart or fast enough to stay safe. And although it was comical that she was so smart to figure how to "climb the vine"... it really was not something to be laughed at.
You probably should have put her in a pen that she could not get out of until you figured out a way to stop her antics.

So why not set a couple of traps for the dog/dogs? If you are feeling squeamish, set some large live traps... catch them and call the dog warden/animal control or whatever...
Jaw traps work good....
Personally, they would not live to go back home if it was here. I have gotten very hard against things that destroy my livestock......
In defense of the dogs, the hen would not stay in... fair game outside the confinement area... EXCEPT... if it was still your property... then no quarter given to the dogs.... Owners that allow their dogs to run loose are the problem... Sad thing is, the dogs will keep coming back, they have found a sport in chasing/killing and will never quit....
One of the reasons my 2 acres is getting fenced around the perimeter.... stop the dogs from getting in.... in the meantime, the chickens are in confinement pens with TOPS.... and I keep the live traps set.... and the .22 is loaded all the time.

Dealing with wildlife, possums, coons, foxes, even coyotes, is different. And the aerial ones, hawks and owls... is different. They are doing what comes naturally, including finding the easiest meals they can. I simply dispatch them. But I try to give my animals a fighting chance.
Losing those turkeys in the full daylight hours to a "probably mange infested" fox or a coon, was a bad deal.... and the ones that got killed on the road I would almost guarantee were because they were "running from" the fox 2 days earlier... hence fencing them in the electric netting enclosure... but it did not keep them safe enough... which was really sad for them and me... slaughter is not acceptable... If the fox had taken off one at a time then I could see it... and very possibly it was the big coon I caught shortly after that, as they WILL kill for sport and fun... and then a week later another big coon got killed on the road at the end of the property so possibly a mated pair... Have not had any problems since they were taken care of ..... and I would imagine the fox that the guys pounding in the posts saw, died, as he said it was really really horrible looking with the mange.