Jump to content
SASS Wire Forum

my latest chicken adventure


Trigger Mike

Recommended Posts

Since I lost all my chickens and not being one to give up on fresh eggs since they do taste better, I put fence over the top of my 10x10 dog kennel to keep varmints out and chickens in. I took the family to the local livestock auction figuring they'd have fun seeing a real one. They complained until they got there and saw everything and hated to leave and asked to go back. While there I bought 4 game hens and 1 game rooster. Figuring game birds should be better able to escape predators. I am placing them all in the rabbit house I use for a coop. I saw my 4 year old at the gate to the kennel and was very clear, DO NOT OPEN THE GATE! As I am putting hens into the kennel, one is being stubborn and as I get her in, another one escapes from the coop, runs behind me and RIGHT OUT my supposed to be closed gate that my 4 year old opened anyway and left that way. She rant into the woods and my 8 year old and I chased and chased until she got into thick briers. and it got dark. The next day she was fine, which means game chickens do indeed survive better. We tried again, even shined a light on her at dusk, strewed feed for her and she ate it so we got close, and off into the thickets she went. She is real fast. The others keep trying to escape, but they are alive. Meanwhile it is nice to hear a rooster in the morning again.

 

A real farmer friend of mine told me to just get my eggs at piggly wiggly instead but they closed their distribution center in town and left so I can't even to do right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The difference in flavor between a machine egg (chickens confined in small cages and fed a "perfect" diet and an egg produced by a chicken that is allowed to run free and eat bugs and stuff is remarkable.

I'll cook with grocery store eggs but when I'm frying a breakfast egg I want a real one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Long handled fish nets work great to catch sneaky birds

yep we used that tonight, and caught her finally after 3 days. She was so determined to get out she flew up into the fence I had over the pen and climbed up the fence somewhat several times. Over the gate area I just have a net since I ran out of time and no help and it was raining. She flew up into the net over the gate area, nearly hung herself as she caught her head in the net, this dropped the net low enough below the fence it was connected to that a different hen flew out and is not way up high in a oak tree. :wacko::(:( tried to shine a light on her since it was dark but she did not sit down like she should have and got to where we could not reach her.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

http://www.backyardchickens.com/t/157259/which-breed-of-rooster-will-protect-my-hens-best/50

 

Read post 56. I have heard other folks confirm this with bantams and other game fowl. I always heard keep a mean rooster around and/or shoot the predators.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

put some whisky on the feed

 

 

 

 

 

so she'll run slow 'n crook-ed

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your kid is going to remember chasing that chicken for the rest of his life!

 

These are pretty wild birds, aren't they? The issue with chickens is that they need to get out and have some space to roam and a place to go back to at night that you can close up for security from varmints. If you can't get them used to their roosting place, it's probably best to just turn them out and let them fend for themselves.

 

I have fighting chickens that I "rescued" from two people I knew years ago. All mine are descended from those. They were bred over several generations to fight. My original rooster had been cut and shaved and had been undefeated. He wasn't wild at all, but was aggressive and always on his game, ready to have a go at you, if he thought you were challanging him. I remember the time I witnessed from about 50 yds off, a large red tail hawk swooped down on him like a rocket and tried to take him. Bad move for the hawk and didn't end well for him at all. Even the hens are rough customers. One of mine decided she'd had enough of the squirrels coming in and taking her feed. She killed a good sized squirrel and ate the darn thing, leaving only the skin, one leg, most of the bones, the head and tail. She ate all of it. You'd have to see it to believe it. She is the only chicken I have left from my original batch of chickens. One winter, she did battle with a red tail hawk. I only caught the last moments of that one and by that time they were both immobile. She was in bad shape, laying in the cold, muddy water, with the left half of her face torn off and just hanging, her comb mostly gone and other nasty wounds, barely able to moan. The hawk was exhausted, laying there, bloody all around the face, beaten and disoriented by repeated blows and with patches of feathers on its head gone, its mouth open, panting like an old hound dog. Couldn't fly. Looked like one of its eyes might have been damaged and didn't resist as I examined it I took my hen to the garage sink and sprayed her down with warm water to clean the mud off and warm her back up. Dried her with towels and a hair dryer. then cleaned her wounds and sewed her face back on over her exposed eyeball, trying to match where eveything went. I stitched up two other nasty gashes. At some point, the hawk recovered enough to leave, either on foot or by wing. Today, that hen has to be about 13 years old or more, which is about max for a chicken. She still runs all over the place out there. She has a pin hole for a left eye hole and the little eyeball back there behind the skin moves around looking out that tiny eyehole. She became tame for me as I cared for her and still lets me pick her up. She still lays eggs, too. Those chickens are a force to reckon with for other birds, dogs mice, moles and squirrels who invade their domain. They do watch out for hawks, coyotes and bobcats and wildlife they aren't familiar with and they raise an alarm chorus that is recognizable when they think there's a threat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trigger Mike,

You need to write a children's western book about a heroic chicken/hen/rooster fighting the predatory forces of evil which wish to decimate the flock.

Then get Bandlands Bob pull together a SASS match revolving around this book.

Just a thought.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your kid is going to remember chasing that chicken for the rest of his life!

 

These are pretty wild birds, aren't they? The issue with chickens is that they need to get out and have some space to roam and a place to go back to at night that you can close up for security from varmints. If you can't get them used to their roosting place, it's probably best to just turn them out and let them fend for themselves.

 

I have fighting chickens that I "rescued" from two people I knew years ago. All mine are descended from those. They were bred over several generations to fight. My original rooster had been cut and shaved and had been undefeated. He wasn't wild at all, but was aggressive and always on his game, ready to have a go at you, if he thought you were challanging him. I remember the time I witnessed from about 50 yds off, a large red tail hawk swooped down on him like a rocket and tried to take him. Bad move for the hawk and didn't end well for him at all. Even the hens are rough customers. One of mine decided she'd had enough of the squirrels coming in and taking her feed. She killed a good sized squirrel and ate the darn thing, leaving only the skin, one leg, most of the bones, the head and tail. She ate all of it. You'd have to see it to believe it. She is the only chicken I have left from my original batch of chickens. One winter, she did battle with a red tail hawk. I only caught the last moments of that one and by that time they were both immobile. She was in bad shape, laying in the cold, muddy water, with the left half of her face torn off and just hanging, her comb mostly gone and other nasty wounds, barely able to moan. The hawk was exhausted, laying there, bloody all around the face, beaten and disoriented by repeated blows and with patches of feathers on its head gone, its mouth open, panting like an old hound dog. Couldn't fly. Looked like one of its eyes might have been damaged and didn't resist as I examined it I took my hen to the garage sink and sprayed her down with warm water to clean the mud off and warm her back up. Dried her with towels and a hair dryer. then cleaned her wounds and sewed her face back on over her exposed eyeball, trying to match where eveything went. I stitched up two other nasty gashes. At some point, the hawk recovered enough to leave, either on foot or by wing. Today, that hen has to be about 13 years old or more, which is about max for a chicken. She still runs all over the place out there. She has a pin hole for a left eye hole and the little eyeball back there behind the skin moves around looking out that tiny eyehole. She became tame for me as I cared for her and still lets me pick her up. She still lays eggs, too. Those chickens are a force to reckon with for other birds, dogs mice, moles and squirrels who invade their domain. They do watch out for hawks, coyotes and bobcats and wildlife they aren't familiar with and they raise an alarm chorus that is recognizable when they think there's a threat.

I thought if I keep them penned for a week or two to get used to their new home and where I want them to lay their eggs, then I would let them out during the day and close them up for safety at night. These seem too wild for that and I thought tonight I may have to just let them roam now. I figure if a hen survived three nights on her own out of the pen, then likely they all can, especially if the game rooster defends them. He has a mean look and that factored into why I bought him. He seems to already run the place, but all of them do not bother me or my kids when we go in the pen. They mainly want out. They want to roost real high in the trees. I leave feed on the ground outside the pen to feed the one that is out and to encourage her to like the pen area. I mainly don't want my kids going in the woods to gather eggs. We have lots of snakes here. I may put a nesting box in the coop before I let them roam free to encourage them to want to be inside. The good news is I had put a couple of poles thru different corners for roosting and these(unlike the others I had) use the poles regularly. They are well off the ground.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good thing you didn't get any of them 3 legged chickens.....them things are fast.

We used to buy those off the rotisserie at Happy Herman's on Cheshire Bridge. My grandad was head of wine sale and purchasing there. Worked there for 40+ years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trigger Mike,

You need to write a children's western book about a heroic chicken/hen/rooster fighting the predatory forces of evil which wish to decimate the flock.

Then get Bandlands Bob pull together a SASS match revolving around this book.

Just a thought.

Oh, for the love of God, Dan. Don't give Bob any new ideas! :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Trigger Mike,

You need to write a children's western book about a heroic chicken/hen/rooster fighting the predatory forces of evil which wish to decimate the flock.

Then get Bandlands Bob pull together a SASS match revolving around this book.

Just a thought.

could it go something like this:

 

Wrangler Rooster was keeping watch over his lovely hens and thinking about all the crowing he would do the next morning when suddenly out of the darkness, evil hoot the owl with his compadre red the fox came menacingly toward his roost. He knew his arch foe reddy tail hawk must be nearby as well. He quickly donned his pair of trusty six shooters and grabbed Betsy his reliable rifle and carl his trusty shotgun to finish off reddy tail with. He crowed out to them all, I dare you to touch one of my hens. As his hens gathered behind him for safety as he said to the greedy scavengers, "Eat Lead you sorry scoundrels"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, for the love of God, Dan. Don't give Bob any new ideas! :P

Too late. I've already got story lines running in my head. This, plus all those great ideas from the thread about the old days of SASS that everybody hated.

 

This place is a gold mine of ideas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Too late. I've already got story lines running in my head. This, plus all those great ideas from the thread about the old days of SASS that everybody hated.

 

This place is a gold mine of ideas.

BLB, with all that confusion running round in yore head I'd think you need to either take a nap or step away from the crack pipe!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wrangler Rooster was quite upset. Billy Bantam, his loyal sidekick, informed him "Wilmina Wyandotte, well sir, she's laid her last egg. And the Coyote Brothers are responsible!"

Wrangler Rooster fought back the glimmer of a tear as he surveyed the strewn feathers in the coop of his favorite hen.

He walked away with a sullen look about him, back to his roost and to a box which his father gave him long ago. Inside was something that had been passed down for 3 generations.

When he got back to the coop all the hens and Billy Bantam were still trying to gather themselves and the situation. No one noticed at first til the sun broke through the clouds and glistened against the razor sharp cold steel strapped to Wrangler Roosters legs. Everyone knew, nothing could stop him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's a fox. I stayed out to see and low and behold behind me moving real fast and really silent is a little red fox. Since he came up behind me he saw me turn around to see him. He ran back into the brush and out of sight. I know where he comes from now and will lay in wait again for him. Mean while my game chickens all escaped and slept 20 feet in the air on tree branches. They came back the next morning and so I opened the gate to the pen and they went in to eat.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.