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End of our backyard chicken experiment.

DavidR8

DavidR8

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For the past seven years we've had two Speckled Sussex hens, Amy and Opal. Lovely creatures, very social and interactive. Pretty regular layers too.
Last week we lost Amy to a Cooper's hawk and about an hour ago we lost Opal to another Cooper's hawk. Different hawks but definitely Coopers.
Pretty sad week for us.
IMG_1072.jpeg
 
Doggggboy said:
Sorry to hear that. Mother nature's a bitch.
A friend had about 30 laying hens and last year a mink got in and slaughtered them all overnight. Never ate one.
She got one more hen and calls her Lindsay Lonehen.
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We didn't think Opal would last long without her trusty lookout.
Mother nature at her finest for sure.
 
Sucks to hear, sorry for your losses. As much as they are livestock, they do have personalities and are pretty enjoyable to have around.

We're down to one original from our flock from last spring. The free ranging is over, as it just turned into all you can eat wing night for a fox. It happened in 2 separate attacks, and I just happened to have been watching the last one when it got 3 of them.

Fortunately the Wife turned into a crazy chicken lady right away, and has now diversified (by egg colour) the bunch, and I think we're up to 14 now, plus a rooster. Who's a giant Dick BTW.

Don't be afraid to get some more at some point. Like you say, they're pretty social, and fun to have around. Just don't get a Rooster. They're Dicks.
 
Doggggboy said:
Sorry to hear that. Mother nature's a bitch.
A friend had about 30 laying hens and last year a mink got in and slaughtered them all overnight. Never ate one.
She got one more hen and calls her Lindsay Lonehen.
Click to expand...
Bloody mink, we've been pretty lucky for the last few years. Mink only eat (drink) the blood, so they'll wipe a flock out quickly, coon eat the meat so 1 or 2 hens fill them up.
 
DavidR8 said:
For the past seven years we've had two Speckled Sussex hens, Amy and Opal. Lovely creatures, very social and interactive. Pretty regular layers too.
Last week we lost Amy to a Cooper's hawk and about an hour ago we lost Opal to another Cooper's hawk. Different hawks but definitely Coopers.
Pretty sad week for us.
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Click to expand...
Sorry to hear. We had 6 hens for the last number of years. Lost one to a coon. Would have rather it was a cool hawk than a trash panda. And most of the others to age/illness.

We're down to 2. Stopped laying a couple of years ago. I'm enjoying my retirement, so figure they deserve the same.

They are really social, aren't they? When we got them my wife mentioned to the seller about my daughter taming them. He said, "You can't tame chickens." Sent him a picture a few days later of my daughter laying on our deck swing with a chicken stretched out on her stomach and sleeping.
 
Tomc938 said:
Sorry to hear. We had 6 hens for the last number of years. Lost one to a coon. Would have rather it was a cool hawk than a trash panda. And most of the others to age/illness.

We're down to 2. Stopped laying a couple of years ago. I'm enjoying my retirement, so figure they deserve the same.

They are really social, aren't they? When we got them my wife mentioned to the seller about my daughter taming them. He said, "You can't tame chickens." Sent him a picture a few days later of my daughter laying on our deck swing with a chicken stretched out on her stomach and sleeping.
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Ours never liked being picked up but they loved when we were in the yard. If I was outside reading they would often climb up on the lounger and snooze beside me.
 
Yeah, crappy about the hawk cleaning you out.

I had Salmon Faverolle chickens for a bunch of years, they were about the most laid back lot you can imagine, and came in a flurry of wings and legs, when we called for them, to give treats of scratch feed.

Had a couple bad years, lost all my Fav's, then got hit by a Mink that destroyed 25 turkey poults, then lost my next replacement batch of hens to a shed fire (they knocked down a heat lamp that had a broken filament....Figures. It lit up when it landed on the floor...) Kinda gave up on keeping birds for a while. Might get some again, in the future.

Folks that have not had close experience with Livestock, usually really underestimate how much, for lack of a better word, personality and individuality they can have.
 
trevj said:
Yeah, crappy about the hawk cleaning you out.

I had Salmon Faverolle chickens for a bunch of years, they were about the most laid back lot you can imagine, and came in a flurry of wings and legs, when we called for them, to give treats of scratch feed.

Had a couple bad years, lost all my Fav's, then got hit by a Mink that destroyed 25 turkey poults, then lost my next replacement batch of hens to a shed fire (they knocked down a heat lamp that had a broken filament....Figures. It lit up when it landed on the floor...) Kinda gave up on keeping birds for a while. Might get some again, in the future.

Folks that have not had close experience with Livestock, usually really underestimate how much, for lack of a better word, personality and individuality they can have.
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Everytime people discuss personality of animals I just can help but flash back to this scene.

and yeah, I agree animals, and chickens (and pigs) in particular can have loads of personality

 
Tomc938 said:
They are really social, aren't they? When we got them my wife mentioned to the seller about my daughter taming them. He said, "You can't tame chickens." Sent him a picture a few days later of my daughter laying on our deck swing with a chicken stretched out on her stomach and sleeping.
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My daughter has Easter Egg Chickens. They lay coloured eggs.

They literally jump up into the kids arms cuz they like to petted and carried. Some more than others.

She has lost a few to hawks and coons too. The worst is weasels though. One weasel will kill every chicken in the hen house in one night.
 
Sorry to hear about your chickens.

We had a hawk nest in our backyard for several summers when we were in Mississauga, very entertaining especially the year they were competing with the family of crows a few trees over. The crows were smarter but when it comes to flight it was like F15 vs. Cessna. At one point we had a bird feeder, but then we stopped filling it because we realized it became the all you can eat buffet for the hawks, they would just swoop down from the roof line whenever they were hungry. The baby hawks started their training on squirrels probably a week after leaving the nest, they're incredibly capable.
 
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Oh man i do love roast chicken. As a kid we had chickens and turkeys running wild on the farm, turkeys are the worst for getting into stuff though, any loose wiring hanging out on tractors got ripped off. Always an adventure when fixing equipment as well, crap everywhere.
 
6.5 Fan said:
Always an adventure when fixing equipment as well, crap everywhere.
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This is the biggest problem with wild turkeys and geese too.

They both have the stinkiest stickiest slimiest gooeyest crap in the world. And they both seem to crap every 5 steps they take.

I scare the geese away, but the wild turkey population is exploding here. They eat everything and anything. Prolly why they crap every 5 steps.

Almost impossible to go for a walk without getting black turkey tar on your shoes.
 
We used to raise meat chickens 150 at a batch, and had a layer flock that delivered 35 eggs a day.
And then my wife got infected with this propaganda, and decided that we should free range the birds. At the end of summer we had 7 layers left, and no eggs, as they would make nests out in the grass, and lay in them. Made egg hunting a new sport.
A couple of meat birds had the skin on their necks ripped off as the nightime enclosure fence made them curious enough to stick their heads through and were grabbed by foxes or coyotes, and as they could not pull the birds through, the skin ripped off the necks up to the beak. Now, meat birds are up to 15lb live weight and do not walk unless it is to the food dish, and sooner or later the arthritis sets in and the joint locks. So these birds would waddle out into the field and sit down, and eat all the grass around themselves. Chickens digest by having stones or gravel in the crop and walking/flying grinds the food up. Soon the sentient meat birds had huge crops and lost weight, because they could not grind up the grass. We had to butcher early and the crops were full of rotten grass.
 
My in-laws used to have what they referred to as Bantam chickens. I was told that they were not for eating but pets who "cleaned up table scraps".

Skunks and foxes were the local troublemakers.
 
DavidR8 said:
For the past seven years we've had two Speckled Sussex hens, Amy and Opal. Lovely creatures, very social and interactive. Pretty regular layers too.
Last week we lost Amy to a Cooper's hawk and about an hour ago we lost Opal to another Cooper's hawk. Different hawks but definitely Coopers.
Pretty sad week for us.
View attachment 57824
Click to expand...
Sorry for your loss. My Godparents had a farm in the foothills of the Allegany's. Aunt Annies chickens would sometimes succumb to traffic if some feed would end up on the road some how. If that happened, we would have chicken and dumplings for dinner. Aunt Annie made the best chicken dinners ever and always would mention that them chicks never go near the road until after I requested a chicken dinner.
 
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