Goodbye Goldie - or Dothead ... e-Scrap Chickens Minus 1

[gunDriller]

This morning I brought the normal big breakfast out to the chickens and found -

1 chicken and one chicken corpse.

The chicken corpse appears to be largely intact, indicating a smaller predator.


The back-story ... they are about 4 years 3 months old, and I live on the edge of wild land in Southern Oregon.

Normally they can be enticed back to the coop, with food. However, as they got older, they have become harder to influence that way. I would go out with their "afternoon bucket" around 4 PM, hoping to put them back in the coop. They simply would not go.

About a month ago I changed the routine. If they would not go to the coop, I would feed them, and go indoors, and they would go back to the coop around sunset - and sleep with the coop door open.

Anyway, it became a struggle, so I gave up on herding spoiled chickens.


I knew this would expose them to predators.

They are quite fit and can fly. This is amply demonstrated if I try to catch them to put them back in the coop.

Since they rarely sleep, I thought they would have some 'escaping ability' if (for example) a fox that lives about 100 yards South decided to check them out in the coop (the fox ate their sister, Stripey, about 2 years ago. Not much left that time.)


I have a 'burial shroud' and some twine, and I will ask a neighbor to 'do the deed' later this morning ... putting the corpse in the cloth.

I have about 25 junior evergreens, about 4 feet high in 5 gallon buckets. I will find a place with soft soil (so I can dig a deep hole) and bury Goldie (or Dothead) and plant a pine tree (or Doug. fir or Cedar) on top.

[Hitch]

Sorry to hear about this gunDriller. My brother had the same issue with his chickens. He ended up building a door that would close automatically just after sunset, on a timer. If it would help, I can try and get the details on how he built that next time I visit him.

[Cebu_4_2]

Sorry to hear about this gunDriller. My brother had the same issue with his chickens. He ended up building a door that would close automatically just after sunset, on a timer. If it would help, I can try and get the details on how he built that next time I visit him.

I built a chicken wire run along the deck of my house, they used to have the yard as the run. After a year or so the coons would climb and get in from the top. Once a big black bird flew into the coop and had a meal of one chicken. That's when I enclosed the top and had to make a door to access the run. I felt bad in cutting the size of the run but they didn't seem to mind. Mine were also Rhode Island Reds, the most docile birds I ever had.

[mick silver]

A lady near me is breeding her White Laced Red Cornish Roo to her white or light grey Amerucana hens and they make a good eating bird.
They grow fast, but not too fast, lots of breast meat, lots of flavor.

Silver Grey Dorkings are a old time favorite. Such a pretty bird.

[palani]

Get some banties. They are tough birds and absolutely annoying (they like to crow at sunrise + they like to sit on tractors and mess them up). So if a predator gets one now and then you will be cheering rather than mourning.

[gunDriller]

Sorry to hear about this gunDriller. My brother had the same issue with his chickens. He ended up building a door that would close automatically just after sunset, on a timer. If it would help, I can try and get the details on how he built that next time I visit him.

Thanks everybody for the replies !


I am surprised at how STUNNED I feel. Not crying (yet), just stunned.

Went for a walk in rattlesnake territory early this morning, forgot to wear my thick boots, wore sneakers.

Went shopping, forgot my driver's license.

The remaining bird looks stunned, too. Not eating. Just hiding next to a tree and under the porch.


Photo's of your brother's solar-powered / triggered set-up would be great.

I have a 35 watt (50 watt spec) solar panel I could use.


Getting one bird into the coop at about 5 PM is a lot more doable than 2. When I'm carrying a bucket of food, one of them usually follows me - wherever.

The neighbor that helped me move the body onto a towel to bury it in told me he thought this was fox. It ate very little - the body felt heavier in the towel than when she was alive.

Fire season started about 2 days ago. Local rains stopped about 3 days ago. Then temperatures have been in the 90's. Instant summer.

I'm not surprised that Mr. Fox was desperately thirsty last night, and may have eaten enough chicken to get some blood.


The fox or maybe a coyote left some tracks in the garage. It's like it walked in paint, the tracks are still their, 6 months later (covered with 5.56 brass casings, maybe I'll get a photo of that.)

I would guess that the change in the weather had an effect on Mr. Fox's night-time wondering habits. Although he lives 100 yards up the hill South (according to the neighbor who helped me), those foot prints and the dead chicken are the only sign of his presence.

I filled up a 2 cubic foot bucket for Mr. Fox, with water.

However, I have to remember that Mr. Fox can also get desperately hungry.

Do people ever feed the predators to keep them off the flocks & herds ?


I am thinking about getting another bird to keep the last chicken company.

[osoab]

Was it ate up or was did the predator go for the jugular?

I lost one out from my last batch of chickens. All were alive, I went and mowed for an hour and one was dead. Could have been a stuck crop or heart attack. Tossed it in a trash bag and threw it in a dumpster.

[Dogman]

Think Foxes instincts are to kill then cache/store food even when not hungry for eating later!

You could feed it but I am certain it will not stop hunting or killing your bird's. As said your best bet is a fully enclosed, dig under and aerial attack proof chicken run!

Anything less would be a repeat of what just happened to you in time.

Get yourself some more birds, if desired, for the egg's and meat if you can restrain yourself from making pet's out of them!

I know you like meat and what you are willing to go through to get it! I highly enjoyed your cow thread or was that road kill?

I am having a minor brain fart remembering which it was!

;)

[Cebu_4_2]

You could feed it but I am certain it will not stop hunting or killing your bird's. As said your best bet is a fully enclosed, dig under and aerial attack proof chicken run!

Anything less would be a repeat of what just happened to you in time.


Exactly, After I lost a couple chickens I went to a friends house which had a big coop and fenced in yard run. Wow what a structure, doubt you could get too far with a car goung 50 mph. That was what convinced me I had to fully protect them. Whoever built that thing had much more experience with chickens than I did. Cyclone fence covered with chicken wire on both sides, top and bottom.

[Serpo]

Lost one of my chooks last week to a predator, all I have left is feathers.

[gunDriller]

I know you like meat and what you are willing to go through to get it! I highly enjoyed your cow thread or was that road kill?

I am having a minor brain fart remembering which it was!

;)

the deer was road-kill.

the cow cost me $50, and happened about 6 months later.


the only butchering experience i had for the cow ... what i learned on the deer.




Was it ate up or was did the predator go for the jugular?

I lost one out from my last batch of chickens. All were alive, I went and mowed for an hour and one was dead. Could have been a stuck crop or heart attack. Tossed it in a trash bag and threw it in a dumpster.

i didn't want to get more upset. i asked a friend to put the body in a cloth, for burial. i didn't see it too up-close.

the body was heavy though. not much removed, or drunk.

now it is buried beneath a small cedar tree that showed extraordinary vigor. somehow surviving in a 2 gallon pot with little water, for about 4 years. thought they made a good pair.

[Dogman]

the deer was road-kill.

the cow cost me $50, and happened about 6 months later.

the only butchering experience i had for the cow ... what i learned on the deer.

THANK YOU !

Nice to know I still have a few brain cells in the memory retrieval system still working !

I did a twofer in one post !

Grin !

;)

[Tumbleweed]

now it is buried beneath a small cedar tree that showed extraordinary vigor. somehow surviving in a 2 gallon pot with little water, for about 4 years. thought they made a good pair.


This made me think of this song about being buried at the foot of a bristle cone pine.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwZSkMDc-0c

[gunDriller]

This made me think of this song about being buried at the foot of a bristle cone pine.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwZSkMDc-0c


i liked the burial scenes in the movie Avatar.

i like the idea of being buried beneath a huge tree like the one in Avatar.


i looked at some baby black sex link. a slightly wierd name but it turns out, they are hybrid,
Rhode Island Red x Barred Rock (something like that). NOT the GMO grow-fast yellow birds.

more like if one of my Rhode Island hens mated with a neighbor's non-GMO rooster.


sometimes Craigslist has loads of people wanting to give away chickens - but not today.

[Serpo]

http://diablitoscantina.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/chicken_with_a_sombrero_by_muffinzor-d870ti4.pnghttp://www.backyardchickencoops.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/1369473672_image001.jpg

[palani]

sometimes Craigslist has loads of people wanting to give away chickens - but not today.

Store price for eggs today $3.20. Git rid of your silver and buy EGGS. And TP.