I've had a few drownings this summer due to leaving large pots of water in spots around the yard ... cooling off watermelon in a large bucket my abandoned duck pond after the mink ate my ducks and a galvanized sprinkler bucket for watering the roses. Chicks and keets seem to find the most frustrating ways to drown themselves.
None of them can swim.
Kelly in Moxee
water containers that are too large for young poultry
I am sorry about your keets but that reminds me of a question how do keets and chicks get water when they are raised by their mother and not in a brooder?
i had similar problems, seems the australorps had a "swimming gene"... when it was THAT hot, i ran a hose on the ground constantly. and emptied and refilled waters, the BIG ones, 3 and 5 gallon little giant wateres...
sorry kelly. but on the other hand, i read about your hen going after that hawk, way to go! i could picture just what you described...
tf
Here's the miserable truth. I have1.5-1.75 acres of lawn AND no automatic sprinklers. We also live in a region that's as bone dry as Palm Springs, CA w/ the same amount of sunshine. We have to move the sprinklers every couple hours just to maintain an almost green lawn. The chickens find the water. That is not a problem ... its running outside 24/7 in the summer from 2 hoses. The lawn would look better but Weed & Feed costs like $500 for a 1 time dose ... so guess who doesn't fertilize much.
Kelly in Moxee
don't worry about your lawn. haivng more poultry to fertilize it will help. have you thought about cutitng pieces of hardware cloth to fit just inside these? then if the chicks jumped in it, they could jump back off, and get a drink in the meantime...
That insanely protective hen was down to 2 chicks yesterday morning (1 drown, 1 lost, 1 dehydrated) when I heard chirping in the bushes. I thought about where the heck I'd find chicks in a nest. I remembered next door in a shed ... a double ugly Game Fowl hen. Sure enough she was gone! Her nest was way up in a cow silage stack ...12 feet off the ground ... abandoned with 3 chicks on the floor. Must have hurt that 1st step out.
I gave her 4 abandoned new biddies to the insanely high flying hen.... so she's got 1 more than what she started with. I suspect the double ugly broody Game Fowl hen from the silage stack took off with half her brood (the 4 oldest). I'll see her in a week .... maybe ... maybe never. They come and go. We still have 2 hens on small clutches of eggs ... about 10 egg incubating total now.
We have about 20 new chicks this spring/summer plus the 20 full grown.
Kelly in Moxee
Sorry to hear about your chicks Kelly, major bummer! And the hen. :-(
I have done what tf suggested with the hardware cloth - handy stuff to have around. Anyway, it works, in water containers when 1st hatched up til they figure it out. Button quail were the worst at drowning. Even got stuck in the marbles, when I tried that idea....the hardware cloth works. Still have my specialty cut out ones..made for the mason jar waterers.
Cheryl & TamaraFaye, The hardware cloth is a terrific suggestion for preventing this type of calamity. If I had them in a brooder box ... I have a few of the circular 3/4 inch watering pans which hold a quart or a liter would have been perfect. My birds wander everywhere with their mothers. in and out of the yard through the fence. Its a miracle they live. As of today we have 20 new Game Fowl running around this summer. Add that to the at least 20 and we've got many.
I got surprised by the open water buckets in various spots in the yard ... 150 ft apart ... over a few weeks time. I didn't have anything to do with the watermelon. I just found the empty bucket and chick inside by the clothes line. The other .... a sunken duck pond was under the tree where the 2 ducklings had been ..... you get the idea. I just wasn't thinking about the poultry and even suspecting they'd fly up 12 inches off the ground to get into a receptacle. The rose watering can was full for a only a short while. With the hoses sprinkling 24/7 ... you'd think they'd make a better choice.
Kelly in Moxee
I went for a walk west along the stream yesterday. I heard a chicken clucking away on the other side to the west about 100 ft ... figured it was one our wayward hens. Sure enough ... it was the double ugly Game Fowl hen ... without even one chick. My bet is she was unable to coax any of her 4 chicks to jump 12-14 ft out of the nest ... so she left them all. Not a great mom. This chicken was a stray in the 1st place. Now we know why ... a real dumb cluck. Her 4 abandoned babies are under better wings.
Kelly in Moxee
Glad you were able to save those chicks & get them to a -uh- more interested hen. Had a hen like your Game Fowl once. Wanted to hatch, but didn't want to raise them, or just didn't know how to go about it. On the buckets, pools, etc all over......been there, done that, unfortunately! We just don't know it is there, or don't think about it - after all, adult birds don't even go use. Sure would be nice of they choose a more convenient watering hole! Bet they had to work at getting up the 12ft, then over shot the target......sad. Would think other chicks would see & learn too........
Cheryl,
Our Game Fowl hens are decent mothers. This poor hen was simply desperate to find a "private" nest location. She chose up and out of sight. I finally noticed her up there in the silage tower (after not having seen her in 2.5 weeks). Then I notice how high up she was and think ... I'm not even gonna try to get up there. Well a week passed and then I see a stray day-old chick 100 ft away (chirping in my marigolds by my front door) and wonder ...hmmmmm ... walk over to the silage stack and hear more chicks. I go get a ladder and try to reach for them ... plop, plop onto the floor (one was already on the floor). I thought they'd pop like water balloons on contact .... tough little buggers.
The hen gave up trying to get her biddies to jump out of the nest ... she couldn't understand the 1st step down was too frightful for the biddies.
Next year we'll have a few more nests hanging in secluded spots. We've tried to limit the quantity of new Game Fowl this year since we went into last fall with 55. Even with the limiting ... we'll have close to 50. The difference being last year we started with 5 hens ... this year we started with 25 hens. I'd bet a bundle that coyotes ran off with about 5 adult Game Fowl hens setting on nests out in the 50 acre hop field to the west of my place. I can tell we're down to about 17 adults from 25 and I know of 2 adult hens the mink got. It is a difficult existence for the hens if if they choose spots out in fields away from the house. My guineas dumped their eggs in one nest spot. I stole 15 eggs to hatch under Game Fowl and a nice Guinea hen finally hatched about 8 keets. She had the good sense to hide her nest inside our fence lines and right up against the back side of house between 2 ... 15 gal propane tanks (for our bar-b-que). Guineas are smarter this year.
Kelly in Moxee
Good solution Kelly! Setting nesting boxes in hiding spots. Hopefully, they will use them, instead of hunting for another location. Sorry about all the losses you had to endure this year.. .. what a bummer! Smart girl choosing a nesting spot next to the propane tanks. She's a keeper.
I got one banty that choose a spot in a bucket - up high - under the shops eave. Trouble is, coons & weasel can find her.....and how is she gonna get those chicks out of the bucket? Kept taking her eggs, but she is persistent. Decided it's time to set now, so I get to carry her back to the coop every night, abandoning the eggs. Oh well, this too shall pass.
Cheryl - Pea
Cheryl,
I have little control over the Game Fowl so their losses and disappearing are more of a count situation. It is difficult to protect them from coyotes when they run off 1-2 hundred yards into an adjacent farmers field. I have eliminated 1 coyote when he made the mistake of coming too close. Once I did him in ... no more disappearing chickens (August 2007). We don't hardly go into the neighbors hop field and there's no point since we'd be looking for a needle in a haystack. I can tell we have about 40 Game fowl. In another 2 weeks there ought to be 50. That's pretty much what we had last fall. Oddly enough last fall we had a hen hatch out a clutch in October ... very weird timing. They were young and small in December. I could tell from feathers under the trees that the feral cats were eliminating this group of small Game Fowl at night. The entire flock of about 45 figured it out at the same time and moved from the trees to the rafters of my 4 bay garage ... about 12 ft off the ground. We've not had the Game Fowl disappearing at night because they learned where they can and cannot roost at night. Last winter was our 1st winter with the Game Fowl. They can hop a fence like its not there. Next spring I'll set up more nests closer and use them more than running off into the fields. We had close to 25 hens ... each wanting to "set up house" this spring-summer. We had just 8 nesting boxes or secluded spots. They may have needed twice that many. I now have 2 more portable nest boxes put together after the mink rampage. I 'll make at least one more this month. I have a rough estimate on the number of hens at 18. I hadn't anticipated they'd run off into the hop field as much as they appear to have done this year ... maybe 5-6 hens are missing. Last summer it happened with one hen and she came back with 12 chicks. It is a bit sad to notice certain hens are missing but I just have to sorta hope they're running around along the creek with broods ... or gone. These birds are flourishing on our property with little help. I hardly feed them. The more I toss feed at them the less they forage. It is pretty clear they can forage wider and get less feed from me. They just need more nest boxes to create a few more biddies in the spring. We're getting to the point where we have to be careful too or we'll have an incredible feed bill in the winter months.
Kelly in Moxee
This message was edited Aug 10, 2008 8:33 AM
Yeah, have the same problem with the peafowl when allowed free. Lucky for me, they came home every night. Not much you can do when they go awol in the fields. No way to find them. They'd hear you and run before you see them, let alone get close to them. Predators sure have no problem though!
I vote for running around along the creek with their broods.. Hopefully, they will come back when it gets colder & food is scarce. Or that they've figured out how to avoid predators & make it on their own. Quite a few Valley Quail running around here now ~ escapees that have figured out how to nest on the ground & raise young while avoiding being eaten. One thing to their advantage, Valley's fly at 10days ~ specifically for that purpose.....
For breeding purposes, my peafowl are in a large pen right now. Since they nest on the ground, didn't want to lose the hen and her hatch. Still awaiting the hatchlings. About another week or so to go..... getting anxious to see if two hens setting will net a better hatch rate. May not even be the issue - could be eggs were too old by the time setting began, that fertility dropped...
If there are enough places for the Game Fowl to nest in spring, should use the safer option. Good Luck keeping those predators at bay!
Cheryl,
I have yet to try to kill any more predators other than the mink in more than a year. I am averse to doing so if I can keep the populations steady. I may have to try to eliminate more the skunks and feral cats. The mink seem to have moved on.
Best wishes for your hatch in the next week. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. How many eggs in the nest?
Kelly in Moxee
Hoping you don't have to deal with ridding any predators; however, must protect our livestock........ Maybe the others will or have moved on too??? Would me nice; but doubtful if good supply of food is around i.e. our livestock!?!
Can't tell for certain - never get to see the actual nest since two hens on it. One leaves, the other already has her beak over them, scooting the eggs under her. Know that there were at least 4; believe up to 2 more would have been laid also. Since late in the season, do not expect much more than that.
how sweet! i had two broody sister hens do that...
thats what SISs are for! :D
Going broody?!?
cheryl,
Lets hope there's no real fighting for the chicks once they hatch.
Kelly
lol grownut... no, helping to raise babies :o)
good point kelly. depends on the breed, personality, and how well they know each other/get along. i have had no probs with mine. and i recently had two more go broody. i put chicks in there, about 60, and the Jersey Giant hen stopped setting to raise the chicks. the Black Australorp is still setting, but will only accept fake paper eggs. Real egg give out too much heat LOL...
if they get along, two mommas will be more protection than one!
Cheryl,
I just found a Game Fowl chick wandering around in a shed with its mother nearby. She left her nest last night or this morning to take care of one chick ... 6 eggs still in the nest ... cold as can be .... not a good decision. Chances are they'd have all hatched today.
Kelly in Moxee
maybe you can sitll save them? they can't have cooled down enough to kill them, just will slow their hatch. can you put them in your incuabtor?
TF,
I put all 6 of them under another Game Fowl hen in a nest at the other end of the shed ... she also has 5 eggs of her own due to hatch Wednesday or Thursday. I suspect - hope a few of these donated eggs may also hatch. The hen is nowhere to be seen and the chick is with the good broody with 5 ... now 6 chicks.
Kelly in Moxee
phew, that is all you can do!
TF,
This 2nd hen didn't do well hatching the loaner eggs. 1st chick that hatched got pecked ... died .... 2nd egg dead in shell ... none of the others are motile or they'd have hatched already. The initial lone chick that hatched was being abandoned over and over by the reliable hen (her brood are 7 to 10 days old so its understandable). However, the wayward mother hen found her day-old chick wandering about ... and now they are a single mom and baby. Just deplorable situation ... LOL ! ... alls well that ends well I suppose. This wayward hen can never seem to be located in the evenings. So far 2 nights spent god knows where and they keep showing up in the mornings.
Kelly in Moxee
Glad to hear Kelly! Sorry about the loss of the others. Unfortunate that the 1st to hatch was pecked to death. Hope the lone hen and baby are doing well. She may be teaching to live on own in 'wild'? Letting the chick know, come here to get food; sleep here to be safe?
That is my fear with putting the new peachicks I got with the 2 brooding hens. They would attack to save theirs? All is good so far. Apparently while I was down due to heat & life, at least one India Blue hatched. Caught site of it this evening. Other younger hen still setting; but older hen is watching over baby(s). Will be able to tell more tomorrow afternoon when I can see better. If only the one hatch, wonder if one of the hens would take to the older chicks I have in the brooder for another week or so??? Too afraid they may try to 'protect' their baby from outsider - assuming the two do well raising one chick together?? Questions, questions, questions.......
Cheryl