Our chicken are not very happy at the moment, because they are on lock down! If you saw our previous blogs, you saw happy chickens scratching up compost and eating bugs and expressing his/her "chickeness." If you follow
Joel Salatin, then you know "Chickeness"from the movie
Fresh, which is now on Netflicks. Unfortunately, from this
information Chicken Predators I believe we had a fox that the lastest chicken attack that cost me 10 hens over a five day period. Okay, so you are thinking 10 chickens out of 50--that's not so bad. Let's do a little math, each day old chick cost $2.50-$6.00 depending on the breed and then I have to raise it and feed it for four to five months before I see the first egg. Ouch!
Which is bring me to my next farming adventure- a Livestock Guardian Dog (
LGD). After reading and talking with the lovely people at Calvert Animal Rescue, I decided that a Great Pyrnees is the best LGD for our family because of the kids (human not goats, hehehe). While on my quest, I found two local farms that use LGD's:
Wagon Wheel Ranch and
Whitmore Farm. Can you say, road trip? I really would love to see these LGD's in action and "pick" the brain of his/her trainer. Here I go again!
 |
Louie, Cochin Bantam killed by a predator
|
We have several types of chicken houses. One is permanent and is my brooder and bantam house.
 |
| Nesting Boxes |
 |
Sweet Heater and two heat lamps
|
The other chicken house is a chicken tractor and it is able to be moved to various locations by truck or tractor.
