Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => Chicken Chat => Topic started by: F1schuey on February 18, 2011, 15:15
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Only had my girls 6 days. My friend came round today to see them for the first time. My friend was really looking forward to seeing them. They heard me come out of the house and ran to me.... we had a chicken human chat as we always do. And then my friend approached.... Oh dear.... they didnt want anything to do with her, my girls are so friendly to me. I must say I was fairly happy that ran to me and had their usual chat and stroke, but it was funny that they ran away from my pal. Didn't realise they actual knew it was me.... made me very proud. :D
Day six and no eggs, but enjoying going in and have a little clean out everyday, they look forward to my little treats.... not giving them too much at the moment as only had the 6 days. Must say was very impressed with Kennelgate store, they let me have everything at trade price .... big thank you to them
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It's a true saying that the best things in life are free :)
I have just got an egg from my Welsummer which laid one for me last year and then no more. :lol:
Wait til you get your first egg, the excitement is great. :)
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Pauline how do your Jack Russells get on with the chickens??? My Poppy is very eager to meet my girls :S
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If your friend had a pocketful of corn things would have been very different. :)
Hens are very loyal to their stomachs. :D
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Hi F1schuey
Our JR's get on fine with the girls.
At first they would have eaten them given half a chance, we don't let the JR's out unsupervised with the girls but gradually over time the Isa's have learned not to be spooked by the dogs and in fact they have been known to chase the dogs or prevent them from getting into our house as the girls are at the back door and the dogs won't go past them. I have also seen one of the girls take a pigs ear off one of the jacks :ohmy: although I wouldn't recommend that.
I still wouldn't trust the JR's alone with them tho. ::)
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Personally I would never totally trust dogs with hens either. We 1st had our hens last year and our 17 year old deaf & nearly blind Staff cross (sadly no longer with us) would try and nip their tail feathers as they walked past.
We now have a 7 month Staff and though we introduced her to the hens almost as soon as we had her last September I wouldn't trust her an inch!
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From my reading, that would be the advice I recommend too - don't trust dogs alone with your hens.
I was just reading a very sad story on an Australian forum about a woman whose dogs and hens lived happily together for several months, then the other day she came home to find one of the dogs had killed a hen.
She says the dogs suddenly seem to have realised that the hens are "game" and now she can see the dogs looking at the hens in a different way.
She is heart-broken because she was so sure her dogs and hens could live happily together.
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my avatar - Olliepops (Neapolitan Mastiff) is fine with the chickens including the sabelpoots when they come in the house, but until she was two years old I didn't trust her - about to get another pup so will have to go back onto dog secure watch.
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My dogs are a typical border collie and a mongrel. They are aged 13 and 9. They have caught rabits and grabbed a mouthful of chicken feathers (woops) in the past, fortunately the chicken made a full recovery, it was an accident, we had no idea the chicken was there, it was hiding under a caravan on holiday. They are mad about chasing cats.
Any how, the first summer with our hens we had to supervise and train them all the time, by the second summer they are not bothered at all, they are completely not showing interest at all, they do like looking for rat holes though! They didn't even chase next doors hens when they leapt over the fence one day.
My hens hopefully approach anyone to see if there is any food!
Bev