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<blockquote data-quote="Marguerite" data-source="post: 238830" data-attributes="member: 1991"><p>A hen on the rampage can be a fearsome sight. The cats are wise to be cautious.</p><p></p><p>Our chooks are bantams, a fairly feral lot. A neighbour of ours bred them up over many years then moved house. We got a lot of his excess poultry and they lived wild in our wilderness backyard, roosting in the trees at night. We had a coupe of roosters as well, although only one main top male. </p><p>That rooster was something I had to constantly watch. Never bend over with your back to a rooster. He had spurs as long as your thumb and one day, he got me. KNocked me over.</p><p></p><p>Now, I couldn't let him win, so I had to take off after him, wielding a broom. Trouble is, I have trouble walking let alone running, and I kept falling over. I finally cornered the pest in a corner of the chookhouse and let him have it.</p><p></p><p>Otherwise, I don't have trouble with the chooks. The hens have never attacked me, not even the broodies. However, a bantam hen with chicks to look after can get really aggressive with any creature she sees as a threat. I've seen a bantam hen trying to leap into the air to get at a magpie that was swooping her. </p><p></p><p>We get some big spiders here, sometimes some nasty ones as well. Funnelweb spiders are a huge nasty but I think hens are unaffected by their venom. We have some really big (but moderately harmless) spiders here called huntsman spiders. They can flatten themselves out and slide into very narrow crevices. I was getting some chicken feed out of the large storage bin when I got startled by one of these large hairy spiders. I knocked it to the ground and called the chooks. Thespider was unimpressed and also very aggressive, he raised himself up into attack mode (looking a lot like a funnelweb spider in full aggressive attack mode - maybe the local funnelweb spiders have been giving lessons) and this spider went for the hen, just as she was going for the spider.</p><p></p><p>It was bizarre - at one point, the spider got a grip just above the hen's beak and wouldn't let go no matter how she shook her head. Finally she got it loose and tried to peck at it again, but it reared up again. So she backed away. That spider survived the encounter and I suspect that hen has never tried to eat spiders again.</p><p></p><p>Chooks will, as a flock, attack any strange creature that invades their space. This includes any chicks of a too-different species. Sometimes it will include any chicks not of their own (so you need to separate out a broody hen and clutch). I had a peacock egg under one of my bantams, it successfully hatched but the other chooks killed it before I could get it to safety.</p><p></p><p>YOu don't need to have a rooster, to have a hen go broody. And you don't need to put chicken eggs under a chicken. However, water birds are difficult to hatch because the eggs need moisture on them especially later in the incubation. Also be ready to remove the chicks form the parent bird if the parent is too "smart". Sometimes you can be lucky. Some hen types are less risky - the silkies are generally so docile that they will mother anything. I've even had a silky mother an orphan chick when she wasn't even broody; I tricked her for a few hours in a quiet dark box while the kids kept the chick warm and cuddled, then I slipped the chick into the box with the silky, and it was miraculous. We had really thought we would lose the chick, when we had already just lost the mother to a very large python (3 metres plus).</p><p></p><p>Incidentally, that python is a regular visitor to our chookhouse, he's hunting for rats & mice. Amazingly, the chooks leave him alone. Maybe because he waits until they're asleep?</p><p></p><p>Marg</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Marguerite, post: 238830, member: 1991"] A hen on the rampage can be a fearsome sight. The cats are wise to be cautious. Our chooks are bantams, a fairly feral lot. A neighbour of ours bred them up over many years then moved house. We got a lot of his excess poultry and they lived wild in our wilderness backyard, roosting in the trees at night. We had a coupe of roosters as well, although only one main top male. That rooster was something I had to constantly watch. Never bend over with your back to a rooster. He had spurs as long as your thumb and one day, he got me. KNocked me over. Now, I couldn't let him win, so I had to take off after him, wielding a broom. Trouble is, I have trouble walking let alone running, and I kept falling over. I finally cornered the pest in a corner of the chookhouse and let him have it. Otherwise, I don't have trouble with the chooks. The hens have never attacked me, not even the broodies. However, a bantam hen with chicks to look after can get really aggressive with any creature she sees as a threat. I've seen a bantam hen trying to leap into the air to get at a magpie that was swooping her. We get some big spiders here, sometimes some nasty ones as well. Funnelweb spiders are a huge nasty but I think hens are unaffected by their venom. We have some really big (but moderately harmless) spiders here called huntsman spiders. They can flatten themselves out and slide into very narrow crevices. I was getting some chicken feed out of the large storage bin when I got startled by one of these large hairy spiders. I knocked it to the ground and called the chooks. Thespider was unimpressed and also very aggressive, he raised himself up into attack mode (looking a lot like a funnelweb spider in full aggressive attack mode - maybe the local funnelweb spiders have been giving lessons) and this spider went for the hen, just as she was going for the spider. It was bizarre - at one point, the spider got a grip just above the hen's beak and wouldn't let go no matter how she shook her head. Finally she got it loose and tried to peck at it again, but it reared up again. So she backed away. That spider survived the encounter and I suspect that hen has never tried to eat spiders again. Chooks will, as a flock, attack any strange creature that invades their space. This includes any chicks of a too-different species. Sometimes it will include any chicks not of their own (so you need to separate out a broody hen and clutch). I had a peacock egg under one of my bantams, it successfully hatched but the other chooks killed it before I could get it to safety. YOu don't need to have a rooster, to have a hen go broody. And you don't need to put chicken eggs under a chicken. However, water birds are difficult to hatch because the eggs need moisture on them especially later in the incubation. Also be ready to remove the chicks form the parent bird if the parent is too "smart". Sometimes you can be lucky. Some hen types are less risky - the silkies are generally so docile that they will mother anything. I've even had a silky mother an orphan chick when she wasn't even broody; I tricked her for a few hours in a quiet dark box while the kids kept the chick warm and cuddled, then I slipped the chick into the box with the silky, and it was miraculous. We had really thought we would lose the chick, when we had already just lost the mother to a very large python (3 metres plus). Incidentally, that python is a regular visitor to our chookhouse, he's hunting for rats & mice. Amazingly, the chooks leave him alone. Maybe because he waits until they're asleep? Marg [/QUOTE]
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