GCV, do your little Chickies have this?

[totoro]

Because they most definitely do need this.
It is the "Eglu mobile chicken coop" by Omlet!

http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/Garden/2006-05-01/city-chicks.aspx

I want one and I don't have hens! This is so cool looking.

I like the hens names in the article, Beatrice, Gertrude and Zelda!

 

[Marguerite]

Another option - Google "chicken tractor" and see what you find.

The original chicken tractor is found on this website:
http://www.thechickentractor.com.au/

but if you look at the video, you can make your own.

I love the idea - it gives you lawn mowing + fertilising, as well as eggs + security from foxes for the chooks.

Marg

 

[Star*]

So this is what happened when John Deer merged with Kentucy Fried.....

 

[gcvmom]

Yes, I've seen the Eggloo... they're cool, but very expensive.

The chicken tractor is what I WANTED husband to build... but not exactly what I got. Our run is an 8x8 monstrosity that I have to tug across the yard every two days so that the chickens get a fresh spot to nibble. I hose down their droppings into the grass daily, and let me tell you our yard is the greenest it's ever been!

I should print out the picture of the tractor for him since our existing run is starting to fall apart from me pulling on it. Maybe then he can duplicate it!

 

[totoro]

You should make the "Leviathon"
The one that Marg linked is cool!!!

 

[Star*]

Read s.l.o.w.e.r. Star.......

I thought you said you had a chicken MONISTARY......(espiritu chick en)

 

[totoro]

That would be a
Kentucky Fried Chicken Licken' MoniSTAR*y

 

[Star*]

IT's a California thing Toto -

The chicken monistary -

I'll have NUN of that.

 

[gcvmom]

 

[DammitJanet]

We are quite sad here in our neck of the woods. A pack of dogs came through killed all but about 3 of our roosters. This has happened several times in the last year or two so our flock has gone down from around 35 or more roosters to just the three. I thought Tony was gonna kill someone over this latest attack. He was threatening to put poison food out everywhere but since we own Buddy and a cat that goes in and out...we just cant do that.

So sadly we called a friend and offered our remaining roosters to him so that they may be safe at his house. We still have three hens on the yard but hens are useless without a rooster. This is the first time we have been rooster free in almost 20 years. Tony couldnt even look at the pictures on the sites.

Its sad that other peoples dogs are allowed to kill our caged chickens. Every bird that we have ever had killed has been penned. Just not fair.

 

[gcvmom]

I think I'd be laying in wait for those dang dogs... grrrrrr.

 

[Marguerite]

Janet, make sure it's not your roosters killing each other. We've had to cull our spare roosters, to prevent this. A neighbour of ours didn't do this, he came home to carnage but it was all contained in the chook pen, no dogs could have got in.

And on the subject of chooks and spirituality -

I thought you said you had a chicken MONISTARY......(espiritu chick en)

I kid you not, we have labelled our large chook enclosure, where our chickens spend the bulk of their days in quiet contemplation, "CHOOK-Pori", after the home of Tibetan Buddhism, in Lhasa.
Ours isn't a chicken tractor, we instead have a 3m x 4m deep litter henhouse. The scraps, grass clippings, prunings, mulch etc all goes into the chookhouse and composts down. It's about a metre deep or more, it keeps them warm in winter and every so often we kick down some of the loose-laid bricks and shovel out clean-smelling compost and plan our vegetables straight into it. or we used to, before the drought. Now we find that even though it's well composted, we need to dilute it or it's just too strong for the plants. So now, 50:50 with local (nutrition-free) sand, and the vegetables almost leap out of the pot.
But it needs to be kept dry, or it stinks. So if/when it gets wet and smelly, we throw in garden lime, that fixes it.

Marg

 

[Star*]

I was told by our local animal control and sheriff - that if I have proof (called and reported numerous times) that a pack of dogs (numbers increasing here by the week due to idiot people setting them loose) or a vicious dog comes onto my property to do me or my family (dogs and cats and chickens included) and I shoot one? I should call the police immediately and report the gunshot.

I know how the law works here - because that's what I was told on the phone. Then I had a man come out and drop off a cage (step 1 to controlling vicious running dogs) and fill out a report and give a deposit to catch this pack of dogs - and the animal control officer told me if I shoot a dog? I'm going to jail.

No one can give anyone a clear answer on this. But DF said to the animal control officer "Well you can bet if a dog comes in this yard to harm any of my family he'll drop where he stands." and the officer said after looking around - "Then just bag him and get him out of here."

SEE? No one really knows whats going on - SO we now have a sling shot/wrist rocket loaded with ball bearings that we're both very profficient at using - and have used it to ward off the "pack" of strays because OUR animal control won't come get them unless they are TIED TO THE FENCE AND WAITING for pickup - with, of course.....water and shade OR we're subject to fines for animal cruelty.

(SLAP HEAD)

 

[Abbey]

We always used BB guns. Not lethal, but it gets the point across after being zapped in the rear a few times. We always had one fully loaded sitting on the back patio. I don't remember dogs being a problem, but we had wolves. I got pretty darn good at nailing those buggers a good distance away. Maybe that is why I was such a good skeet shooter.

by the way...I love the chicken hut.

Abbey

 

[DammitJanet]

Star, Marg, Abbey...we know it is dogs....we have seen them...we have even taken them out a time or three. It just gets old. This last time it was a really nice german shephard that lives a street over from us across a field. We even went and talked to the owners and asked them to lock the dog up. No good. Animal control here is useless. Cops could care less.

We are perfectly within our rights to shoot anything that comes in our yard and kills our animals. We even found the statute in the law and attempted to take the owner of several dogs that came in about 3 years ago to court but the prosecuter dismissed the case and told us to take it to small claims court. Sigh.

These arent our roosters fighting...we know they fight and when they get old enough to fight they are penned up individually. Thats what these birds are for...they are gamecocks. These are no ordinary roosters. When dogs take out our flocks they take out 30 to 50 buck or more birds. These birds are worth some money.

 

[totoro]

Thy Chicken Coop is Sacred!
No body should harm those sweet little Chicks or Roosters.

We used the arm band sling-shots! Some had nipple like centers to put whatever you were shooting.
But my brother and I in our sick youngster minds, would shoot snails at the dogs.

We didn't want to kill them just shoo them off!

I believe the wrist-rockets or whatever they were called are illegal now?

We had to put up electric fence around our coop in Idaho. We also had a Guard Turkey. The Tom would go into a frenzy when anything came onto the property!

You could get a turkey!

 

[Marguerite]

We had a dog in our yard, killed one of our chooks. I skinned the chook (easier than plucking it, it was a bantam) and went ahead to cook the dead bird anyway, but I offered (insisted tey take) the feathers, skin, feet etc and asked them to hang it round the dog's neck. I don't know whether they did or not, but it meant THEY had to get rid of it all, and having to do so was a reminder to them of what theirdarling doggie had done, their doggie that wouldn't hurt a fly and NEVER got out, oh noe... even though they had to collect it form my yard.

We never had a second problem with that dog. And their neighbours had told me that the dog had been repeatedly getting out, through the same gap in te fence. That gap got fixed, darned quick, after the chook incident.

The only other dog problem we've had (other than a chook of ours flying over the fence into the waiting jaws of the neighbour's dog - who could blame that dog?) was a Border Collie that got in and insisted that all the chooks stand under one particular tree. The chooks looked very puzzled, that dog was very determined... but didn't touch any of the birds. I got home and the dog looked very pleased with itself, looked at me as if to say, "Come on, tell me I'm a good dog..."

Some dogs just do not belong in the suburbs, they are born to be working dogs, and should never be allowed to remain idle.

Marg

 

[gcvmom]

Some dogs just do not belong in the suburbs, they are born to be working dogs, and should never be allowed to remain idle.

Couldn't agree with you more! And there would likely be fewer behavior problems with dogs if their owners were more aware of the breed's needs for physical activity, in my humble opinion.