Six Chickens And Two Dogs - Becoming One Flock

Ruby and Raquel

We have two Australian Shepherds that are getting older and settling down -as much as an Aussie can settle anyway. When we got the chicks we made sure that they were (from a safe distance) in a place where the dogs could watch us interact with them from the first day. Anyone who has Aussies can imagine their reaction to these chicks. I'm sure, to them, they looked like fluffy tennis balls. Aussies become absolutely OCD at herding SOMETHING…even if it's a tennis ball!  So there we are, two bouncing dogs and six chicks. If you are familiar at all with chicks you know they grow fast. Several of my first posts were mostly exclamations of how fast the chicks were growing.

The photos we got of the chickens and Ruby are bit blurred  but at the time we were focused on the safety of everyone but the photos not so much.

Ruby and Julie

Through the summer the dogs watched the chicks grow and evolve into something more than tennis balls. The chicks became used to the dogs running and barking. Once they got to big for the brooder we moved them to the coop-et (since the hen house was not quite finished). The coop-et sat near the back door so the chicks got to experience and get used to us and the dogs coming and going. The dogs of course got used to the chicks and their cheeping, squawking and flying circus act. 

Beautiful Raquel!

                                    
Just so you know, this set-up was designed with the safety of everyone the top priority!!! By doing things this way we hoped to 'grow' the chicks into our already amassed herd, instead of having almost full-grown chickens suddenly appear one day. The dogs would think those feathery things don't belong and the barking and chasing  and chaos would ensue!

The (fully enclosed) hen house has been completed and the chickens have been living in it since mid summer and they are very comfortable with the dogs' constant running amok. And the dogs probably don't remember the hen house ever NOT being there.

We finally did the big dogs-and-chickens-in-the-backyard mix. But we only let Ruby, the calmer female Aussie, out with them. Teddy, a little wilder, will get his test run later. Harry took Ruby out on her leash and I let the chickens out. The chickens were really busy with their foraging at first and didn't notice the dog. Ruby just sat and watched the chickens. Harry got one of their tennis balls and started tossing it to her. He finally got comfortable with her behavior and took the leash off. I was biting my fingernails down to the quick while all this was going on. The chickens were watching Ruby but not with any type of anxiousness the they might be in danger.

Taking cues from the chickens and the dog, we slowly let them begin to mingle. They were okay with each other it appeared (Ruby only got her nose pecked once)!  I really feel if it ever came down to any kind of danger for the chickens, they would have Ruby running for cover…she's just a big chicken herself.

Okay,Teddy's turn coming soon ...

                                                           
NOTE :  We do not and will never leave the dogs and chickens out together unsupervised.  Even the chickens, alone, don't get to free-range without supervision!

Liz-

Beau Coop vs. Flying Egg Farm

By now almost everyone has seen or heard about the Beau Coop From Neiman Marcus Christmas Book, 2012 Fantasy Gifts.

Beau Coop

"Dawn breaks. The hens descend from their bespoke Versailles-inspired Le Petit Trianon house to their playground below for a morning wing stretch. Slipping on your wellies, you start for the coop and are greeted by the pleasant clucking of your specially chosen flock and the site of the poshest hen house ever imagined. Your custom-made multilevel dwelling features a nesting area, a "living room" for nighttime roosting, a broody room, a library filled with chicken and gardening books for visitors of the human kind, and, of course, an elegant chandelier. The environment suits them well as you notice the fresh eggs awaiting morning collection. Nearby, you pick fresh vegetables or herbs from your custom-built raised gardens. You've always fancied yourself a farmer—now thanks to Heritage Hen Farm, you're doing it in the fanciest way possible!"  

         Heritage Mini Farm
        Price      $100,000

 For every Heritage Hen Mini Farm purchase, NM will donate $3,000 to    The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy  a nonprofit organization that protects genetic diversity through the conservation and promotion of endangered breeds.

Reality from our kitchen window:

Dawn. I stand at the window in our brightly lit kitchen looking out at the hen house. The early dawn  makes it easy for the chickens to see me from their run. I hold up my cup of coffee and do a little wave. Having know idea what I'm really doing they just know that's a signal I will be out soon. Carmen's silhouette is easy to make out because of her crest and light coloring. The other five chickens are lined up alongside her but their individuality is harder to make out...just five fluffy shadows. Yes, I know you're waiting.  I can almost telepathically hear them calling me to come out (or maybe it's their loud squawking I'm actually hearing). I'm coming, I'm coming!

Okay, on go the boots (NOT Wellies) and jacket. I grab a bucket and food and whatever else I might need. Just to get out the back door I have to herd two big, goofy dogs into the house (they want to help me with the chickens) and that makes  pretty interesting morning entertainment! Once past the dogs and other obstacles I head across the yard to the hen house. The chickens have run around to the side where the door is and they're clucking and looking at me like I'm delivering the worlds largest slices of watermelon!  Nope ladies just feed and water. Treats later...maybe.

Great Playground

 I think they are pretty happy in their made-from-love coop!

Carmen Miranda

I just won't tell them about the N M Beau Coop.

I let them out to forage while I change water, add feed and do various other chicken related chores. They have a nice area to stay in while I work. Not a huge area, but safe, and when I'm through with my chores I can sit and watch them. For a few minutes my 'pretend' reality is that they're are running around in a huge grassy area and I can sit there watching for as long as I want!

I'm learning  that chickens, ours anyway, are a 'flocking' bunch (can't think of a better term). It makes me feel good to see them keep their eyes on each other.  They may try to slip past me and get into the rest of the yard but they don't go far before looking back at me and the others to see who is following. I've also noticed when they try to make a big escape into the rest of the yard they're not hard for me to catch and carry back to the others. You can almost see the mental fight between pride and safety...run, show-off, maybe get swooped up by a hawk or let her catch me and take me back to safety.

Living in the city presents different sets of predators and we are on the look-out for all. The chickens have their own cluck or squawk if they see or hear something that might present danger. This is great until it comes to airplanes flying over. So how do you explain planes to them? We don't live anywhere near the airport. We are in a corridor if airspace that's used depending on the weather. We are also a hub for  FedEx.  When we do have air traffic it's disconcerting for the chickens - they're looking or some huge prehistoric monster hawk in the sky. The have a goofy dance they do and it's the same dance for every plane that comes over. They're on guard till absolutely every plane engine sound is gone. Same thing when sanitation trucks come down the street. They don't do a dance for the trucks but they definitely grumble and cluck and do weird noises back and for to each other. I don't know if they will ever get used to these city noises. Do any of you have unusual sights or sounds your chickens have to deal with?

Liz-

Safe to come out now?

Fortifying the coop

This is like military planning. You have to set up your line of defense from the air, ground and down under. You have three areas you need to consider: the free-range area if you let you chickens out to roam the yard, the chicken run and their coop.

Predators - We live in a mid town urban area so we don’t have big bears or wolves but we have plenty of others -raccoons, opossum, feral dogs and feral cats. You have your domestic pets dogs and cats. Then you have the sneaky ones like rats and mice. From the air we have hawks and owls.

From the air - The first group of chickens we went to visit, before we got ours, pretty much had the run of half of the backyard. It was enclosed by an eight foot fence. I saw metal wires going randomly across the top and my first thought was to keep the chickens in. But it was to keep the air predators from sweeping down and stealing one of the flock. They also had CD’s hanging about on strings as distractions.  I thought no way we will have these air born predators in our backyard. One week after our chicks moved in, I looked out the window and saw a hawk on our storage shed looking at the flock in the run. Well I think I freaked out more than the chickens.

From the Ground – We have a fenced in backyard so threat from neighborhood dogs is minimum. We have dogs also but we do not let them mingle with chicks. We do not trust them yet. So the Chicks stay in the chicken run when the dogs are out. It is important that you use ½” hardware cloth to enclose your run. Regular chicken wire allows the chickens to stick their head out and that's all it would take to loose it. We also have neighborhood cats. One in particular I likes to visit most mornings when I open the coop door. My dogs seem to be friends with every cat in the neighborhood so forget them for extra protection. Make sure all you hardware cloth is securely fastened around the frames. Cats or others will push back the wire if it is loose.

Under Ground – We hear that there are predators that will tunnel into the run. Mainly rats will find a way in. So along the base of our run we have concrete blocks on solid ground. But we have been told it best to run a perimeter of hardware of cloth alone the outside edge under ground or just lay in the full floor of the run and cover with dirt. 

Raccoons and opossum will try under, over, around or through.  Sharp claws and paws to dig under or through.  Sheer determination to find a way over or around.

Night time security – At night the flock promptly moves to the coop as soon as it gets dark. At this time we close the coop door going into the run. All the windows of the coop have hardware cloth. We have a metal corrugated roof so where there are some small gaps there we covered with hardware cloth.

If the flock is in the yard and danger comes lurking about, they can fall back to the run. If the run protection fails you can have them go to the coop and shut the door as a final stand off. 

At this point, if our chicks are out free-ranging in the backyard, they get very close supervision.

 

Harry-

Up The Down Staircase...err I Mean Ramp

The chicks are really getting used to their coop and our coming and going during the day. Harry goes out very each morning and opens the coop door for them. Sometimes they are slow coming out and walk down the ramp like sleepy chicks.  More often than not, though, the chickens are up and waiting to make a fast escape. Instead of walking down the ramp one at a time they take off from the top of it. Flying out and doing their flight list check-off in mid air...right wing working -oops no.  I hope as they get older and heavier these flights will not be so wild and crazy.

Clear The Runway!

They know that shortly after the coop door has been open by Harry that I will come out and refill their water, check their food supply, and usually bring a small treat...this morning it was juicy cucumber slices. They hear me come out the backdoor before they see me. They know/hope I'm on my way and are usually all piled up on top of each other in the same corner of the run trying real hard to look pitiful (remember by comparison if these chicks were human they'd be thirteen yrs old)!

GOT TREATS?

There are rare moments when they politely allow each other access to the ramp.

Carmen and Tallulah go nicely up the ramp.

Tallulah - taking her time.

Julie Newmar and Carmen Miranda telling Tallulah 'Ok, move it now'!

Liz-


Addendum:  At about fourteen weeks they are even wilder and crazier. Evidently they don't gain much weight as the get bigger and fluffier. 'Fluff' weighs nothing! They were taking flight and landing on the top of their hen house...not good. Our yard is fenced-in but all the neighbors have dogs so one swoop to the top of the fence then over to the other side would not turn out well. We barely clipped the flight feathers on one wing of each bird. They didn't seem to mind be held and petted and didn't even notice Harry's careful clipping of the feathers. They can still take flight if needed but not enough to go over a fence.