This is a great post!!! Great work getting Ninja back to her former self. She sure got herself into some nice digs. You are a chicken whisperer.
I am starting to think that, when I have a thought about what to do for an animal, or a plant, it is because that animal or plant has communicated its needs to me. No pea brains exist, we are all one mind. Something like that.
It was always traumatic for me when the others attacked a sick hen. I had no roosters, so that was never the cause for the bloodlust. I also had the same problem with my dog, who would nip my hens' butt to their death if I were not out there with him. Many a chicken had to be isolated (not quite so luxuriously as Ninja has been) after my dog had taken a bloody bite out of their behinds.
No more chickens for me, ever since a neighbor checked the new code and found my coop was too close to a property line, not even his. There is nowhere on my 1 acre suburban plot that satisfies the code.
Kakel doodle doo (whispered)
You are very right, it also makes sense. I sometimes also miss the cue, because I am a man 😄
It's interesting that you did not have a rooster. Is it by choice? I heard that the hens eventually get depressed without a rooster, maybe it's just a lie spread by the patriarchy hahaha, second time I am making feminist joke in one comment.
I understand your dog, he is doing what most dogs do, our husky for example don't even pretend to be friendly, he just straight go for the kill. It means that they don't mingle.
But the sheep dog, it's a sport for him. He needs to be a part of the herding process, helping out. So far no incident with him.
When living in Johannesburg, we had 2 chickens the exact same problem as described. Screw your neighbor though 😄
I could not have roosters in this neighborhood. My hens were not depressed. Maybe it was the sunflower seeds. They were always very happy to see me.
I had two dogs at the time. The other one, a pug-poo, could not have cared less about the chickens. The dachshund was/is a killer. He got a juvenile pileated woodpecker a month ago. I was very upset with him.
It was actually good I had to get rid of the chickens. I am moving soon, and having to move with chickens would have been like moving two homes. I won't have room at the new house for the creatures, although I am taking a UFO shaped coop, which I bought after the code enforcer first knocked on my door over a year ago. I'm hoping to find somewhere to put it, despite my having to live on 1/6 of an acre, house, garage and all.
😱
This is the best thing I've seen today, and I can't think of anything else for a coop now. This is brilliant, why haven't I thought of it!
Here's the one I have, still in its box, in my garage. It's the Dyson of chicken coops. I hope I get a chance to use it someday. It's not really UFO shape now that I look at it again. I've had this thing over a year.
https://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog/Chicken-Coops/Ultimate-Chicken-Coop-w-feeder-and-waterer-up-to-6-chickens-Beige-p2836.aspx
I am so cheap, I probably would never spend that amount of money on a chicken coop, I actually built mine myself, with the help of a carpenter.
let me flex a bit: 😎
https://peakd.com/hive-129017/@edprivat/i-am-building-a-chicken-coop-out-of-stuffs
https://peakd.com/hive-129017/@edprivat/i-am-done-building-a-chicken-coop-out-of-stuffs-part-2