Lesson Learned

Lesson learned: Never leave your dog outside with your chickens unattended. 

Our dog, Savannah, had been doing so well with the chickens last Sunday - she had been out in the backyard with them most of the day.  So on Monday night, I let the chickens out of their coop and thought that I would leave them out while I went to work out.  I also left Savannah outside to "protect" the chickens from any predators.  Guess I didn't think she would be the one attacking them...

Luckily Grant got home before I did.  It had only been about a half an hour since I had left, but he came home to find Savannah winging poor Grey around like one of her toys.  He thought the chick was dead for sure.  Savannah had her by the neck and there was blood on the chicken's face and neck and on Savannah too.  He quick saved Grey from Savannah and put her back in the coop.

He warned me when I got home, that it might look worse than it actually is.  Poor Grey was huddled up and sleeping when I went out to the coop.  Her feathers were all matted down around her neck and the only open wound was on her left ear.  Savannah must have chomped down around her ear because there was just one small puncture wound.  I cleaned out the wound with warm water and soap.   I also put some Neosporin over the wound to try to keep it from getting infected.  She was so scared that she let me hold her while cleaning out the wound.  She didn't even try to escape.  As I was holding her, she looked up at me with the saddest eyes.  I felt like a horrible mom!  Poor thing was traumatized. 

At first I thought it would be important to keep her with the other chickens, but then I realized she was in shock.  She was sleeping all the time.  When I took her out of the coop on Tuesday evening, she was sleeping while standing up.  I read online that shock is a very common result of being attacked.  She needed to be separated and put in a dark, warm spot so that she could heal.  So I put her back in the cage I had used when they were babies, and covered it with a blanket.  She slept for 2 days.  

I was also worried because she did not seem to be eating or drinking.  On Wednesday morning, I tried something new and finally got her to eat Greek yogurt.  Of all things!  She ate the yogurt out of my hand and then after a little while, I mixed in crushed corn.  On Wednesday night - she finally pooped! I had never been so happy to see my chicken poop.  I also cleaned her wound again - this time with hydrogen peroxide.  This seemed to help the wound heal very quickly.  It also helped that she was in a very clean and dry environment.  By Thursday morning she was pecking around in the grass and was flapping her wings again.  I put her back in the coop on Thursday afternoon.  

Since then, she has been acting normal and seems to be eating just fine.  In fact, she is the only one that runs right over to me when I walk out in the yard.  I like to think it's because she loves me, but I think she is just hoping for some yogurt :)   

Who's Hungry?

Just another Sunday morning at the Steed house....

When we first got the chickens I wasn't sure what to expect with what they would eat or how much, but honestly it has been quite easy.  We got a 50 lb. bag of "starter feed" when we first got them and that lasted a little over a month for the 5 chicks. 

After they were about 4 to 5 weeks old, I started giving them small pieces of iceberg lettuce and they loved it! 

We now give them almost any of our produce "scraps" such as green and red bell peppers, asparagus stems, squash, strawberry tops, the ends of romaine lettuce, etc.  And they eat it all!  They love their iceberg lettuce treat I give them every night. 

And then of course, they are out of the chicken coop most of the day, roaming free in the back yard and they hunt and peck at the ground all day - eating grass and whatever bugs they can find. 

One of the old wives tales say that birds eat 2 times their body weight in food a day.  I thought no way could that be true - but man, watching these chickens eat and gobble up the lettuce right out of my hand, I bet it is true

As the chickens continue to grow and eat more and more, I am so glad that I am raising my own chickens and will know exactly what went into the chicks so that they can produce and lay healthy eggs.  Sure makes me think twice about what is in those eggs we buy from Krogers... just some food for thought.  No pun intended :)

And here's the beautiful sunset from our backyard tonight...

Backyard Adventure

So we finally made the move.  The chickens are plenty big enough and definitely have all of their feathers - so even with the colder temps at night they are just fine!  I mean think about all of the birds that live the whole winter outside and don't have someone to provide their food and water for them every day.  These chicks have it made in the shade! well right now they have it made in the heat lamp, but you know what I mean...
 

We put the coop along the back side of the fence.  And as you might be able to see - we do still have the heat lamp inside the coop and turn it on at night. 

But before we moved the coop outside, we introduced them to the BIG backyard.  We also wanted to make sure that Savannah didn't try to eat the chicks!  We needed to let them roam around the back yard so Savannah would realize that yep, she will be sharing her domain with these little creatures! So last Friday night, Savannah and the chicks met face to face, without any cage/wire in between.  Luckily, everyone is still alive :) 

It's funny because they pretty much stayed all right next to each other the whole time - even though they had TONS of space to run and fly around.  At least I don't have to worry about them running away??

Savannah did try and grab one of them by the neck.... which could have been really bad.  But I think that is the only way she knows how to pick any small animal up.  That's how she would hold a puppy - right?  Grant was convinced that she was ready to eat the little one, but I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt. 

Here is a video that shows just how close they stuck to each other, despite their free reign of the whole backyard.  Enjoy!

PS.  Next post will be on their diet.  Sneak peak: so far they are loving green bell peppers!