Quite Simply, Chook Chat

[jessmorris]

Oh no. So sorry for you. C

[VirginVegGrower]

Oh no. I'm sorry. I hate this thread sometimes.

[Glutton4...]

Bummocks! Sorry to hear your news, Petal.

[bearded bloke]

Oh bugger,that's a shame

[Feral007]

B*gger Petal! And you always miss them worse when you've been looking after them and dosing them up all the time

On a better note, the evacuated Shirl laid an egg yesterday! 'ppears that going to live elsewhere and having no quiet nesting box has got her back in production again. It got trampled apparently so she had no chance to sit on it!

Might bring them back tomorrow if I get a chance. I'm feeling a bit more positive since we got some unwindy, mildly hot, slightly wet weather.

[petal]

I am glad its getting better there feral. You would probably love our snow right now! I knew that chicken wouldn't make it - I feel guilty for not despatching her earlier but she looked comfortable, snuggled in her bed next to the log fire. I have a sneaky feeling my husband despatched her and pretended she died whilst we were at school/work.......

[Prince of Durham]

Appreciating a little extra corn this morning.

[elizajay]

Lost bantam

On Sunday morning my little but feisty Japanese bantam was taken and I gave her up for dead as a predator (query large cat) was heard clicking our gate. This afternoon a man down the road told me he had seen her on his neighbour's shed roof 6 houses down the road. When he tried to get her she flew across that garden into a huge tree on their other border. I saw her in the tree took her corn and chatted to her and she chatted back and wanted to come down but didn't. She was too high to reach - above the upstairs windows of the next house.

I called the fire brigade and they said they wouldn't come out without RSPCA. I called them and they said they would call back. I went back with more corn and she had moved to a slightly lower branch overlooking the garden where she was in the morning. While I talked to them I saw her go lower. We tried to climb to get her down and she flew along a holly hedge and disappeared. She is probably either in the hedge or in a large conifer at the end of the hedge. So she is out for another night.

She will be difficult to catch as she is very quick, the least tame of my chickens and always flies high at the first sign of trouble. She has never been out of our garden and is clearly confused and heading in the wrong direction to get home. My only hope is that 2 doors from where she is there are chickens so I hope she finds them tomorrow.

RSPCA called and said as it was getting dark they wouldn't come and will call me tomorrow.

[elizajay]

RSPCA eventually came out and when we went down with a hutch to put food in with the hope she would sleep in it, she was out on the driveway. I gave her some food and tried to persuade her to come near enough to catch her. She was always the least tame of my chickens and now that she is living wild is even less tame than she was. She went into the hedge and RSPCA man followed her down to me waiting at the other end. She skipped off into a shrub and as I was about to grab her flew back into the tall tree. Round one to Victoria Plum.
Yesterday I saw her and tried to get her, round 2 to VP.
Today the man next door to where she is with the 2 large dogs spotted her on the other side of his boundary and we tried to get her. She flew up into a conifer and sat there bok bokking and preening with us below offering food. Round 3 to VP. Needless to say I have been down 2 nights running to see if she is sleeping in the hutch and the bedding is undisturbed.
VP has always laid eggs in clutches around the garden and sat on them. She is in a pretty safe place with a holly hedge she can retreat to if threatened and 2 tall trees and she flies well. I think she has decided that is where home is as she has been there for 4 days now. In my investigations around the neighbourhood I have found her footprints in the snow in 2 other gardens, so she wandered about before choosing her current home. All very well, but how long can I keep feeding her and my hope that she would be attracted to the chickens 2 doors down seem doomed.

[Glutton4...]

Oh gawd! What a worry. They are such determined little wotsits, though. I have a friend whose Chooks prefer to be next door at the stables, than in their own garden. Trouble is, my friend then doesn't get any eggs. Now she leaves them shut in their pen until lunch time!

Good luck catching her!

[Feral007]

Good luck catching VP! Mine seem to have decided to live in the chook forest after coming home from their evacuation. So I have to go down and feed them in the evening and chase the smallest Tic Tac in. Pita, they used to always be snuggled up together on the perches by 6 or 7 pm.

[elizajay]

Thanks Feral, I went there with grapes this morning and found her in the conifer, interested but not willing to come down. This afternoon I went back and she ran up the driveway towards me. I offered her a grape but she wouldn't take it until I had put it down close to me. Then she rushed in and knocked it down the hill with her beak and raced after it. I sat down and put the other grape between my legs and she came and fetched it and rushed off. I gave her some pellets and she took as much as she wanted and then flew vertically into the conifer. Hopefully bribed with grapes she will eventually let me catch her. I am happy with her sleeping in the conifer, foxes won't get her and nor will the badgers that are digging around the tree.

[Glutton4...]

That's encouraging - at least it means she recognises you, and trusts you. She's enjoying her freedom - who wouldn't - but she's hungry!

I have a long-handled fisherman's net, the triangular one - absolutely fab for catching fowl, but they do need to be in a pen first. If you try out in the open you'll just scare her away.

Good luck!

[elizajay]

Exactly, the RSPCA man had a lovely big net. She didn't like that and it's useless for catching in a tree! I think she has other friends now, she wasn't very hungry when I went this morning. She popped out from the cover of the hedge to eat what I offered and when I got between her and the hedge she flew into the tree.
It rained really hard last night and she looks fine.

[Aberdeenplotter]

a bit of guile needed to catch the wee sod. Throw down some seed for her in the same place for a few days. Do that where you can fix a strawberry net or similar close by. After a few days, stretch the net out over where you are doing the feeding and keep it off the ground using a couple of canes attached to a long cord. After another couple of days when the chook is used to the net, pull thecord and collapse the canes when she is under the net. Softly softly catchie little monkey. Just be patient.