Cute Chicken Pics...

[stevo]

I was playing with camera again, as soon as you lay down to get a ground level photo the chickens all come over to investigate, they just want food.

 

[stevo]

Everyone says focus on the eyes ... yeah sure....

 

[Letsgokate]

Ha ha, yes they can be rather in your face if you have something of interest. Love Silkies.

 

[Jenni]

Ha .. That one looks a little cranky...

 

[stevo]

Water Hen (I've been camping at Lake Maroon (Australia/Queensland) for a week and these were everywhere, they were pretty cool.) They fly, swim, walk, run, and make all kinds of noises.

 

[Mark]

I've seen a few of them down the creek near our place.

 

[stevo]

Kim Young Sun....

 

[Mark]

You sure nailed the clear eye in that shot Stevo!

 

[Letsgokate]

Ok he is not necessarily cute but he is a nice looking Rooster who I bought as hen but turned out to be a rooster. Recently moved him on to a more suitable home as we are not able to keep roosters here. Took some photos to remember the handsome guy.

Silver Sussex.

 

[Mark]

Very nice bird there Kate - I'm kind of looking with slight regret because I'm sure Mrs Fluffy Pants would have loved to meet him

 

[Letsgokate]

He would of like Mrs Fluffy Pants

 

[stevo]

Terry & B2. Belgian D'uccle

They're awesome chickens

 

[Becca]

My two new girls... I hope Lulu (lunatic) the tiny one grows a bit... I've seen quail bigger

 

[stevo]

Terry, she wonders around, jumps up on the bench where i'm working, looking for high place to lay an egg....

 

[Mark]

Lol love the fluffy feet

 

[Elle 's Belles]

Am dying to pop a pic of my 3 girls here ... but can't upload the pic

 

[stevo]

but can't upload the pic

is the photo too large in file size?

 

[Mark]

Am dying to pop a pic of my 3 girls here ... but can't upload the pic

Forum photo sizes are max 3000 KB for files size and dimensions are max 1600 x 1600 pixels - anything larger and the image will be rejected. The reason for these settings is to make the forum load faster because if we allowed any size files the forum speed would slow down dramatically and some pages would take forever to download and appear.

I wish our forum had the ability to automatically resize images as they are uploaded but this is not possible at the moment...

There are photo/image resizer apps freely avail on phones and PCs though.

 

[Elle 's Belles]

Only just returned to this forum and noted the date I mentioned I had tried to upload a pic of my 3 chooks, on Nov 3 (definitely too big a file size, Mark and Stevo). Because on Nov 5 at 4.20am, I heard a ruckus in the hen house (and my JR x Chi dog going off outside) and bolted outside only to find my gorgeous 3 Blue Australorp hens (only 11 months old) with their necks broken. I must have disturbed the fox with my torch as I ran down the back yard. All of my girls were killed in the hen house (one of whom had been sitting on 'dummy eggs' for 2 days with 3 fresh eggs also in the nest from the previous day as I was loathe to disturb her as I had 12 fertilised eggs awaiting 'the night-time swap' on Friday night - well, all the fresh eggs were smashed to bits which confirms to me that Violet was still sitting that night), but Posey was dumped at the bottom of the 1.8m colourbond fence in what I assume was the only way the dreaded fox managed to get in, and then escape, trying to take some of his 'catch' with him. Was absolutely dumbfounded as we live IN TOWN and while I have been wary of feral cats and neighbouring dogs and always locked the girls' roost at night while they were much littler ... I really had not considered foxes a risk while living in town in the middle of a populated suburb. BIG MISTAKE, rookie chook-wrangler. No chance the fox could have dug under our colourbond and mesh fencing as I had cemented in large rocks beneath the fenceline, all the way around - but really had no idea that foxes could jump so high. I've known them to climb chook wire before to enter a hen enclosure that was not enclosed with a wire roof - but still can't imagine a fox being able to leap over a 1.8m solid fence. Such a shame to spend so much time raising these lovely little creatures and really enjoying the golden colour of FRESH EGG YOLKS as they sit up so firm and glossy when being cooked ... and then to lose them far too early. A timely warning to all to construct a fully enclosed chook yard/house (as Mark recommends elsewhere on Self Sufficient Me) in order to be sure a fox, goanna, G-knows what else could take off with your golden egg layers. Don't be complacent - it just isn't worth it

 

[Mark]

Sorry to hear about your horrible fox encounter @Elle 's Belles it's an awful experience and sadly most of us chicken keepers have been hit by a fox or two in the past. I learnt the hard way after several attacks and failed fences...

You can be forgiven for not thinking a fox could jump or climb a 1.8 m fence because that's pretty damn high for such a relatively small k9 but it's true they will get over a dog fence under 2 metres.

I hope this doesn't put you off from keeping chickens again but it certainly is a distressing thing to happen and not easy to get over.

The pros say the best fox fence is 2 meters straight then a 2 feet angled mesh (facing out) on top of that. Then, a run of electric ribbons attached about 3 feet and down to the bottom. However, my skirt works really well here's the link to my video and the discussion here on SSC.

I use a three cordon method to keep my poultry safe (blame it on my military training) boundary fence, dog proof free-range area, and fox proof pen... whereby I have my outer boundary fence which doesn't keep a whole lot out but it does keep my dog in and does deter other k9s, then I have a free-ranging area protected by a 1.7m high dog fence which is dig proof - (foxes don't normally try scaling fences through the daylight), and central to the free-ranging area is my fox proof pen 3m high chicken wire with a wire skirt. Also, I'm currently building a run coming off my chook house which will be contained within the pen and be totally enclosed. This will be my 4th line of defence and further protect my birds from snakes and goannas.

As extreme is the above method of keeping foxes out might seem we've never had a fox attack since and this has given me peace of mind and I know the hens are happier too because they know they're pretty safe.