I have relocated the chickens she was interested in, so she can't rehearse tearing down the end of the garden. Since she grabbed one she had become a bit obsessive. Hoping she will work out pretty quickly they are gone and calm down. She is getting to be a bit of a handful lately,. Took them out early and she raced across two acres! She caught scent of something and was gone. I am a bit depressed about it and wondering if I was a bit ambitious with her in the first place. We are at gundog training this week, so will have a chat with the trainer. Plus I have taken some time off next week to work with her.
Kate, she is still young. Our Annie is still not as steady as I would like. I am sure your trainer will be able to help you. Try not to worry, by next year you will think what was I worried about
Phew, I'm very glad that your chook was ok. They're odd little dinosaurs, and a fright like that could easily have killed her. Hopefully it doesn't throw off her laying cycle and you get a nice clutch of chicks. And of course the chicken fancier in me would like to know what rare breed is she (and TomTom)? I've definitely screeched like a banshee at Xena on the handful of occasions when she's chased a chicken - no regrets. She has fortunately never caught one, I *think* it's just the chase she likes.
The pullet hasn't a name...(actually I quite like Xena! ) she is a splash bantam faverolles, Both TomTom and SatNaV are blue bantam faverolles I will get a little video clip for you later
Lovely! They look like a cross between an Orp and an Araucana. I would LOVE to see a video if you have the time. Are your chooks all navigation-themed?! Or just the Favs?
I've only got 5 atm. 2 Hylines, 1 black Orp, 1 Langshan, and 1 Golden-Laced Wyandotte. Only 1 Hyline and the Langshan are laying, and the other Hyline is laying the odd soft-shelled egg followed by small rubber eggs. These birds are just so worrying. She did the soft-shelled thing for a bit last year too before getting back to normal, but she's now 2.5 which is getting up there for a commercial hen. Also, I need more birds because your themes are amazing
This post is timely, as last night I screamed my head off at Quinn...we came across an injured duck on the path (Quinn was on leash)...she saw it but sat down watching it. While I was pulling my phone out to call the wildlife centre, Quinn lunged and caught me off guard, pulling me very hard and almost had the duck in her mouth, and chasing it as it tried to limp away. It was just a knee jerk reaction...I had her on the leash but she was so close to clamping down and was dragging me. All I could do was yell. She seemed totally fine after. Possibly even more excited (oops). Poor duck. I'm sure he would have died over night, an animal will have gotten him (or Quinn probably gave him a heart attack).
I guess I should be thankful for Snowie's clumsiness: as a pup, by the time he'd decided to chase the hadidas (ibises) in our garden, they'd long flown off. Now he can't even be bothered. We often come across a flock of guinea fowl on our off leash mountain walk. The first time we saw them, there was one with a gammy leg and I told Snowie not to chase it. Well, who knows if he understood, but he didn't chase it; walked right past it. Thankfully he does not chase birds. Now... to convince my husband that we must get hens - I am desperate for a couple! But getting cross: totally normal behavior I think under the right circumstances - as was yours, to protect your bird.
Jet, our first Lab, grabbed a cardinal once. It had been picking seeds in the deep snow beneath the feeder and got bogged down in the light, fluffy snow, allowing Jet to grab it. We yelled and she dropped it and it fluttered away. But it was obvious some of the feathers shed were critical to flight, it could not fly properly. So OH got a net and managed to catch it again, built a cage and we kept it all winter, on our dining room table. We had been without a dining room table for months as that's where we built a pen for puppy Jet, in the dining room. We'd had a table back for a few weeks and lost it again to the huge bird cage that now sat on it. Chirpy entertained us, and the cat. He sang beautiful, complicated arias from different cardinal operas that we'd never heard cardinals sing in the wild. Fools that we are, we never thought to record any of them and we don't even have a photo of him. We released Chirpy in May and he flew successfully. He hung around, found a mate and we saw them going in and out of bushes where they must have built a nest. We could always identify Chirpy as he was a funny, faded, pinkish red cardinal, not the bright red most males are. We saw him for a few years then no more. I don't know how long cardinals in the wild usually live.
I've had a similar experience with Orion and my parakeet Clicky, although it wasn't a happy ending for Orion had broke Clicky's neck and she died less than 10 minutes later.
Oh - now I'm remembering Poppy leaping five feet into the air to snatch one of our budgerigars out of the air mid flight!!! I screamed blue murder, and she dropped the bird. Molly (the budgie) was shocked and shaken but ok - and Pops never touched another of our birds!
So glad I am not the only one! At least Bramble is back to her waggly tailed self today, and has enjoyed playing target with a plastic ladle tied to a green netting post
