Mature Egg Laying (Chicken) Hens & Coyotes Question

PFlyer said:

Is there any chance anyone knows where I might be able to lay my hands on a bunch of mature (chicken) egg laying hens?

Long story short, a good friend and work colleague of mine lives with his family on a small farm outside of Frederick, MD. And unfortunately, a couple of coyotes got into their chicken coop one evening last week and decimated the flock. Of the original 12 hens & roosters, only 3 remain. My buddy's wife and their kids are taking the loss hard -- both of them are veterinarians. And if possible I'd like to surprise them by re-populating the flock. And yes, while they could re-populate the flock by raising new chicks, that could take as long as six months until the chicks reach maturity and start laying eggs.

And as for the coyotes, I plan on heading up there at some point soon with another buddy hopefully to "solve" his problem. I've never had to go after coyotes before, any tips? My other buddy has a Browning 22LR at his disposal and I have my Remington 870 Express 12 gauge, with the stock Rem modified choke.

Thanks!

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Mark75H said:

The coyotes are wary prey; they may be harder to take than you expect.

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willtill said:

All the more to invest in new and improved weaponry.


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MigraineMan said:

Integrating two mature flocks can be problematic. We raised chicks in the presence of an established adult flock, and still had territorial and pecking-order issues when we finally put them together. To this day, the red-sex-link hen and the light-Brahma rooster still regularly have chicken-words with each other. (He usually wins because he's a 14lb rooster and she's a 6lb hen, but she's remarkably persistent.)

As upsetting as this attack was, it's probably a better idea to repopulate from chicks than to try to force two batches of adult birds together. The quarantine and biosecurity concerns would make this problematic, too.

Besides, it's Chick Days at TSC and Farmers Co-Op.

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PFlyer said:

Thanks for all of the leads and good suggestions. I had thought about the quarantine issue, but not the problems that can happen when introducing new mature flocks to each other. I guess that the term "pecking order" really does mean something . . . .

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When a chicken is added or removed from a flock, the other birds can become extremely disturbed, pecking furiously at each other in an effort to reestablish their places in the hierarchy. In fact, new chickens sometimes get pecked to death. For this reason, farmers will often sneak in new birds in the dead of night. When the flock wakes up, they simply assume the new birds were there all along.

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MigraineMan said:

Yes, it's a very real thing, and the feathery ladies can be quite viscous. And "hen pecked to death" is a phrase that exists for a reason too.

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E.Shell said:

Placing an order with Acme?

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Mark75H said:

The coyotes are wary prey; they may be harder to take than you expect.

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