Poultry - help needed

EGAR

The usual, I went out for 2 hours, came back home and what did I find? A huge cardboard box. Opened it carefully, expecting a litter of kittens or perhaps a few ickle pups. No! Not so! 3 cocks in fury flew in my face and then into my lawn . They are patrolling the grounds now and the dogs are beside themselves. I can't catch them as they are as wild as hares.... Well, there is little I can do, they are fully grown cocks and they will have to fend for themselves here. Foxes galore. Any ideas how to catch them??

Sarah

eiretamicha

EGAR wrote:

The usual, I went out for 2 hours, came back home and what did I find? A huge cardboard box. Opened it carefully, expecting a litter of kittens or perhaps a few ickle pups. No! Not so! 3 cocks in fury flew in my face and then into my lawn . They are patrolling the grounds now and the dogs are beside themselves. I can't catch them as they are as wild as hares.... Well, there is little I can do, they are fully grown cocks and they will have to fend for themselves here. Foxes galore. Any ideas how to catch them??

Sarah

You can try to herd them with a flashlight (torch) come nightfall. This is how I've always got chickens and ducks back in their coops/pens.

I can't believe someone dropped chickens off at your house. LOL, puppies and kittens yes...but chickens? How crazy!

At any rate, good luck!!

EGAR

Thanks, I will try that, they seem to have separated. One is sitting under a hawthorn tree with lots of hiphigh nettles around it and I haven't seen the other two since late this afternoon... They are really wild and fly if you go near them. This isn't the first time that I found something other than kittens or dogs. Someone tied a ram once to my gate, his horns had grown into his eyes. I managed to save one eye with the help of the vet. Another time I found 2 goats tied on my land. And the worst was an injured badger someone left in a cardbord box at my doorstep. The injuries were consistent with an RTA, my vet said.

Sarah

luckat

When they go to sleep, all birds (except maybe owls!) go into a kind of coma, and their feet lock onto whatever they've perched on. So wait for darky nights and go out and find them, and throw a light rug over them and bring them in.

Boy, is life going to be noisy - though I've heard (never tried it) that if you want to stop cocks crowing, you should put them to sleep in a place where they can't stretch up and flap their wings, as they have to flap their wings to crow. Doubt it, frankly. But keep them somewhere nice and dark so they don't wake up and happily greet the dawn.

What a louser to land you with three cocks!

EGAR

Thanks, Luckat, I'll have to traipse through nettles later *isn't life wonderful*. As to the noise, I have a donkey as well and BOY he's loud but as I have no neighbours, I think I'll be alright with the cocks - IF I can catch them before the fox does. I have no chicken coop so they'll have to go into the puppy run for now which is roofed but they'll have plenty of dawn to crow about....

Sarah

Sarah

luckat

Sarah, you're going to have to find homes (or pots) for these boys before long, because they're going to start fighting, and they'll take lumps out of each other.

Sigma Force

Put them up on irishanimals.ie and pets ireland in the homes needed sections. Poor fellas also contact your local rescue and see if they can help.

EGAR

Guineapicrescue: I am the local rescue. That's why they were dumped here. And I know they will start fighting as they are cocks but I need to catch them first... Didn't find them last night with the flashlight as the area they can hide out in is huge.

Sarah