# I have a broken heart tonight :(



## TerryQui (Sep 10, 2012)

_See attached picture of my girl._

Last night my beautiful bearded buff silkie girl was killed by rats.
That is the last rat straw that I can take. She wasn't very old and I have tried so hard to have silkies and she was my pretiest one and now she is gone.
I have used traps, safe plaster poison, and everything I could think of except rat poison. I didn't want to endanger a cat or dog in the neighborhood.
We live in the city, suburbs, but a couple blocks from food service and stores.
There are rats in the city. 
Well tonight I went to the store and bought two boxes of RAT POISON! I put out one whole box tonight, under the coop and places where I know that they are, but my chickens wont' get it, as they are locked up for the night.
I will pick it up in the morning. I AM KILLING THEM SUCKERS! I will now have to keep poison down until I never see a rat again!

_*See post below for my silkie story from last year.*_

Now ONCE AGAIN, I have lost a silkie. I think silkies are just too sweet to fight a rat. 
None of my other chickens get hurt by them.
This little girl was a SWEET gentle baby.
I am going to keep trying to get silkies and I AM GOING TO WIN THIS WAR!!!!!!!!!!

Terry Quinn
http://www.parentingfasdkids.com


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## TerryQui (Sep 10, 2012)

*Last May, I brought this story to BYC when it happened:*

I just wanted a couple bearded silkie buffs for my little farm.
Let me tell you a story. I am totally aching today after all this.

First about a year ago, I bought a dozen silkie eggs to incubate. I have incubated bearded dragons for years. I thought, no biggie.
It was a biggie. First I incubated 24 RIR/arucona mixes and got TWO.
I love those two though.
Then I put in my Silkie eggs. I thought I had researched what went wrong with the others and I was doing it all right. NOT! They all shrink wrapped.

So I gave up on eggs.

Next I purchased 25 silkie chicks from Ideal. They were a mix and on sale.
I get them and NOT ONE BUFF in the group.
So I decide that is ok. I will raise the white ones and look for buffls at a later date.
I ended up keeping two of them. They have nice beards and are pretty.

I still want buffs though. So about eight months later, my friend and I buy another box from Ideal. We got 26 blue and buff chicks. I am thinking that now I have buffs. Lots of them.
Only a few had beards though.
We divided them up and I started growing up my buff silkies.

They got old enough to be put outside in my baby coop. I have raised other babies in that coop including my past white silkies and cochins.
All was going well until one night I went out and two were missing. I find a board that got loose and they got out, not to be seen again. SAD!

We fix the hole.

That same day I realized that RATS are eating my chicken food. So I decide not to put food out at night any more. We live in the city and I knew that rats were coming by, but I never saw them, so I didn't panic. But now I know that they are eating the food as I caught one. So the food goes in and we think if we don't feed them, maybe they will leave. (right...).
Next night, I go out and SHOCK OF MY LIFE! FOUR OF MY BABIES ARE DEAD! RATS KILLED THEM!
I am so devastated!!!

My hubby rat proofed that coop that day so that they could not get in. I now have seven left and none of the buffs with beards. Those are GONE!

They all did well in the protection though. I thought at least I would have a buff, if not a beard.
Two weeks before Mothers day, I found my hubby building something and he said it was a RAT PROOF baby coop for my babies. (just so you all know, nothing is rat proof :*(

To be continued:


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## TerryQui (Sep 10, 2012)

Anway we thought we were going to be safe now finally.
I bought traps and we have captured the rats, I hope! I still put out traps though. I am not trusting any more.

So life goes on and one night my grandson is over to visit. He loves my chickens. He is almost 4. He was outside with them for a while and I decided that we needed to check on him and the chickens.
I go out there and was in TOTAL SHOCK! There was a MASACRE all over my yard of baby chickens. One dead here, one dead there. all over the place!
I am trying to figure out what happened.
Then Jayden tells me that my dog did it. He said, she ate them like Macaroni and cheese and black macaroni. That was his way of describing their colors that were blue and buff.
My dog has never tried to harm a chicken and the only conclusion that I can come to is that she thought her and Jayden were playing a game and chicken chasing was fun. She was catching them. Only one had a spot of blood on it.
My grandson had shut the coop door, so that they were unable to get in for safety. One was inside and the other six all dead on my lawn. 
Now I was down to ONE! It was a blue. NO BUFF SILKIES!
Now we decide that the chickens need a fence area that my dogs can't get at. Once a dog killed, they might always be at risk.

So we fence the yard.
Now we have this supposedly RAT PROOF coop and a fenced in yard. Are we safe yet?

To Be continued:


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## TerryQui (Sep 10, 2012)

Well my friend who had bought the other half of these silkies came to the rescue. She sold me ten of hers.
Now I have 11 blues and buffs in my RAT PROOF coop.
By this age, I can tell some are males, so I sold two blue males to a farmer.
I am at nine.
Yesterday was the first day that these babies could run because we finally got the fence up. I let them out. However hubby hasn't yet built a ramp for them to get back in. So at bedtime, I had a hard time catching them all. Four went into the big coop with my other 13 chickens. I have RIR, Cochin, Silver laced Wyandot and Old English.
Well I let them be in there, as they were all getting along fine during the day.
About an hour later I hear SCREAMING! FREAK OUTTTTTTTT!!!!

I rush out there and find that a brooding mom has hatched babies, two of them, and the 10 week old silkies are trying to get under her with the babies. SHE WAS MAD at them. I scooped two up and put them in the baby coop.
I noticed the one blue on the roost and since that one has been in the coop before. for nights, as it is the ONE that was left from my originals, I think that one is fine to leave.
Then I realize that there was another buff missing. I looked with a flash light. THere it was behind the silkie nest box. I grab it up and OMG! It was hanging like dead and bleeding all over!!!!!

I ran in the house and begin to administer first aid. First there is a gaping cut. I applied super glue to it. That is what surgeons use often on people.

To Be continued:


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## TerryQui (Sep 10, 2012)

Then I bring in another baby and tuck them both in a towel and use the good baby to warm up the shocked baby. Then I try to administer fluids by a dropper to the shocked baby.
I holler out to my friends on Face Book that I need prayer for this baby chick.

I finally get her somewhat stabilized and I put her in a bird brooder with heat for the night.
She made it to the next morning.
So I go out to check on everyone this morning and go into the big coop and what do I find? MY LITTLE BLUE WAS DEAD!!!!! Of course if I had thought clearer the night before, I would have removed it from the coop, but I wasn't thinking right. BLAME ME AGAIN!
It was my last female looking chick with a beard. Not a buff, but had a beard and now it is DEAD!
So now I have six buff silkies and two blues left.

I put the hurt baby in a playpen for the day to get sun on her booboo's. That would help heal.

I moved the vicious mommy into the old baby coop with her baby and eggs remaining. I don't want any more dead birds. SO WHAT DOES SHE DO? Stops brooding the eggs!
THat is four more chicks that might not make it. I put them under another brooding mom this afternoon. We will have to wait and see.

So I have six buff silkies left. Not one has a beard. I will enjoy them, but my heart still searches for a buff silkie with a beard.
I am sure that there are at least two girls in that group.

I have now dealt with RATS, DOGS and Vicious mothers. I don't know anything else that is dangerous out there since I have a six foot privacy fence in my city yard. I have never seen a **** around ,but I have seen possums.
Everyone is locked in at night and no possum can get into my coops.
CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS STORY, THOUGH?

AND to top it all off, today I went out to a farm to pick up some fertile eggs for a brooding mom and on the way back I saw a wood chuck in the road. It looked dead. I decide to straddle it and not hit it. Just as I come up on it, it MOVES and runs RIGHT INTO MY TIRES!

I felt the car run it over and looked in my rear view mirror. I killed it. I about CRIED! Why LORD? Why?
I am certainly heart hurting today.
I just wanted a bearded buff silkie pair.


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## roselady (Nov 4, 2012)

I'm so sorry TerryQui :-(


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## oakwood (Aug 21, 2012)

How very sad .


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

How awful TerryQui. So sorry for your loss. Hugs!!!


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## aussiechicks (Sep 25, 2012)

I'm so sorry for your losses, you've had a horrible run.


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## Bird_slave (Oct 26, 2012)

I'm sorry for your loss.


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## Roslyn (Jun 21, 2012)

So sorry. It's never easy to lose them.


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## Mamachickof14 (Aug 28, 2012)

OMG! I'm so sorry you had to go threw all that...I had a Fox checking my 14 girls out and I slammed a broom down on the porch making a sound like a gun going off and I haven't seen one since! Of corse after that I had my husband get me a bunch of page fence 6 foot high and nothing has bothered them yet??? Better knock on wood! I also lock them in their coop for the night...not taking any chances! RIR's can be very agressive...I wouldn't want all 14 of them after me! They peck HARD! I feel so bad for you...hope you don't have to give up. Maybe try one more time?? Jen


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## TerryQui (Sep 10, 2012)

Thanks everyone. NO I am not giving up. I am going to the show tomorrow and seeing if there is a nice silkie there.
I am getting some eggs from a friend and going to hatch some more babies. I have the hang of hatching now. Just hatched serama's last week.
I will have silkies and I will NOT have rats!! That is my statement.
It hurts when I think about this, but it is a sad part of having chickens and I know lots of chicken lovers who have been through this many times. hugs all~!


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## Chickadee (Oct 15, 2012)

I'm so sorry for your loss, but I wonder if you could consider another longer-term solution. Not that I'm against killing rats or anything, but new ones always move in. We live in the woods and have had terrible rat problems. One winter all of our vehicles had to have repair work done because they were moving into the cars (AC area) and doing damage. Before I got chickens, I used to feed wild birds. It was one of my favorite hobbies, but after seeing stashes of bird seed under our house, I decided I had to give it up. I was creating an oasis for rats.

Then when I built my coop and run, I was very serious about any type of opening larger than 1/2". I did lots of reading and research, including finding the least expensive source for large rolls of hardware cloth. We also have lots of snakes, both venomous and non-venomous, so this helps with that, too. 

My run is completely enclosed in this 1/2" wire. No food is left outside of this area and I have never had a loss of any kind.


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## TerryQui (Sep 10, 2012)

Chickadee said:


> I'm so sorry for your loss, but I wonder if you could consider another longer-term solution. Not that I'm against killing rats or anything, but new ones always move in. We live in the woods and have had terrible rat problems. One winter all of our vehicles had to have repair work done because they were moving into the cars (AC area) and doing damage. Before I got chickens, I used to feed wild birds. It was one of my favorite hobbies, but after seeing stashes of bird seed under our house, I decided I had to give it up. I was creating an oasis for rats.
> 
> Then when I built my coop and run, I was very serious about any type of opening larger than 1/2". I did lots of reading and research, including finding the least expensive source for large rolls of hardware cloth. We also have lots of snakes, both venomous and non-venomous, so this helps with that, too.
> 
> My run is completely enclosed in this 1/2" wire. No food is left outside of this area and I have never had a loss of any kind.


Yes my husband and I were just talking about that. We are going to build a new coop, as the one we have doesn't have the greatest design.
No I don't want to be killing rats forever, but right now there is a population that I need to clear out. They killed another chicken last night. HEART! They are killing my 3/4 months old ones, so I am guessing these it is because these ones are too young to fight.
So this afternoon, Mike is going to put some wood up in the coop that is going to block the area that they can get into. They have never killed my chickens inside before, so we didn't worry about that area, but we are now.
Then we are going to start on plans. 
I breed green cheek conures, http://www.feathersnsong.com
so I have six in the brooder. Well those six are going to buy me a new chicken coop.
Mike is looking at things like metal flashing for the bottom and building it off the ground so that they can't live under it, the rats that is.
We will win this battle! 
I do not leave food in my coop at night. But there are too many rats right now and they are hungry. I know more can come, but if we take away their food, then they can't live long here.


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## 7chicks (Jun 29, 2012)

Oh my gosh TerryQui! This is just horrendous!!! We have our coop set so nothing can go underneath too. Its set on cement blocks. Also have a piece of aluminum sill plate screwed onto the bottom of the main door that goes below the door against the coop so absolutely nothing can sneak underneath that either. We lock their door on the inside and their main window has a big shutter that locks on the inside. Still working on figuring out a better door set up for their door. Not crazy about the fact its a piece of osb board in case something should try to chew its way through. Might be a bit overboard but danged if I'm going to let anything get in there at night. I just cannot imagine the horror this has been for you. 

I'm glad you are going to get another silkie. She may not be the same as your other but that's the beauty of it. Helps the heart heal too. Those chickens are such sweeties that it is heart breaking to lose one. Just went through that myself in Sept. Since, I had one of the same breed given to me that needed a home and another of a complete different breed that also needed a home. Two wonderful additions that helped heal the loss of Holley. Bitter sweet deal.


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## chickflick (Sep 23, 2012)

I'm sorry for your losses! It's so hard when you try so hard to give them a good and safe home.


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## expertnewbie (Mar 11, 2013)

Sorry for your loss.


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## Energyvet (Jul 25, 2012)

I share your sadness my friend.


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