Your neighbor is an IDIOT for allowing his animals to simply run wild, and then not caring for them when he lost interest. Shoving them off on you really makes him a twit of the first water. I know of no one who would do such a thing. Most chicken owners care for their birds, they have value as either a food source, pets or both. Good advice from brendasue. :) But be ready, Game Fowl and/or bantams are darned clever little suckers, and FAST. *L* Don't even think about trying to chase them. Instead, win them over with food--that's the way to a chicken's heart. They are VERY food-motivated. If you invest in something especially yummy, such as live mealworms or some leftover cooked chicken, and take a few days to get them used to you and trusting you as you feed them, you'll be able to get a lot closer to them. Depending on how long they've been left to run wild, it may just take a few days to win their trust to the point where you can reach out and grab them--those tails are excellent grab handles, just make sure to be ready to grab the tail with one hand, and then use the other to trap their body against the ground until you can let go of the tail and move that hand to their body. PLEASE don't hurt them! If they have really gone wild and distrust you, you may have to be more patient. Going after them just after dark when they have gone to roost (think up high, their instinct tells them to get as high as they can, and they will have a favorite spot that they return to) works well, chickens can't see worth a darn in the dark. Or, simply hang your songbird feeder up above chicken level. Songbirds still get food, the chickens happily clean up the spillage that is on the ground. :) And they provide you with free, incredibly tasty eggs! Velvet ~:>

My neighbour and I also lost chickens the same way you did. They have the best chicken house and run a person could wish for. They blamed another neighbours dog for taking the head off the chicken - no way it could have gotten into the run and this dog would go in my chicken house with me and sit in my yard with the chickens/ducks wandering around it. This dog got killed on the highway and a few days later, I had a chicken killed with just it's head gone. I searched on the net and on this site and the suggestions were, coon, mink (which we have on the beach) or weasle. I gave my mother hen and 8 baby chicks to my daughter, who has a 9 acre farm a few klms north of us. She had the perfect little house for her, a run that was fenced in with a wire roof over the top of the whole run. The grandson and I dug down and put crumpled wire all around the bottom of the cage wire. She was very very safe. My daughter phoned one morning, the hen was dead. Some animal had dug under the front of the little house and had """ chewed """ the plywood that was into the ground, facing towards the run, there was a good size hole and "Henny's" head was gone. I know how you feel loosing your friend but there will be another to take it's place. Good Luck with your chickens.

That's suppose to be the wings that wasn't trimmed for a long time. I'm not worried though, it's not going to fly anytime soon! Nuclear powerplant in Hawaii? That's just silly, ha ha ha.

making a project for my grandson will send you tons and tons of perennial seeds in exchange lmk by e-mail.