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That's what happened last year, which is why we went full hardware cloth this time. There must be a hole or burrow. Some of the bodies were way in the middle of the run, so someone got in and went berserker
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May 26, 2016 18:21
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| # ? Jun 9, 2024 02:14 |
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So sorry to hear about your loss...  Life goes on, though: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjdvoQ_5spE My coworker just went to the USPS to pick up her new babies.  Edit: Shobon replaced with smith. I can get my emotes right. my cat is norris fucked around with this message at 22:38 on May 26, 2016 |
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May 26, 2016 18:39
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Brawnfire posted:That's what happened last year, which is why we went full hardware cloth this time. There must be a hole or burrow. Some of the bodies were way in the middle of the run, so someone got in and went berserker Could it have been a rat? Do you see any animal tracks anywhere? If you wanted to try to figure out what it is, put out some fine sand/fresh dirt around the outside of the coop as well as inside (where animal tracks would be left in). Put a small trap inside (baited which fresh chicken) and see what turns up. You need to catch this predator before it goes after your other chickens.
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May 26, 2016 21:28
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I think we figured it out. A bracket which had attached the hardware cloth to the wall we built it against had a screw pull out. Just a small gap, but it was pushed aside definitely and there were feathers stuck in the wire ends. Guess we need to reinforce better. What a way to find out, though.
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May 26, 2016 21:46
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Brawnfire posted:I think we figured it out. A bracket which had attached the hardware cloth to the wall we built it against had a screw pull out. Just a small gap, but it was pushed aside definitely and there were feathers stuck in the wire ends. Guess we need to reinforce better. What a way to find out, though. How big a gap? Could it have been a raccoon? Might be a good idea to trap it and at least move it several miles away so it won't keep trying to attack your chickens. Raccoons can, with time, chew through hardware cloth. I guess now you have to get more chickens?
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May 27, 2016 00:00
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Inveigle posted:How big a gap? Could it have been a raccoon? Might be a good idea to trap it and at least move it several miles away so it won't keep trying to attack your chickens. Raccoons can, with time, chew through hardware cloth. Probably about four inches, I was bracketing two inches apart. Enough wriggling and bending wire, I could see a raccoon doing it. There's one that lives in the area and tore the heads off of two of our chickens last year. We saw it skulk away that night. It's an evil little death-monkey. I don't know if I'm up to trapping a raccoon, I guess I could try. I'm honestly a little scared of them, they seem more intelligent and capable of dark things than I am. I'm worried it would reverse the trap on me, somehow. And can they really chew through hardware cloth? drat. All the stuff I was reading made it sound like the last best defense against raykins. Maybe if I put that wider, thicker-gauge wire cloth over it like my old run, it'll keep them at bay.
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May 27, 2016 00:09
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Brawnfire posted:can they really chew through hardware cloth? drat. All the stuff I was reading made it sound like the last best defense against raykins. Maybe if I put that wider, thicker-gauge wire cloth over it like my old run, it'll keep them at bay. We had hardware cloth covering the chimney opening on a weekend cottage that we'd only visit once a month. Some raccoons chewed/tore at the hardware cloth until they were able to get into the chimney to make a nest. You could just inspect your hardware cloth every week to make sure there's no signs of tampering. You might also put metal flashing (that they use on roofs) over any spots where you suspect a coon might chew or tear at the hardware cloth. Coons can't get through metal flashing. I had raccoons climbing A/C ductwork to get into my house eaves. I had to cover the ductwork with metal flashing so the raccoons could no longer climb it. Raccoons are nasty. I was paying a company to trap some squirrels (who were also getting into the eaves of my house). They put out some small Havahart traps and raccoons would come at night, reach into the traps through the wire (1" openings) and tear the poor squirrels apart and eat them. I once found just a squirrel head in a trap and nothing else. The company got angry at me due to the squirrel death count (four) and I was like "What the hell do you want ME to do? Sit outside at night and scare the raccoons away?" I ended up hiring another guy who caught a couple of the raccoons (which were moved several miles away). You might ask around and see if there's a local guy who traps animals. Companies charge more. Then you don't have to deal with trapping the animal yourself. Inveigle fucked around with this message at 01:12 on May 27, 2016 |
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May 27, 2016 01:09
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"Could you please stop eating the squirrels, we have a quota to fulfill, Inveigle." Seems like they should make traps you can't reach into if they're trying to prevent squirrel deaths. They're taking away mobility which is pretty much the only squirrel defense besides chattering real loud. Anyhow, I think metal flashing over the area where the hardware cloth meets the wall might be called for. Thanks for the advice there. It's really creepy to think some toothy, sharp-clawed beast is carefully working over my chickens' defenses in the dark of night... What if we lived like that?!? Some hellbeast trying doorknobs, scraping at keyholes, reaching an arm through a cracked window to rake claws over your sleeping body... 
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May 27, 2016 17:15
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Wow, really lovely thing to have happen to your flock.  If the opening was small and the birds weren't eaten, you might consider that it was a weasel/mink that got in--they tend to behead poultry more for sport than food, little fuckers. The new chickens are cute, nice pics.  I've got to get fresh pics of ours, they are getting their first suit of feathers and have changed a LOT. Some long Brahma legs showin' up.  Also, we have an unexpected house guest this week--Pompador, one of our gray Giant Cochin girls, suffered an attack of screwfly. I got to dig maggots out of her backside, yay! So now she's in the house healing...the medication I sprayed her with turned her butt blue, so at least that's entertaining. Yoya is thankfully tolerating her being around (NOT in with her and the kids tho) and isn't going full psychomom on her.
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May 28, 2016 00:41
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Brawnfire posted:I think we figured it out. A bracket which had attached the hardware cloth to the wall we built it against had a screw pull out. Just a small gap, but it was pushed aside definitely and there were feathers stuck in the wire ends. Guess we need to reinforce better. What a way to find out, though. That's really rough!
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May 29, 2016 01:24
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I have 4 Welsummer and 4 Black Australorp chicks as of this week. I'm a nervous first time chicken mother! I was planning on using a chain link dog kennel for the run, and reinforcing with hardware cloth or metal flashing. After reading about how insane and ruthless chicken predators are, I am scared shitless to put my birds outside someday.
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May 29, 2016 01:57
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 Snapchicken
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May 29, 2016 02:24
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samizdat posted:I have 4 Welsummer and 4 Black Australorp chicks as of this week. I'm a nervous first time chicken mother! I was planning on using a chain link dog kennel for the run, and reinforcing with hardware cloth or metal flashing. After reading about how insane and ruthless chicken predators are, I am scared shitless to put my birds outside someday. Birds are going to die sooner or later. It's a fact of life. Some of them get diseases, some injure themselves in stupid ways, some run in front of dogs (mine), some get caught by predators. Go into it with the outlook that you're going to take the best care you possibly can, but that is is not always your fault if one dies. Nature is a very large system full of killing machines and some of them live near your back yard (and soon, IN your back yard! Feed live grubs and watch the girls MURDER THEM!). And yes, it will be sad and if you're like me you will scream and wail and curse the heavens when you lose one because it SUCKS... but you will recover. I promise. <3 Your chicks are adorable, btw. My Australorp is dumb as a brick and super loud if she's not getting her way, but I love her anyway. 
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May 29, 2016 03:30
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samizdat posted:I have 4 Welsummer and 4 Black Australorp chicks as of this week. I'm a nervous first time chicken mother! I was planning on using a chain link dog kennel for the run, and reinforcing with hardware cloth or metal flashing. After reading about how insane and ruthless chicken predators are, I am scared shitless to put my birds outside someday. My parents only had a few incidents while I was growing up, but in almost every instance it was a mistake on our part that caused an issue. Leaving the outside run open at night, the pens we built had a gap that a raccoon could fit through, etc. After we built a double layered pen inside (heavy duty welded wire outside, 4" of space, hardware cloth inside) we had 0 issues with anything and could leave the rest of the barn open at night for the cows. As long as you have something sturdy to keep things out initially you will be fine. In 10 years or so while growing up we had ~600 chickens pass through, most of which were cornish rocks that were there 7-8 weeks and gone, and only lost ~10 to predators, most in the first year when we were trying to figure things out.
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May 29, 2016 16:17
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I should count myself lucky. Twice someone had opened the door to the run and the chickens and ducks were wandering around, despite the neighbor hood having stray cats, raccoons and coyotes nothing happened to them *furiously knocks on wood*. Everybody was just kind of hanging around until we opened the run back up for 'em.
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May 29, 2016 16:35
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In less depressing news, from PYF. http://i.imgur.com/tiFWW6k.webm
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May 29, 2016 17:01
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Cythereal posted:In less depressing news, from PYF. That little jump at the end never gets old
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May 29, 2016 18:01
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Cythereal posted:In less depressing news, from PYF. So much yes. My wife and I spent some time reinforcing the coop. We did a "squirrel test" (we trapped a squirrel that had wandered into the run) and its path was exactly the one we suspected. So now that's patched up and there's a few more solid bits in uncertain spots. The old chickens are in there now and have survived one night so far! They're taking to it really well, digging and having dust baths.
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May 29, 2016 18:07
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samizdat posted:
Those are some ADORABLE chicks! Congratulations. I'm sure you will do all you can to protect them and let them live happy chicken lives. Remember, things can and will happen whether it be predators, illness... Looking forward to more pictures of the cutie pies! Thank you for sharing Are both breeds brown egg laying chickens?
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May 29, 2016 21:29
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Today we have integrated our two pullets into the existing flock of two chickens. So nervous! We've had them in the same coop for a few weeks now, separated by chicken wire, after a disastrous try at combining flocks last month (our fault, they were way to little to be able to hold their own ). We took down the wall this morning; the littles are FREAKING OUT and there have been a couple of aggro moves by the bigs but nothing too bad so far. How long will it take them to figure out their new pecking order?
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May 30, 2016 18:16
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It'll take a while, probably. If the littles don't have a mom to kind of keep the others off, they're gonna get chased a lot. We had some trouble with them getting chased into corners, so try to make sure the littlies have somewhere they can hide that the big ones can't corner them in. We've got a proper broody mama sitting on about 8 eggs for 2 weeks now. She gets off about once a day and drops the kind of monster deuce only seen in nightmares, then gets right back on the eggs. Hoping for at least a few viable chicks in a week or two. We'll see!
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May 31, 2016 22:16
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One of my hens is just kind of lethargically sitting around with her tail down looking listless. Research is telling me it could be a bound egg and that I should try to massage it out of her. Does anyone have experience with this kind of situation?
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Jun 1, 2016 02:09
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PSWII60 posted:One of my hens is just kind of lethargically sitting around with her tail down looking listless. Research is telling me it could be a bound egg and that I should try to massage it out of her. Does anyone have experience with this kind of situation? Gently grope around her vent. If there's an egg that she can't lay you should feel it. You'll find that people recommend soaking her in warm water with this or that dissolved in it, and massaging. In my experience, you can't actually do much to help and are looking forward to a tough decision. Also, chances are it's not "an egg" but a mass of broken eggs that accumulated over time. I hope it's something else, and she'll perk up!
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Jun 1, 2016 05:31
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Micomicona posted:Today we have integrated our two pullets into the existing flock of two chickens. So nervous! We've had them in the same coop for a few weeks now, separated by chicken wire, after a disastrous try at combining flocks last month (our fault, they were way to little to be able to hold their own When I integrated my pairs they took about 4-6 weeks to really settle into an order. I let them out (supervised) a lot more in the first few days following, so the littles could get away easier if they needed to. They're all friendly toward each other now, except for food fights.
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Jun 1, 2016 14:01
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Which is safer? A hardware cloth run or an electric fence? Right now the coop is secured with hardware cloth and I feel really good about their safety there (we call it fort Clucks). Their pophole in the back opens into a grassy area which is circled by electric fence, with a mesh overhead netting to deter red-tail hawks. I felt pretty good about our electric fence but stories about horrible raccoon monsters are making me worried.
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Jun 2, 2016 03:01
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CountFosco posted:Which is safer? A hardware cloth run or an electric fence? Right now the coop is secured with hardware cloth and I feel really good about their safety there (we call it fort Clucks). Their pophole in the back opens into a grassy area which is circled by electric fence, with a mesh overhead netting to deter red-tail hawks. I felt pretty good about our electric fence but stories about horrible raccoon monsters are making me worried. My dumb townie neighbor put up a solar-powered electric fence around his tiny, tiny coop. I don't know what kind you're looking at, but his did nothing for raccoons or coyotes, or the bobcat that hangs around. I'd go with hardware cloth and regular safety/security checks of the coop. If they're not out in the very early morning or at night, they're probably reasonably safe from raccoons. Are they locked in the coop at night?
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Jun 2, 2016 19:06
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They're locked in the coop at night, and the coop is very, very secure. Hardware cloth runs 18" deep all around to prevent critters digging into it. I let them out in the morning and close up the pop-hole as they start to come in as it gets dark out. We really really want to give them more room to run around than just a run, without some of the danger of complete free range. As far as predators go, we live next to thousands of acres of wild preserved land. And we live near a stream, which has me worried about raccoons. I've tested the electric fence myself and it gave me a jolt strong/painful enough to feel that it would deter a raccoon or coyote, but obviously I can't be certain. It's powered not by solar but through an extension cord to our house. CountFosco fucked around with this message at 21:50 on Jun 2, 2016 |
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Jun 2, 2016 21:41
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We're in the same basic situation. Thousands of acres of BLM next to our property, so plenty of coyotes and raccoons and weasels and neighbors' dogs, etc. Over 3 years we've lost about 5 chickens and a turkey out of 18 chickens and 4 turkeys to what we assume were predators. Considering our chickens free range, and where we are, it's not a terrible attrition rate. We've found through trial that keeping them in until about 10 am and closing them up at dusk seems to work very well for the coyotes. We've not had raccoon problems, but we certainly have plenty of raccoons in the area. Lots of ponds and streams and whatnot, so they're around. We do have two dogs, so that might help some, too.
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Jun 2, 2016 23:03
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My girlfriend works from home and I'm unemployed, so we're able to check in on them with some regularity. Our dog is a neurotic hound so no help there. When you say free range you mean free, free? No fence at all? We're up to 20 chickens and 6 guinea hens now. Well, six keets.
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Jun 2, 2016 23:30
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^^^ To me 'free range' just means the chickens are roaming in the open, not in a coop or run. Whether you fence them in or not is up to you. I think fencing them in is wise to keep predators out...too many things like a good chicken dinner. I have no experience with electric fencing, but raccoons, weasels, etc. can be damned clever when it comes to getting at the birds...PSWII60 posted:One of my hens is just kind of lethargically sitting around with her tail down looking listless. Research is telling me it could be a bound egg and that I should try to massage it out of her. Does anyone have experience with this kind of situation? Egg-bound hens have an unmistakable look--they stand upright like a penguin and they strain every few seconds to lay the egg, sometimes squeaking in pain, eyes usually closed and fluffed up, obviously suffering. Egg-bound is different from an egg laid internally (where the egg slips into the abdominal wall) --internally laid eggs mean get the bird to a vet, STAT. I've got more on egg binding and what you can try here: http://jackshenhouse.com/Injuries.htm My vet of course can pop an egg out of an egg-bound hen in 5 seconds be squeezing in the magic spot, but I've never done it. So if you don't have success in getting her to lay the egg within a few hours I'd say get her to the vet.
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Jun 3, 2016 10:34
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Our free range is exactly that - they have a little fenced in area around the coop, but it's open. They spend more time in front of my drat door, pooping like machines, than in their coop during the day. They don't wander into the woods at all. Mostly they hang out in the yard close to the house. Sometimes they pick a favorite spot. There's a spot under the deck they like, the greenhouse, and behind the garage.
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Jun 3, 2016 16:16
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I guess what we have you could call something between a run and free range then. They have free access to a pretty big patch of land surrounded by e. fence. I'll take some pictures at some point to illustrate.
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Jun 3, 2016 16:42
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Jun 5, 2016 22:04
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That chook doesn't look ashamed at all!
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Jun 6, 2016 00:06
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"and I'll do it again as soon as your back is turned" *evil chicken laugh*
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Jun 6, 2016 00:23
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Chicken be glad you aren't mine because I'd pop your little head right off your little neck stubbin so fast for that poo poo.
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Jun 6, 2016 00:49
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Haha, but look at his pretty little face! He knows, and he doesn't care.
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Jun 6, 2016 01:58
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Watch a chick be developed and hatched without its shell. http://www.sabongchronicles.com/2016/05/japans-latest-discovery-hatching-chick-outside-shell/ Fascinating stuff!
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Jun 6, 2016 14:56
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my cat is norris posted:Watch a chick be developed and hatched without its shell.  Does keeping the chick in a transparent membrane in any way affect its brain development? I know babies who are born prematurely often have sensory issues related to light/sound processing... I wonder if it's the same for chicks exposed to greater light levels in the "shell"?
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Jun 6, 2016 16:38
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| # ? Jun 9, 2024 02:14 |
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Well, our stupid broody hen has broken 3 of the eggs she's been sitting on. So far all 3 have shown signs of development. The last, 2 days ago, was nearly fully formed. We're hoping the doofus will STOP BREAKING HER EGGS so we have at least a few alive chicks this week sometime. Here's hoping!
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Jun 6, 2016 23:52
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