Pipd's Peeps!

[Eggs_Over_EZ]

I don't, unfortunately, and I'm not sure I have the means of getting one at the moment because I'm on a very limited budget. I may need to pinch some pennies and save up for one, though, as I thought of that as well. That would probably be my best bet of figuring out what it is and getting a plan worked out to combat it.

We want to get game games to see what may be lurking at night. My husband goes out a couple times a night to check on the chickens. He is definitely loosing sleep. What we are going to do is check pawn shops as you can pick up some good stuff in good working order at a discount.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Good idea, I'll have to look around a bit and see what I can find!


For now, I've just been peeking in the coop every now and then to see if I catch anything in the act. I just peeked in there before sitting down with lunch, here, and all of the Buck pen birds were inside. Delphine is still on her nest, of course, and two hens were in the other two nest boxes. The remaining three hens and Buck were all having a mass dust bath in their bedding by their roost. Buck noticed me peeking in the window and started to make that low, sort of grumble sound they make when they're warning the flock of perceived danger. Whoops, sorry gals, didn't mean to be a peeping tom on your bath!

Oh, and the last of the Gus babies has hatched I'm letting the little one fluff a bit before I get a picture and move it to the brooder, but it looks like another Black.

 

[NagemTX]

We have 7 peeps out and the last egg is externally pipped as of this morning! Looking like mostly Blues with only a couple Blacks in the mix. Most of them hatched yesterday evening to late last night.

This is the first four to hatch. Lighting's terrible because I moved them to the brooder late last night and I had the light out because the older peeps were not pleased about their move to the bigger brooder and wouldn't settle down unless it was dark in there.

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These three hatched later last night, so they moved to the brooder this morning

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Just waiting on number 8 to make an appearance. She's the only one that is actually on the proper schedule for when I set these eggs!!


In other, rather unfortunate news, it looks like the egg thief has not been stopped yet after all. I got 0 eggs from Buck's pen again last night. I'm honestly not sure what to do about it. Whatever it is is striking in the day, some time between early afternoon when I go out to let the mixed flock free-range and the evening when I close up coops for the night, and it must be able to fit through the welded wire fence of their pen without deforming it in any way because there's literally no other entry point. It's taking the whole egg and leaving no evidence behind, but I don't think it's a snake because there were eggshells being left behind when it first started happening. So it has to be either a raccoon or a rat, I can't think of anything else it could be. I'm afraid to gather the eggs ahead of time in case it decides it's too hungry to go without and takes a bird instead. All I can think of to do is leave the birds locked inside their coop and put a live trap in the pen to try to catch it. It's just so frustrating!

I watched a coon once take eggs back to hiddy hole to eat them. None broken till it got back to the safe place.

 

[NagemTX]

My next steps are electric fencing around the whole of the acer that gets turned on at night and a video/ camera system eventually.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I watched a coon once take eggs back to hiddy hole to eat them. None broken till it got back to the safe place.

Yeah, that's my current top suspect and the main reason why I'm too afraid not to leave any eggs for it to get at in case it goes for a bird instead.

My next steps are electric fencing around the whole of the acer that gets turned on at night and a video/ camera system eventually.

I'm so daunted by the idea of electric fencing, though I have thought about it quite a bit. A large problem with it for me is that we're in a woods. Just keeping all the weeds, undergrowth, leaves, branches, twigs, etc. off of the line to keep it active would be a ton of work.

 

[NagemTX]

This is what I have for set up.

For just one acer of land. I think we are going to try running 4 strands on the 6 foot fencing. I have the grounding rods but need to get the wire and the hardware for attachment to the fence. Will only be turned on at night for a reason. It's way more powerful than I need.

I've been looking at smaller models for just the pens tho. Kinda worried about the cats getting hit by the more powerful model.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Oh, yeah, that looks pretty brawny! Hopefully it gives some raccoons a few things to think about before deciding to get dinner at your place again, though

Turning it on only at night is a really good idea. It would be less other animals like cats and more my niece and nephew that I'd be afraid would get hit by it here. My nephew especially is the type where you tell him not to do something and that's the one and only thing he wants to do now. Guess he'd learn a lesson real quick from that!

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

Somebody stop the ride, I'm ready to get off

I spent yesterday checking on the outer coop every hour to hour and a half, trying to catch whatever the egg thief is in the act. Well, around 6:30, I went out and as I was walking past the coop (the pens are on the other side of it from the house so I walk past it to get to them), I heard something skitter and run off in the bushes nearby. I walked that way a bit to see if I could spot what it was, and didn't see anything. However, upon turning around to walk back toward the pens, I witnessed a HUGE raccoon coming around the corner of the coop and squeezing underneath.

So I set up the live trap by the corner, got the birds set up inside, and went ahead and locked them in for the night.

The good news is I caught the raccoon. Or A raccoon, presumably the same one as it's also a big one.

The bad news is that while trying to find a way out of the trap, it ripped a huge hole in the siding of the coop next to where the live trap was set.

Best I could do for now is hardware cloth over the opening. I guess I'm replacing siding when I fix the floor, too. This coop had zero problems until I had birds living in it again!!


Meanwhile, I noticed that one of the cockerels among the Easter-hatch babies out in the main coop was acting off yesterday, so I started them on amprolium, just to be safe. Well, he passed away in the night. Poor baby was so young. He was not one of my keepers in that batch, but now the only keeper pullet is acting off, so I'm going to be going out there as much as possible and making sure she's drinking plenty of the amprolium-treated water today. I only got 3 pullets out of the batch of 9, so I definitely don't want to lose any of them!


On the brighter side, I moved the last little Gus baby to the brooder last night, so here's her first picture. She's so small!!

And here's the whole brood in the brooder I did notice that a couple of them are having a hard time fluffing out properly, so I've got to keep an eye on that as well.

This pretty little Blue baby hasn't had any trouble fluffing up, though

Here are the older peeps in the big kid brooder, too. They're very grown up now (at 1 and 2 weeks old, respectively) and don't want my attention anymore, apparently.

 

[pipdzipdnreadytogo]

I don't have any pictures yet, but I peeked under our two broodies in the mixed flock here at lunch time. The Splash girl has at least three external pips under her, I didn't look any further so as not to disturb them. The Blue girl has 3 babies out, what looked like a Blue and 2 Splashes Her fourth egg didn't appear to be externally pipped yet, but hopefully it gets a move on before mama decides it's time to take babies out of the nest.

 

[2ndTink]

Somebody stop the ride, I'm ready to get off

I spent yesterday checking on the outer coop every hour to hour and a half, trying to catch whatever the egg thief is in the act. Well, around 6:30, I went out and as I was walking past the coop (the pens are on the other side of it from the house so I walk past it to get to them), I heard something skitter and run off in the bushes nearby. I walked that way a bit to see if I could spot what it was, and didn't see anything. However, upon turning around to walk back toward the pens, I witnessed a HUGE raccoon coming around the corner of the coop and squeezing underneath.

So I set up the live trap by the corner, got the birds set up inside, and went ahead and locked them in for the night.

The good news is I caught the raccoon. Or A raccoon, presumably the same one as it's also a big one.

The bad news is that while trying to find a way out of the trap, it ripped a huge hole in the siding of the coop next to where the live trap was set.

Best I could do for now is hardware cloth over the opening. I guess I'm replacing siding when I fix the floor, too. This coop had zero problems until I had birds living in it again!!


Meanwhile, I noticed that one of the cockerels among the Easter-hatch babies out in the main coop was acting off yesterday, so I started them on amprolium, just to be safe. Well, he passed away in the night. Poor baby was so young. He was not one of my keepers in that batch, but now the only keeper pullet is acting off, so I'm going to be going out there as much as possible and making sure she's drinking plenty of the amprolium-treated water today. I only got 3 pullets out of the batch of 9, so I definitely don't want to lose any of them!


On the brighter side, I moved the last little Gus baby to the brooder last night, so here's her first picture. She's so small!!

View attachment 3838056


And here's the whole brood in the brooder I did notice that a couple of them are having a hard time fluffing out properly, so I've got to keep an eye on that as well.

View attachment 3838057

This pretty little Blue baby hasn't had any trouble fluffing up, though

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Here are the older peeps in the big kid brooder, too. They're very grown up now (at 1 and 2 weeks old, respectively) and don't want my attention anymore, apparently.

View attachment 3838062

Oh my gosh! Yes! Time for this ride to stop all the drama and return us to cute chick pictures and stories of the peaceful flock life!

Wow, I'm glad you caught the racoon, bad that it managed to destroy more property though

What causes the chicks to not fluff up correctly? I've had 1 each in 2 different hatches and the second day I gave them a little wipe down with warm water and then they fluffed.