Investing More In American Dominiques

Pics
Date sort Score sort
One benefit is the bamboo is getting fertilized at correct time of year. Eventually it will be harvested to make sunscreen for pens. Some of the birds seem to come some distance each night to roost in the bamboo. At least a few I have not made positive ID's on. Spatzies do not appear to be in the mix.
 
Now a big change in songbirds working pens for feed and deficating all over the place. English House Sparrows and European Starlings are now visiting in a big way. They are consuming feed rapidly enough that typical rationing of feed for some chickens in cages is causing underfeeding. This happened before and is labor-intensive to compensate for. Approach is to feed chickens two times daily rather than once at dawn. Normally feed applied in morning in amounts enabling chickens to fill crop about two times resulting in all feed being consumed by dark. Songbirds make soo usually amount applied is consumed with help of songbirds well before dark. Adjustment will be feeding half of usual amount at dawn so chickens can consume all of that immediately and then second allotment just before dark to they can eat all of that in 15 minutes or so. Lot of labor involved feeding 50 odd pens.
 
We have snow pusing 6 inches in depth. Hotwire is shorted out. Most resident predators will avoid testing fencing because they already have had experience with it. Despite this the critters will occasionally probe. We are getting first real winter conditions which will keep predators away for a couple of days as they hunt more wind protected areas but that will change if harsh weather persists. Dogs will have to step up.


Tonight for first time starlings moved into barn to roost. That will bring owls in where they can actually get a meal making them more vested in probing for weakness in my protection efforts for chickens in barn.
 
The time of year it is difficult to keep songbirds out of even closed barns. If barn is closed tight enough to keep birds out then ventilation will be an issue and most times that is more serious. Overall this winter exceptionally warm so songbird issues not as bad as typical. I will being trapping starlings and spatzies shorlty. Some will be fed to owls but others will go to compost.
 
Yes, but will be a challenge to stop birds from simply walking in. Birds in winter is a minor concern relative to heat in summer. Heat here can kill chickens. Cold does not even with birds roosting under stars with conditions rivaling yours and pestilence provided by songbirds is not as problematic as heat. This is going to be a balancing act. Once sheep and goats are brought into picture keeping songbirds out will be impractical.
 
Starlings can be a mess. Rather different than most songbirds, in our experience. They came to our ranch as a flock, sh** over everything, were noisy and stinky. European starlings were what I identified them as. Ugh.

Good luck.

And yes, I agree with AArt - life is a balancing act.

Mrs K
 

Similar threads

castillo_de_luz
    • Like
    • Love
Chicken Confessional: I'm a little scared!
6 7 8
Replies
72
Views
3K
RoyalChick
RoyalChick
chooky_2_shoes
Microflock Integration Issues
Replies
3
Views
1K
chooky_2_shoes
chooky_2_shoes
F
    • Angry
    • Wow
    • Sad
Neighbor threatening to trap birds
7 8 9
Replies
83
Views
11K
Love Donkeys
Love Donkeys
T
Lining or worms…once more CAUSE?
Replies
4
Views
544
Tristeli
T
U_Stormcrow
    • Like
    • Love
Biodiverse Polyculture (USDA 8a Zone Pasture) - sounds better than "My Acres of Weeds"
17 18 19
Replies
189
Views
22K
lightm
lightm

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom