Yeah! She's alive!!
It's cold outside! Just finished filling feeders and waterers. DH should be in good shape for this weekend of holding down the fort. I need to run to town but am dragging my heels cause the birds haven't put themselves back up yet from free ranging. I really think I need to sell some more birds. There is still an awful lot of chickens out there and they are going through feed like its nobodies business. I hate selling birds but I do have a fair number of pullets that are getting to POL so they may be worth something here in a few weeks when it warms up. I think I am going to sell all the call ducks except a pair of butterscotch (Hawkeye-let me know if you have 4-H kids that want them) I do need to butcher some more roos, some of my chicks from Danz that were acting kinda girly are really turning into boys now! Sneaky little buggers. And I have some old hens that I know aren't laying anymore but I just can't bear to butcher them. They were my first girls.
Trish- Here are some pics of one of the gates we have for our goose pen. We also had ones similar to this on the breeding pens I just took down that we just attached to the T posts with zip ties that were left a tad loose so we could swing the gate open and closed. It works pretty well either way. You can click to make the pics bigger if needed.
Here is the goose pen gate, we used 2x4s and braced them together. Then attached the cattle panel piece cut to size with nail in staples. Drilled holes and put the two eye screws in and attached to the fence with a ummm, what are those snaps called.....carabiners? (spelling?)
Here is a close up of the eye hook and snap. There are two of them.
Here is how we braced the corners.
And here is another smaller gate made the same way.
Overall they have worked well. They just rest on the ground so you have to pick them up a bit to open them but I never have any problems with them. I have more trouble with my hinged gates in the big pens because they blow open on windy days when I am in and out and forget to snap them behind me and the snaps keep freezing in this weather too which is a royal pain. Hope this helps a bit!
Josie, thanks for the pics of those gates, that's great! It gives me hope that maybe I can actually make some gates. The weather is supposed to be warmer next week, so I'm hoping I can make a trip & get supplies to make my inside panels at the least, but I hope to be able to just get it all at the same time.
I honestly don't know what is going on around here, if I have a predator that is hiding out & the dogs don't get there in time to save the chicken or what. Right about time for me to get everybody in I have been losing a bird here & there for the last two weeks. I have lost 4 birds, two of which were slower than the others & the other two were young. The last one really burned me, I was so angry because I just got her recently from Eileen, she was one of my pretty little Barred Rock pullets that was about 4 months old. Someone on the LGD forum on FB told me I should get a game cam & make sure of what is happening before I conclude that it's my dog or dogs. They said they had problems with their dog & the sheep & were blaming them when after getting a game cam they found out the ram was attacking the dogs while they were sleeping! I hate to think my dogs are doing this, it makes no sense because they lay around in the yard all day with the chickens & don't bat an eye. They have been around chickens since they were born. This is happening right before dark, so it very well could be a very sneaky predator & the dogs are just retrieving the bird for me & they guard it until I find it. They don't eat them, they lay beside the bird. I have to find out what is going on, I can't keep losing my chickens like this, GRRRR!
