Neighbor hates my chickens- will she do them harm?

[WthrLady]

Alice and peg are sitcom names!

Peg Bundy from married with children.
ALICE. WELL FROM ALice!

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

I wasn't including Lavern and Shirley, I did have 30 names! I drove myself nuts trying to remember who I forgot, and I didn't forget anybody! That's right Alice and Peg are sitcom names! Funny! I actually named those two chickens after my grandmothers! Peg was my mother's stepmother who her father married when he was in his 60's. I admired her when I was a kid. She was a very well-dressed lady with the most fancy hair. She was always so nice to me and she loved my mother.

My mother's mom died of ovarian cancer just a few months after I was born. I actually wouldn't be me but for cancer. My mother had a baby earlier than she intended to because she knew her mom was dying. She wanted her to have a grandchild to love before she died. My mother did not cry very often, but a day that she did sticks in my memory. It was when she told me about one of the last times her mother held me. She said I was crying because well, little babies cry. Her mother was rocking me back and forth, "There, there," she said trying to comfort me," I know what it feels like when it hurts."

My father's mother was Alice. Every Sunday she cooked a fresh chicken dinner. It was my grandfather's job to "dispatch" the chicken. My grandfather hated the job and I think all the kids felt sorry for the chickens, especially my dad. Eventually my grandfather decided that he would kill no more chickens. "Fine!" My Gramma said, "I will do it myself!" My dad described to me how she marched out the coop determined to have her Sunday chicken dinner. She did manage to catch a chicken and after a close call with her own hand and the axe she managed to lop off a good portion of the flight feathers on the chicken's wing. The chicken ran off screaming bloody murder and that was it. There would be no more fresh chicken dinners at my dad's house! My grandmother bartered for fresh meat after that. She made some mean sweet pickles and her rasberry pie is something I hope I can have a slice of in heaven one day. That surely is where it must have come from!

 

[Mac14]

TheSitcomGirls, thank you for telling us your stories. It has been quite the roller-coaster. I'm so glad that you are able to keep Spock and Warren and get those cute goats!
Don't let the people who were doubting you get you down. I advise people who go on the internet to be skeptical. Anything can be said online, truth or not. The doubters are just being more careful, which sometimes is needed on the internet. I personally feel that everything you have said is true. Please keep them coming!

P.S. I hope I am not offending anyone. I'm trying to be sort of a middle-person.

 

[ImNotYogi]

TheSitcomGirls, thank you for telling us your stories. It has been quite the roller-coaster. I'm so glad that you are able to keep Spock and Warren and get those cute goats!
Don't let the people who were doubting you get you down. I advise people who go on the internet to be skeptical. Anything can be said online, truth or not. The doubters are just being more careful, which sometimes is needed on the internet. I personally feel that everything you have said is true. Please keep them coming!

P.S. I hope I am not offending anyone. I'm trying to be sort of a middle-person.

Healthy skepticism was my reason. Never doubted it was plausible to be true though I've seen the lengths people have gone through with online facades. In any case, apologies to the OP if any offense was taken.

 

[biga]

spock and counselor troi are from totally different star trek franchises. make it spock and lt ohura or counselor troi and mr data.

 

[missbecky]

I don't get why someone would even feel the need to scrutinize, or debunk your story. Even if it wasn't real... It has been entertaining.

I for one certainly believe you, as my in laws had a "crazy lady" neighbor who would get drunk, sit on top of the fence, and blow air horns to frighten our livestock... For no other reason other than she was nuts! Sometimes she would sneak out into the pasture, and turn off the well pump.

It's good to get it out, to find resolve, and even share with others who have experienced the same ordeals -We learn from sharing.

 

[TheSitcomGirls]

I lost my poor Silver Spangled Hamburg Janet today. She died in the run, I believe of natural causes. There were no signs of a struggle. She had all her beautiful feathers but her neck had been chewed. It was sad and very alarming. She had been unthrifty this winter and she often slept alone. I knew she was not herself. Chrissy will miss her best friend I am sure.

The chewing made me so mad! Rats! At least I think so. None of the other chickens were acting alarmed when I fed them at 4:00. If something had killed Janet then they all would have been scared and hiding. I would hate to think I have a predator besides Crazy Lady! And for sure we do have a small rat population. My coop is stone and that means crevices. Little spaces between the rocks where slinky bodies can sneak in and hide. But stone is so good for the chickens. It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter especially on sunny days where the stone soaks up the rays and then warms the coop at night.

We never see a rat all summer-probably because of the snakes. Corn snakes, black snakes, brown snakes, rat snakes, garter snakes- I have them all. They sun themselves on the old barn foundation. The snakes don't bother my chickens and I don't bother them! Then in the winter I think they hibernate deep under the foundation of my coop where it's warm. Then the rats have a chance to try to move in. Every winter I set traps here and there and never catch a thing. Tonight the battle began again in earnest. A bit of food missing I can deal with, touching my Janet I will not! Traps were set high where the chickens can't reach them and crevices stuffed with steel wool. Once you have seen one rat it seems like they are everywhere. And I saw one. It was hiding under the wooden shelf above the electrical box. My glimpse of the creature sent poor DH running around with a crow bar with me yelling, "Get it, get it!!!"

Let the battle begin.

 

[aart]

If you see one rat, you have legions of them. Best of luck with that, they are hard to get rid of.
The best solution I've read is to do the poison in a pipe, BUT you have to use the right poison to eliminate the possibility of secondary poisoning with all your other animals.
Do some searching/reading...there are a couple folks here who well understand the vagaries of the different poisons....I can't remember offhand because I've never had the need for them.

Did you ever find out what actually happened to the dumpsters?

 

[SunkenRoadFarms]

X2 in the difficulty getting rid of them. They are extremely leary of new food, so traps tend not to be effective, especially right away. I've tried poison, but again they won't necessarily eat it. Ultimately my barn cats were the only thing that got rid of them.

 

[jak2002003]

The best way to get rid of rats is to get the pest control people in to do a proper job.

Also keep feed in rodent proof bins.. and don't have any spilled feed on the floor..... Keep everything clean and have the chicken feeder out of reach of the rats and only feed enough so your birds are not throwing feed over the coop floor.
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