NY chicken lover!!!!

[Cass]

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Gee THANKS! Just what I need.. Rofl

. My chicks are a set of four 'mutts' under the BLRW (EE/Cochin - but the last batch of the EE/Cochin mixes are gorgeous, even if I did get too many roos), and there are nine BO chicks running around behind my australorp. She's a very good mommy, even though I hatched those chicks in my brinsea and plopped them under her a week early. I think I'll pass on the silkies this time around

Darn, here I thought I could cure my problem. Guess I am stuck with the darn pooffy things. At least for another day. I'll keep trying.

 

[marquisella]

Anyone coming to the show with silkies?

I am looking for some nice at least breeding quality, preferable lavendar, procelin or partridge.

I will have blrw chicks, and if I know in advance could bring a bw Ameraucana pullet or 2.

I also am looking for some Coronation sussex.

I also have some bc Marans cockerels hatched from very very dark eggs.

Sue

 

[critterranch]

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my geese dont do a thing as for guarding they are too nice and too lazy. lost 3 of my geese to a fox. i thought they would guard too but they dont. i have a broody goose but they dont ever protect her either. i have 2 males and they dont fight either they are just too darn nice. i was hopeing they would get mean but they seem to be getting nicer. i have heard horror stories though about them biting and drawing blood.
my geese totally stick to themselfs in the yard. they free range seperate from everyone. its weird because the runners try to follow them but the geese chase the away.

traps are meant not too be painted the paint would hold a smell. traps are meant to be like that so they dont carry scent very good. i would just try to set leg trap. i had to set 4 in a circle and tie to tree to get fox. had to use fox pee and a live duckling in a cage for bate. i just put cage with duckling in it in middle so fox couldnt get it. i tried using a chick but it didnt work the chick didnt peep. the duckling worked fast cause it peeped alot. only took a few hours and we got fox.

 

[Sachasmom]

I read someplace that they sell trap paint so they won't rust, I didn't know you couldn't leave it outside, duh. Its like rusted shut....

I like the idea of the trap circle though.... I'd need to go buy more traps! I hate using them since I am always afraid I will trap my own stuff! I had an old timey farmer tell me what made the perfect bait, but lets just say I can't say what it is...

I'll have to try that for a fox too, I think we have a den around here and its almost "Wipe out Dawn's pens" season! :O I guess snares are the best way to catch fox, but they're not legal in NY. Boo. I can't sneak up on anything but Possums! At least the Hawks are back to eating songbirds instead of my chickens and ducks! The box traps seem to be useless for anything but catching escapee bunnies.

Thanks for the comments on the Geese, here I thought they would make good protectors, certainly cheaper than put up a fence and get a donkey, lol

 

[happycountryhens]

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Thank you!

 

[tgrlily]

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They're getting so big! They have sold out every hatch, so I don't see them past the cute little chick stage...LOL. I just wish they had turned out barred. But then they would all be living here!!!

The whites are so beautiful. How many boys/girls did you end up with?

 

[critterranch]

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some people have good luck with the geese guarding. i guess i dont have good luck. just with catching foxes i guess.

yeah i had to do the circle trap because i had no way to anchor traps down. i used a dog tie out cable to hook the traps in a loop then around tree. went to a regular fur trader to asks about tips for trapping foxes. he gave me the fox pee for free. when i bought the 4 traps. he said you have to have at least 2 traps in a row. if you have just one they jump over it because they can smell it. i also had to cover all the traps with grass clippings. if you have a row of them they will jump over one then get caught in a nother. the fox i got was trapped in second one. she thrashed so much all the traps went off. this fox had killed 3 geese and 3 runners in less than ten days. all females dont ask me how but it did all females i had seen it do it 2 times in broad daylight. hope you get what ever is hurting your ducks. you do know how to stand on trap to set right? or you just afraid?

 

[Sachasmom]

Yeah, I know how to set it, I'm just afraid I will catch one of my own critters!

Last time I used my leg trap was winter before last, I would have used it already if I could get enough of the rust off of it for it to function! The place that sells the traps is like 45 min one way from here and I just haven't gotten out that way to get another.

I did see a really BIG rat out there last night that looked like it was trying to dig under the wall, of course it didn't go into the trap I set... I still think the bites are all wrong for it to have been a rat...

Your fox probably had a den, I think every year I have one that comes and wipes out a whole pen, last year it got meat chickens, year before it got silkies... The silly ducklings make so darn much noise out there its like every predator in a ten mile radious can hear them!

 

[marquisella]

Help! I hatched out 1 small silkie and it needs a companion. My 3 day old blrws are too big to put in with her..anyone have a recently hatched silkie I could buy? I don't care what color.

I'm not sure how I will keep it by itself....

Sue

 

[Cass]

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A mirror? Silkies are so dumb the will be fooled into thinking they have a companion. A stuffed animal to snuggle with? A clean really fluffy feather duster (or two if they are thin dollar store kind) hung at a height for the chick to snuggle under thinking it is it's mom?

Can you fashion a brooder that can be divided with chicken wire so the new chick can see the older ones, but not be pecked by it?

I saw quail chicks inside a chicken brooder (talk about size difference). The "mom" had fashioned a hoop out of hardware cloth and used glass canning jar lids as food and water containers inside the hoop/ring and put it with the rest of the chickens. She didn't have a top on the hoop/ring and the other chicks hopped in. I would have put a top on it. Given the size of the ring she was using a cool whip lid probably would have worked. She would have had to poke holes in the lid and twist tied it to the hardware cloth.