The Trap Nesting Thread

[ki4got]

well the time for the free ranging flock is nearing an end. not because of free ranging problems in itself, but because i haven't collected an egg from ANY of the 13 hens in more than a week. some of the hens i don't think i've EVER seen one of theirs yet LOL. the only girls that have been nice enough to give me their eggs were the dorking girls, but the incubator is showing the big guy isn't doing his job... the last of the fertile eggs are hatching tonight. 6/11 were fertile, 5 made it to lockdown and 3 have pipped so far, the other 2 internally pipped. so we should have 5 more babies by tomorrow night.

the new pen is done, all i have left is to put the doors on the coop and connect the 2. i've only got an 8x8 pen for right now, but enough wire that I'm contemplating fencing a larger area to let them into in addition... once the motorcycles are gone (if the guy ever gets here to take them) then the horse trailer will become a laying house, complete with trap nests eventually.

then they'll all be allowed to roam in the afternoon/evening once they've learned which house to go to (and where to lay LOL)

I've tried following the 'egg song' but never see any signs of egg or nest, so they're hidden well.

 

[MANOZ]

i havent found my birds,yet. starting to give up on them.i did find a rather large group of hawks hanging around my coop area 10 + hawks are more.i think they have been swooping up any that wanders too far off from my property. sighs......gotta love the challenge lol

 

[galanie]

Lately I've been really happy that my chickens are on the large side. Have a new neighbor that is a real animal lover and is feeding every bird and animal he possibly can. Which means the ones you don't want are being attracted to. Like hawks. I've never seen so many around here before. Used to be I'd only see one every so often. Now it's not unusual for me to see three or four, mainly focused on that property. Luckily they seem to be ignoring my birds. I think they're preying on doves and squirrels.

I never did put the door back on that trap nest because I had three about to start laying and want to be sure everyone goes in there. Yesterday two of my smaller ones were in there at the same time LOL. They didnt' really fit but were very determined. My newest layer lays where the stupid rooster told her to lay and not in a nest. He's gone and I keep putting a nest with a fake egg in it where she lays, we'll see. So long as I can get her laying in a milk crate nest box, getting her in the trap nest will be no problem.

I really, really need to build at least two more of these things! The pallet lumber is all lined up, I just need to get off my *** and do it.

 

[MANOZ]

galanie-
.With the weather we've been having lately kinda hard to do anything.I'm just getting over a cold and now its raining out of control.I did manage to get all three of my pullets laying in the trapnests. Two of them took to the trapnests without my help.The third one was laying on the ground i actually caught her in her hiding place.One day i observed her and when she started singing the egg song I caught her and put her in a trapnest.I left her there over night and let her out the next morning to feed.I did this twice and both days she layed into the trapnest.After that, she goes in them on her on now.I still keep and eye out for her when I'm out there.its been a few weeks and she hasnt layed on the ground again thus far.

about the hawks i just hope they dont eat more chicken than me.....lol

 

[galanie]

galanie-
          .With the weather we've been having lately kinda hard to do anything.I'm just getting over a cold and now its raining out of control.I did manage to get all three of my pullets laying in the trapnests. Two of them took to the trapnests without my help.The third one was laying on the ground i actually caught her in her hiding place.One day i observed her and when she started singing the egg song I caught her and put her in a trapnest.I left her there over night and let her out the next morning to feed.I did this twice and both days she layed into the trapnest.After that, she goes in them on her on now.I still keep and eye out for her when I'm out there.its been a few weeks and she hasnt layed on the ground again thus far.

  about the hawks i just hope they dont eat more chicken than me.....lol

LOL at the hawks. Only I'm not sure why I'm laughing, I am having a hawk problem that I never had before. Thankfully they haven't been successful so far though. It just surprises me that they'd even try, my girls are so much bigger than these guys are. Ah well.

Suddenly I have my girls all wanting to lay eggs elsewhere. The stupid rooster they had told them to lay eggs in a different spot, and now that he's GONE, they've all decided that's the preferred spot. I've gotten them to lay in a milk crate nest like the one in the trap nest, but will they move into the trap nest, even if I swap out boxes? Of course not! Will they lay in there if I put all the eggs and fake eggs in it? Nope! But I'm not going to go crazy over it till after my broody hatches her bunch. For now, I can tell who laid most of the eggs and I'm still out there a few times a day and know who was trying to lay where so I guess I'll just wait another week or so to get serious about it all. Anyway my lazy self still hasn't made another trap nest so I guess 1 nest for 5 hens isn't exactly going to work out well anyhow if it's a trap nest.

 

[omegorchards]

Has anyone ever built a trap nest that uses a digital camera instead of a trap door to record the hen?

 

[ki4got]

Has anyone ever built a trap nest that uses a digital camera instead of a trap door to record the hen?

yup. works pretty good unless you have hens that look alike, or that lay the same size/color eggs. then the trap door method would be better because you can check your hens' ID (wing band, leg band, etc)

 

[omegorchards]

yup. works pretty good unless you have hens that look alike, or that lay the same size/color eggs. then the trap door method would be better because you can check your hens' ID (wing band, leg band, etc)

Im thinking of using a high def camera that will show the leg band ID number. Has anyone ever shown a camera setup?

 

[ki4got]

Im thinking of using a high def camera that will show the leg band ID number. Has anyone ever shown a camera setup?

good luck with that. i have to practically flip the birds to read their bands. LOL. then again i've got stumpy legged dorkings. at least i can tell the girls apart right now by their combs... one's starting to flop the other is still standing up.

 

[MANOZ]

omegorchard-
will you put in motion detectors also,no offense but seems like you would need them unless you babysit the monitor.i'm sure it would work but seems a bit time demanding.i could see someone handicap using a setup like this. colored legbands or something would help also.but the more birds you have the harder it will be to keep up,imagine 5 birds all going to lay around the same time.once they lay they're not gonna hang around so keeping up might be a problem. if you can pull it off i'd love to see the setup.