Recent content by The Buffest Orpington

Okay buddy. You must struggle with reading comprehension, or not been following nearly as closely as you've said. Best of luck to you as well. EDIT: not sure why I bother, but here's what I said: As you say, it is a very long thread so you can be forgiven for not noticing where I landed on...

No worries, that comment was directed at another poster, whose response was ill-considered. This discussion has been valuable and interesting overall.

I'm going to avoid going ad hominem to keep things civil, but do keep your ignorant judgments to yourself. If you've been "following this discussion," you can see that I am: 1. Only free ranging when I am outside with the chickens and otherwise am keeping them in the run. 2. Planning to shoot...

I didn't expect this thread to spark such a lively and varied discussion, but it's very interesting, so I'm glad it did! I can see both sides of the issue - hence my extreme hesitation to go after the bobcat, and my failure to do so even in the second year of predation. But I do believe that...

Checked here in Maine. Bobcats aren't protected if they are attacking your livestock, period. 12 MRSA § 12401.

I understand completely, and my last post wasn't directed at you. Glad to hear your plants are doing better, but sorry to hear about all the distemper - foxes are beautiful creatures too, and no animal should face that fate.

These are all value judgments that say more about your own biases than about predators, farming, or livestock. If the bobcat is a "beautiful apex predator," then that makes me a beautiful apex predator++. The bobcat lives exclusively by killing other creatures. If I want to "secure my birds"...

Yeah, I'm pretty concerned about her. She's been isolated in a large tub in a quiet basement for nearly a week, and is mostly left alone. I've been feeding her vanilla coconut yogurt from a syringe daily, going slow so she won't aspirate. She has water (with electrolytes and probiotics) and...

In related news, the black australorp (the one was was being carried, who's been limping around) is putting more weight on her leg, and has been returned to the flock. Watching for excess pecking due to her missing feathers, but so far so good! Now if I can just figure out what's wrong with...

Oh I get where you're coming from, 100%. Even though I feel for this cat - especially because I believe it may have kittens depending on it - I'm still not sure I wouldn't take a shot at it if I saw it in the yard again and I had the tool handy. I think I would. Just not thinking I have it in...

Thank you all for your thoughts and input. Yep, just as I suspected - no consensus on the right thing to do! I had the same struggle last year when the cat got our favorite hen (and probably one other, though we never did find her). I'm torn between defending the flock and their right to...

This is the second year my chickens have been attacked by a local bobcat living in the woods behind out house. We like to free range our chickens, even though we only do so in the afternoon to cut down on the amount of time they're vulnerable. Last February the cat took Meridah, our favorite...

Thanks for the insights! Yeah, I imagine with a hybrid you'll get more variability, though as you say, that may not matter too much. As to disposition, Golden Comets are reputed to be generally gentle birds, so I think they may actually be a good fit with the Orpingtons and Australorps. As...

I'm pretty new to the chicken scene, but I feel I'm catching on enough that it's time to think ahead to the next generation of chickens in my flock. I don't know much about breeding, so I thought I'd run a breeding idea by BYC to see what some more knowledgeable people think. I currently have 3...

That's exactly what I'm doing with my first batch of chicks as well. Plastic totes aren't bad if you're careful. The tote needs to be big enough to give them 6 to 12 square inches each (more as they age), and as you say, the lamp should be clipped to a solid shelf or something next to the...