Oh, I beg to differ. I saw a raccoon pulling and breaking 1/2 x 1/2 19 guage hardware cloth...have the 4x4 inch hole to prove it. Oh, and 5 fewer chickens.
Sad to say, I can speak from very recent experience: The Massacre in Coopertown (my coop+run)
I live on 1.5 acres just far enough from town (but 150 miles from BHM, my hometown!) that there are coyotes, racoons, possum and a few feral cats around. I have taken photos of hawks just standing on...
"The easter egger is out...usually those are either greenish/blue or pinkish. You'll know when you find it's first egg!"
Not so fast...I found out that they mystery brown egg I find daily is from my white Easter Egger! Wahhhhhh....but still delicious!
So, a little bit of an update on the hen I thought was laying different colored eggs...urns out my Easter Egger, Pinky, lays brown eggs, not the blues I was hoping for. I won't hold it against her, after watching all she went through to show me her handiwork! My little black Frizzle, Sizzle...
Is it possible that my EE is laying different colored eggs? I have had green ones before, but found a brown one in the nest today, and the other pullets are definitely not of laying age...(unless, like my children, they are early bloomers!)
Nothing on that list. I give mine Black oily sunflower seed (in the shell) that I get from Home Depot, some veggie/fruit scraps (there's a list on the forum) and leftovers from the local Turkish restaurant (just vegetarian) because when I stop, they stop laying!
I go all organic and those seem to be the prices that are normal in Atlanta. i can get 30" organic layer for $30 from my local Meetup group. My preference is a local mill in Alabama-when I go there it costs about $14 for organic layer when I buy in bulk.
I'm not planning to get the holistic or organic food for our chickens but I don't agree with all of this either. Vets are notoriously undereducated on nutrition and they tend to push the foods that they get $$ for pushing.
Not too different from MD's, who oftentimes sell what the pharma-rep...