If you're going to breed them you'll need individual breeding pens. Anytime you're not planning to hatch eggs or sell them as hatching eggs they can roam together, though, depending on how many different roosters you have there could be problems among them. From what I've read on here you need...
If it was the size of your rat terrier it was a grey fox. They are grey with reddish markings, especially around the face and legs. They really aren't that rare, just rarely seen. I've got a pair that frequent my backyard/adjoining woods and I haven't had any problems with them, although my...
I'm sorry you're going through this with your roo. I had a rooster a couple of years ago who partially ingested a string from a feed bag which wrapped around his tongue near the base (much like you would wrap a rubber band around your finger). By the time I found him the tongue was swollen...
Yes, raccoons can open barrel bolts. If a toddler can easily open a latch a coon can too. You're better off using hasps with a padlock or at least a caribiner through them. Put them near the top and bottom of the doors so they don't pry open an unsecured door section enough to get in. Yes...
Didn't bother my chickens at all but it made my dogs bark and scared the !!#!! out of me! I was sitting on the front porch eating lunch and actually looked around for a BIG truck or something before briefly concluding I was hallucinating... not something we usually have here. I called my...
I agree with Sovia- I use a rabbit feeder that hangs on the wall- mine's made of plastic, not metal. Not enough room to jump into and easy to take out of the bracket to fill or clean. I think mine was about $5.00 at Tractor Supply.
Girl. Should be just about ready to lay. The two BAs I used to have matured at very different rates but looked just like that and were both pullets. I don't see any sign of hackle or saddle feathers. Enjoy your birds- BAs have great personalities :-)
Mice will not care about lights. Or pretty much everything else either. In the fall when they start to come into the house I have found them sitting on the shelf in front of a lamp or the television completely unperturbed. They have also strolled up to an incredulous Jack Russell (in those...
Any of the climbing-type snakes such as rat snakes can climb just about anything. There is a 6 ft black rat snake at my parents' who routinely climbs up the side of the house and looks in the second floor windows (almost 20 ft up). We've watched him do it- he gets up there by partially wedging...
Human, snake, rat, chicken. Those would be my first guesses in no particular order. I would assume that a human who is going to take one egg would take all three.
If 10 were carried off my guess would be fox- they'll cache food for later, especially if they have babies. And they frequently hunt during the day this time of year, again because of babies.
How young is he? Is he of similar size as your hens? If not they won't protect him, they'll bully him to the bottom of the pecking order. I recently added a young barred rock rooster (about 16 weeks old) to my flock after my other rooster was killed by dogs. He's big but he doesn't yet know...
I think you've got two pullets. I have 2 BR pullets and a BR cockerel the same age right now- the cockerel is much lighter and more finely marked and has saddle, hackle, and roo tail feathers. I see none of those on yours. As for the pullets, they're both from the same hatch. One looks like...
I once caused a "chicken tornado" by merely sprinkling some fresh shavings in the coop (as if they'd never seen that before). They were flying around bouncing off the walls and my head while complaining loudly. Up until then I had no idea large fowl were so aerodynamic......
Gray rat snake (aka fox snake, chicken snake). Non-poisonous and harmless to humans. Excellent for rodent control but will eat eggs and chicks occasionally. Different version of the black rat snake which we have here. They have a free pass at our farm, though if they become persistent about...
Mine get cheap, generic dry cat food (30-32% protein) as a snack, especially when they're molting and during the winter. They also get BOSS and leftovers of all kinds from my family's kitchen. I once had the bright idea to mix the cat food and BOSS into their pellets in the feeders but quickly...
Good dogs! Might double check with your vet though- odds are the raccoon was NOT ill because it was behaving in a foraging/hunting fashion but the vet may want to give the dogs another rabies vaccine just in case. There have been several rabies cases locally in the past couple of years and the...