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I just "cleaned out" my coop of 32 mice caught over a 2 week period. Best (and cheapest) mouse/rat trap in the world. The bucket roller trap.

I'm going to venture a guess that it was a Striped Skunk (evidence the coarse white hairs). A neighbor lost 14 chickens to a huge boar skunk over a 3 night period. When I finally trapped it, it weighed 12 lbs (8 is normal for a male). It tried to get their duck, and actually bent a corner of...

A subject near to me. I appear to have recently cleaned out the infestation of mice from my coop. 32 (thirty-two!) mice were dispatched in a 7 day period. As far as I'm concerned there is no better trapping system for rodents. It's the "roller bucket" trap. Usually homemade, you can Google...

I lost a Brahman hen to such a predator once. The white chicken was the only one they could see inside the dark coop, so they grabbed it and ran.

Definitely get a game cam. One good enough for your purpose can be had now for $50-$80. A big live trap will cost about the same, but trapping takes some study. I had a critter problem where something was springing my Havahart live trap that I always used for skunks and Norwegian rats. Set after...

Hummm.... If you want to pamper your pet, then get no more than 2 chickens, take them for regular vet check ups, and knit them little stocking caps to stay warm on chilly nights. OR..... Provide them with a comfortable, predator-proof coop, a adequate run, collect eggs to your heart's content...

I encourage everyone to go on YouTube and search for "drunken compost". I tried that for the first time this year, and had usable compost in 3 weeks..... Seriously.

I use this type of waterer for both chickens and ducks. A 5 gal carboy and a 5 gal bucket will keep my 10 hens in water for about a week. http://toolmakingart.com/2008/06/10/chicken-feeders/ Many other ideas here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/102316222755112752/

3 year old male Australorp

My feed comes in plain ol' white feed-lot 50# bags, BUT they have a $0.20 rebate coupon printed on each one! So, about every 6 months I have a coupon clipping party and then turn in a stack to my feed store. Okay...maybe more than 6 months (I hate the clipping part), 'cause the last time I...

I have a similar set up in my large coop. My "nursery" is about 8'x8' framed in wire cage with a Dutch door. I have a curtain over the top half of the Dutch door that hangs on the outside so the older hens aren't tempted to jump up there and invade the nursery. The young birds are in sight and...

When they mature, most drakes are psychotic, IMO. Our neighbor had a lone drake who was obsessed with her daughter. He would follow her everywhere, pull at her shoe laces for attention and tug at her pants legs. If anyone came near them, he would go full blown Rambo on the intruder, including...

Got that right! My duck is on her 2nd brood. She started hiding eggs on me on the 5th of the month, but didn't 'camp out' on her nest until the 11th, or 12th. Just keep an eye on her and you will know when she's "sitting tight". Mine has about 10 days to go, and she only leaves the nest about...

I've had no problem with raccoon here in the northern Rockies, but striped skunks are the new field mice here! I've take 14 off my property, including a female and 5 kits. I can tell you all about trapping skunks. I have yet to be sprayed, but I'll just say this for starters:use the smallest...

I think if varies depending upon whether the cockerel has a roll model, or not. My Australorp was a slow learner since he never heard another roster crow until he found his own voice (don't remember age). His son started at about 3 month after hearing his dad sounding off. A couple other...

In 40-odd years of keeping chickens, I have had ONE rooster (my Avatar here). Won't have another one, I raised one of my big Australorpe's off-spring until he was mature. Beautiful bird, but I came out to the yard one morning and it looked like Sunday morning after a Mexican cock fighting...

When you find a random quail-sized egg in your nesting boxes, you'll know they started, ;)

When I became a horse owner, I was told, "The horse is the cheapest part of the deal!" I think the same is true of chickens.

I use both #2 and #3. I have a "nursery" in my coop where the chicks grow up in full view of the rest of the flock. By the time they are roughly 2/3 the size of the adult birds, I just open the door one night, and let them co-mingle. I've also had it happen that the more precocious young'uns...

When we moved to our current location, we brought 5 Golden Sex-Links with us, and housed them in an old existing potting shed on the property, with no run at all. Three winters later we built them their Chicken Hilton. It's 200 sq ft with a separate 'nursery' for raising chicks. The yard is 320...