deacons
Songster
I will be the first to say that I am a softy for just about any animal. But, I have a chipmunk problem. In the winter, I have a temporary shelter in my garage for my girls to get out of truly nasty weather, since their run only has a hardware cloth roof. On days with sleet or heavy snow, they get to spend time in the "playpen" in the garage- basically, a fenced off part of it that's bedded in straw and gives them a dry place to hang out for the day.
So...our little chipmunk friend. I think he has taken up residence in the garage this winter. If I feed the girls in the garage in the morning, I look around and see dry, happy chickens enthusiastically eating a warm mash or from a bowl of sunflower seeds- but there's an extra little chubby-cheeked face helping itself to the food too!
Now, I've seen this flock hunt and eat mice and voles, so initially I thought that they'd make short work of chippy. But, they don't really seem bothered by it. They let it eat right out of the bowl next to them! I guess I'm feeding these chickens too much because they sure don't seem to need extra protein
In all seriousness though- if the chickens will be spending time in the garage, and this chipmunk is in there cleaning up after them all day, this is eventually going to become an issue of worms and other nasty critters being transmitted from the chipmunk to my girls, right? Do I have to suck it up and relocate chippy to an out-of-doors home? If I do that, am I essentially giving him a death sentence because his ample winter food stores (of sunflowers, cracked corn, and layer pellets) are somewhere in my garage?
So...our little chipmunk friend. I think he has taken up residence in the garage this winter. If I feed the girls in the garage in the morning, I look around and see dry, happy chickens enthusiastically eating a warm mash or from a bowl of sunflower seeds- but there's an extra little chubby-cheeked face helping itself to the food too!
Now, I've seen this flock hunt and eat mice and voles, so initially I thought that they'd make short work of chippy. But, they don't really seem bothered by it. They let it eat right out of the bowl next to them! I guess I'm feeding these chickens too much because they sure don't seem to need extra protein
In all seriousness though- if the chickens will be spending time in the garage, and this chipmunk is in there cleaning up after them all day, this is eventually going to become an issue of worms and other nasty critters being transmitted from the chipmunk to my girls, right? Do I have to suck it up and relocate chippy to an out-of-doors home? If I do that, am I essentially giving him a death sentence because his ample winter food stores (of sunflowers, cracked corn, and layer pellets) are somewhere in my garage?
