Any other hawaiians out there?

[TropicalBabies]

That is so cool! OK. I feel like my foot is in my mouth (again!) lol. I should have know better. My gal pal would tell me when an animal came into my life it fell into a tub of butter... I think your critters did too. Lucky little buggahs.

 

[raingarden]

Sorry to wake up this thread again, but after reading all 39 pages I feel obligated to say something.

We're on windward Oahu near Kualoa. Our family has been feeding a feral flock for over thirty years. They currently number about a dozen. They are a very stable strain with red jungle fowl-looking roosters and blacktail buff Wheaton-like hens. A large bantam size.

We've also had peafowl, guinea fowl and ducks for about twenty years. All are completely free range. We bribe them to stay around using some supplemental feed.

I got into quail about a year ago but am over that now. Family and friends soon became sick of quail eggs and I'm not much of a cook so the meat is always tough as shoe leather. Frankly, coturnix do not seem to have much personality either.

Our son and his GF in Pahoa have recently gotten into silkies so maybe it rubs off.

Right now I'm dabbling with ayam cemani and building small pens to do single pair breeding to sort out which are the homogygotes. Just something to keep an old hermit entertained.

Has anyone else noticed that good welded 1x1 and 1x2 pen wire has completely disappeared from the store shelve?. You're lucky to find a small roll of poultry mesh. Must be a supply chain thing.

 

[CovidtimeQuail]

Sorry to wake up this thread again, but after reading all 39 pages I feel obligated to say something.

We're on windward Oahu near Kualoa. Our family has been feeding a feral flock for over thirty years. They currently number about a dozen. They are a very stable strain with red jungle fowl-looking roosters and blacktail buff Wheaton-like hens. A large bantam size.

We've also had peafowl, guinea fowl and ducks for about twenty years. All are completely free range. We bribe them to stay around using some supplemental feed.

I got into quail about a year ago but am over that now. Family and friends soon became sick of quail eggs and I'm not much of a cook so the meat is always tough as shoe leather. Frankly, coturnix do not seem to have much personality either.

Our son and his GF in Pahoa have recently gotten into silkies so maybe it rubs off.

Right now I'm dabbling with ayam cemani and building small pens to do single pair breeding to sort out which are the homogygotes. Just something to keep an old hermit entertained.

Has anyone else noticed that good welded 1x1 and 1x2 pen wire has completely disappeared from the store shelve?. You're lucky to find a small roll of poultry mesh. Must be a supply chain thing.

I think Kaneohe Farm Supply has it from time to time. These days I barely notice when we are in short supply of anything. I figure it goes with living on the isles.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Sorry to wake up this thread again, but after reading all 39 pages I feel obligated to say something.

We're on windward Oahu near Kualoa. Our family has been feeding a feral flock for over thirty years. They currently number about a dozen. They are a very stable strain with red jungle fowl-looking roosters and blacktail buff Wheaton-like hens. A large bantam size.

We've also had peafowl, guinea fowl and ducks for about twenty years. All are completely free range. We bribe them to stay around using some supplemental feed.

I got into quail about a year ago but am over that now. Family and friends soon became sick of quail eggs and I'm not much of a cook so the meat is always tough as shoe leather. Frankly, coturnix do not seem to have much personality either.

Our son and his GF in Pahoa have recently gotten into silkies so maybe it rubs off.

Right now I'm dabbling with ayam cemani and building small pens to do single pair breeding to sort out which are the homogygotes. Just something to keep an old hermit entertained.

Has anyone else noticed that good welded 1x1 and 1x2 pen wire has completely disappeared from the store shelve?. You're lucky to find a small roll of poultry mesh. Must be a supply chain thing.

Aloha @raingarden & welcome to byc!
Yes, I notice good old fashioned welded wire is few and far. Too bad, it's nice stuff. We are held hostage by the big box stores that we support here on Kauai.

Ayam cemani sounds like a fun project to keep you busy. What a crazy wild beautiful chicken! Hoping you share your success on byc. Always good to see a fellow Hawaiian out there. Stay well!

 

[TropicalBabies]

After your nice long wake up note, I had to kinda kick myself that my response was so milk toast. Sorry @raingarden . I'll try again!

My DH and I were just chatting about guinea fowl on Oahu after watching a farmer on YouTube. How random. We have never talked about it ever b4.
You must have a wonderful back yard. Would love it if you shared photos.
I just took a few of my dark Brahma that I let out of jail this morning.

If I had the space ... I'd have multi flocks w/ coops and runs. I got 2 boys in pens and pretty much hate it. Main guy is on 24/7 hen duty and other 2 just get the short end of the stick.

I enjoy breeding, hatching, chicken husbandry as a whole. Also have quite a few other furry kids. I am also currently fostering for the KHS. Def keeps this old hermit happy and whole.

 

[raingarden]

TB, that dark Bramah is REALLY handsome and enviable.

Guineas are not my favorite. They chase everyone else away at feeding time and they just won't shut up.

I think KFS only has the 2x4 wire, but it's really heavy gauge and wide. 2x4 will keep adult birds in and dogs and cats out but not the mongoose. Hardware cloth is a little easier to find, but it's too expensive for this pensioner

We have a small 3'x6'x3' experimental pen with just plastic mesh housing a few sacrificial left-over quail for bait.. It is on legs a couple of feet off the ground. The mongoose is supposed to be able to climb a little bit, but I've never seen him actually do it. Maybe he will not go to the trouble.... the evil thing. If that doesn't work then we'll try hanging pens from the monkey pod trees.

I bought a roll of 1x2 wire, 2'x50' on Amazon last year. It was cheaper than the big box stores and free shipping with Prime. The damn roll weighted 65 pounds! How can they possibly mail something like that across the ocean for free? But, I promised our favorite mail carrier to never do it again after watching her struggle to push and drag the roll from the street up to the house on security camera play-back.

 

[TropicalBabies]

TB, that dark Bramah is REALLY handsome and enviable.

Guineas are not my favorite. They chase everyone else away at feeding time and they just won't shut up.

I think KFS only has the 2x4 wire, but it's really heavy gauge and wide. 2x4 will keep adult birds in and dogs and cats out but not the mongoose. Hardware cloth is a little easier to find, but it's too expensive for this pensioner

We have a small 3'x6'x3' experimental pen with just plastic mesh housing a few sacrificial left-over quail for bait.. It is on legs a couple of feet off the ground. The mongoose is supposed to be able to climb a little bit, but I've never seen him actually do it. Maybe he will not go to the trouble.... the evil thing. If that doesn't work then we'll try hanging pens from the monkey pod trees.

I bought a roll of 1x2 wire, 2'x50' on Amazon last year. It was cheaper than the big box stores and free shipping with Prime. The damn roll weighted 65 pounds! How can they possibly mail something like that across the ocean for free? But, I promised our favorite mail carrier to never do it again after watching her struggle to push and drag the roll from the street up to the house on security camera play-back.

Oh gosh, your mongoose sound like little nightmare monsters.
My step daughter kept chickens in Kahalu'u and had no problems with mongoose that I am aware of. She purchased her girls a little older from a breeder close by (I think). She free ranged them and maintained her flock for at least a year or two. Only problem she had was a dog of course darn pups. Then they moved to Kailua so gave up the flock to the new tenants. Her coop was pretty simple and not secure from what I recal.
I use the hardware cloth for my brooders but chicken wire for my coops and 2x4 for my runs. That was the most cost effective for us cuz brooders can be pretty small.. We don't have mongoose and we are makai, so easy for me... but we do have big a** rats!

 

[raingarden]

Yeah, mongoose are the reason the feral chicken "problem" on Oahu is less severe than on Kauai. At our house, there are usually 8 to 10 quasi-feral hens hatching two clutches of about ten chicks each year. That's almost 200 chicks a year. Some die from pox and coccidia when the weather is wet, but the mongooses get most of them. In the end, there are only enough survivors to keep the flock size stable.

We have a lot more Norway rats than mongoose and more roof rats than Norway rats. The hen will stand up to a rat but has to retreat from a mongoose. If she doesn't, the mongoose will chew her pretty head off.

 

[CNJ]

The mongoose is supposed to be able to climb a little bit, but I've never seen him actually do it. Maybe he will not go to the trouble.... the evil thing.

I got rid of the mongoose and rats around my yard with this trap. After I catch them, I throw the trap in my pond to drown them. https://www.ebay.com/itm/133414970276

 

[raingarden]

Every year we catch a few young ones but the parents get wise to the traps and are more difficult. When the young ones are weaned and hunting the parents drive them away to set up their own territory.