Araucana thread anyone?

[MA Mama]

Question - Do you move the position of the CD's, move where they hang from? We have a wildlife biologist friend who seems to think that hawks are smart enough to figure out that the shiny things don't actually move, and he suggested moving them about frequenly. Does anyone who uses CD's move them around? Also, how many do you have in, say, a 20 x 20 area? Do they have to be like every 5 feet? 10 feet? I think my metallic pinwheels are doing the same job, I just want to make sure I have enough in there.

 

[cackleberrycoop]

I helped Gary ship chicks and eggs Tuesday. You should be so lucky as to get chicks from him. Of the 50+ we shipped at least 20 were tufted, all were rumpless.

 

[coberdor]

What I have done in the top of my pens is stretch wire 2 - 3" apart across the top, then electric wire along the top perimeter and down low. This permits leaves/snow to fall through, but prevents the hawks. It of course will not stop a coon/opossum, etc. who drops from above from one of the trees, but my birds are locked up at night anyways.

I have eight dogs, 6 being corgis, 1 westie (great vermin dog) and brittany spaniel. Between all of them, not many coyotes or fox will venture near our yard.

In the back, however where I keep my turkeys with the horses, donkeys and goats, I do worry more about the coyotes and the cougar in our area (yes cougar are back in Ohio). This is why I do lock my turkeys up at night and the turkey tractor had electric around the bottom, which I just attach to the horse fence with a stretchy gate connector.

I've only had to kill one predator, an opossum, that got into my juvenile coop at dusk. Bad decision on it's part. My husband was quite shocked to see me grab the flat shovel and with one chop, take most of it's head off. Hey, after all these years shoveling horse manure (over 43 years now, with horses), I know how to wield a shovel!

 

[cackleberrycoop]

Question - Do you move the position of the CD's, move where they hang from? We have a wildlife biologist friend who seems to think that hawks are smart enough to figure out that the shiny things don't actually move, and he suggested moving them about frequenly. Does anyone who uses CD's move them around? Also, how many do you have in, say, a 20 x 20 area? Do they have to be like every 5 feet? 10 feet? I think my metallic pinwheels are doing the same job, I just want to make sure I have enough in there.

I would think that moving them would help significantly. I do know that is recommended with the fake owls as well, to move them every so many days. I have a friend who has one on a stick and just pulls the stick up and out and stakes it again in a new spot. There has to be some simple way to clip the CD's that's easy to unclip and reclip for moving them because you're going to have to have a large number of them out there to do any good and untying and retying is going to get old fast.
Good luck!

 

[cackleberrycoop]

What I have done in the top of my pens is stretch wire 2 - 3" apart across the top, then electric wire along the top perimeter and down low. This permits leaves/snow to fall through, but prevents the hawks. It of course will not stop a coon/opossum, etc. who drops from above from one of the trees, but my birds are locked up at night anyways.

I have eight dogs, 6 being corgis, 1 westie (great vermin dog) and brittany spaniel. Between all of them, not many coyotes or fox will venture near our yard.

In the back, however where I keep my turkeys with the horses, donkeys and goats, I do worry more about the coyotes and the cougar in our area (yes cougar are back in Ohio). This is why I do lock my turkeys up at night and the turkey tractor had electric around the bottom, which I just attach to the horse fence with a stretchy gate connector.

I've only had to kill one predator, an opossum, that got into my juvenile coop at dusk. Bad decision on it's part. My husband was quite shocked to see me grab the flat shovel and with one chop, take most of it's head off. Hey, after all these years shoveling horse manure (over 43 years now, with horses), I know how to wield a shovel!

Hey - nice job!!! Don't mess with a woman and her shovel......
I really like the idea of the the electric wire attached to the moving tractors - I hadn't thought of being able to power around the movable containers off of the electric fence. Cool.
Go dogs go! Do the dogs leave the chickens alone?

 

[Ray_n_Debi]

I think the reason the cds are working for me is because they are on strings. They don't just spin like a pinwheel they spin round and round, but they also sway back and forth, so it is a random movement.I do not move them around. The strings are different heights 10-15 feet apart.

 

[coberdor]

Hey - nice job!!! Don't mess with a woman and her shovel......
I really like the idea of the the electric wire attached to the moving tractors - I hadn't thought of being able to power around the movable containers off of the electric fence. Cool.
Go dogs go! Do the dogs leave the chickens alone?

The brittany will not leave them alone, unless we are out there. So if we only let them free range when we are out with the dogs or the dogs are in.

If you go to the feed stores, you can see the stretchy electric rope used for gates. It's more expensive, but really easy to use. I just have a 2x4 that is higher at the peak on one end, where I attach my electric to. I also have a fence skirt at the bottom on the ground.

 

[shanshan51]

What do you all think of this little black roo? He is 7 weeks old and clean faced. I was offered to take him as the owner can't keep him. Currently I have two double tufted black girls I was thinking of putting him with. This pic was him at 7 weeks old and gal said now his comb is much redder than the others and shis legs are a LOT bigger than the others as well telling her a roo.

 

[Illia]

Looks nice so far. No comb, wattle issues that I see of, no excessively short rump at least so far, body looks okay. He's a bit young to say for sure but I'd take him if I had black gals to pair him with.

 

[shanshan51]

Looks nice so far. No comb, wattle issues that I see of, no excessively short rump at least so far, body looks okay. He's a bit young to say for sure but I'd take him if I had black gals to pair him with.

Here are more recent pics she just sent me def looks roo to me