Australia - Six states..and that funny little island.

[Fancychooklady]

Looks like I need more diversity in the grains. This could very well get thrown in the "too hard" basket! As much as I would love to DIY it, it is really hard to get the formula right. Then all the mixing??

@Anniebee I would feed the flaxseed whole. They are little seeds and the oil goes rancid too quick if they are ground.

It is a bit of a science , getting it right and can be cost prohibitive. I like this article. While discouraging home mixes, it still gives a recipe.

http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/avian/feedingchickens.pdf

 

[appps]

I have had a similar idea. We are going to use star pickets in the ground then slip the poly pipe lengths across and fitted over another star picket, forming the tunnel and cover the entire thing with bird netting. Lucky for us our neighbor has a cherry farm and is about to replace his nets. I've seen this used for vege gardens. The net would have to be weighted down, or stapled to a wooden ground frame , old pallets perhaps. Thinking aloud. :/

Well I built mine today. Took me half an hour to build and five minutes for them to escape while my back was turned. Sigh.....

 

[Outpost JWB]

fridge full

What types of chickens do these come from? My green eggs are generally notably smaller than the rest. Yours look huge and your white eggs look much smaller. Nice colorful variety though!

 

[sjturner79]

I'm building as well- the coop was too small for my current chicks- and I have another 20 or so eggs under Broodies. I'll be overrun with chooks till its time to sort out the culls to sent to the farm

 

[sjturner79]

 

[Deej211]

What types of chickens do these come from?  My green eggs are generally notably smaller than the rest.  Yours look huge and your white eggs look much smaller.  Nice colorful variety though!

3 araucanas one olive egger one easter egger australorps and polish. my easter egger and olive egger and one of the aras lay very big for aras. Yippee!

 

[appps]

20-40mm forecast for early next week. I know we need the rain but man was I enjoying the lovely almost summery days this week!

 

[Teila]

Fancy I am in awe of your being able to ‘run the farm’ for six weeks. I knew while I was sooking about one week on my own with 1 normal cat, 1 obsessed/psychotic cat, 6 chickens and 7 pond fish that I actually had it easy and there are people doing it a lot tougher; it is amazing what we can do when we have to and just how quickly we can also drop back into a comfort zone.

As I mentioned, I was a single mum for 10 years and didn’t give it a second thought to the point that I could never picture being able to ‘share’ again and now I am so excited that hubby will be home tonight after just one week .. pathetic! Lol

I hope the mainland trip is a very successful one

Loving the Roo stories Kleonaptra and having a good chuckle.

Beautiful eggs Deej211

Lol at chookaholic ChristieB

Tee hee at the 5 minute escape appps. I have the rain coats on the run at the moment; we are predicted to have showers all week but at least only up to 5mm. I know we need rain also but it does play havoc with the deep litter in the run if the covers are not on.

Sorry about the lengthy post but I started a thread back in July 2014 … My home has become ‘Crow Central’ Why? [https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/906780/my-home-has-become-crow-central-why]

and revived it yesterday with:

Howdy, I am reviving this thread as I need Help!

When I started this back in July 2014 it was because I had a heap of Crows hanging around and I was concerned about them and my little banties and chicks.

It was suggested “Your girls will get used to them soon enough” and they did .. the Crows do not seem to bother them at all. Me, on the other hand, they are driving me insane!

OK, I do not have the numbers now that I had back then but there is one pair who have moved into my front tree and occasionally friends of theirs drop by for a visit.

I know Crows deter Hawks but Hawks are not really a problem here.

I was talking to my neighbour about them the other day and she says it could be her fault because she feeds the wild parrots bread and honey every afternoon and this pair of Crows are always there and steal some.

Well, that explains, the large chunks of bread I keep finding floating in my fish ponds!

Anyways, these Crows do not shut up! I work from home, I am on the phone to clients and they are constantly asking “what is that noise?” … that noise is the Crows!

Just now I had one sitting right at my front door … taking to his mate at my front window but through the house … my ears are still ringing!

They sit outside the bedroom window at the crack of dawn and make enough noise to wake the whole house.

The section of my driveway which is under the tree they like to sleep in is white with Crow poop.

They have taken to stealing stuff from under our gazebo … I keep finding stuff which should be sitting on a shelf dropped all over the garden. They are constantly stealing our BBQ cleaner. They knock over the oil bottles next to the BBQ and are frequently standing either on the BBQ or the table under the gazebo.

I put watermelon out for the girls on the weekend and spent the majority of the day trying to keep the Crows off it.

I rescued a juvenile Turtle Dove from a Crow that was trying to eat it alive!

I mean these Crows no harm but I need something to deter them??

Earlier posts in this thread mention that they remember faces and I am definitely on their hit list now because I chase them with the broom, shoot at them with the water pistol, run around waving my arms etc!

No matter what I do, they just look at me and teasingly hop just out of reach!

They do not have access to the chicken feed because the run is covered so I do not believe it is the chickens attracting them but if I were to call someone to maybe help me, the first thing they will probably do is blame the chickens. "Want to get rid of the Crows? Get rid of the chickens!"

And this ………..



In summary, one suggestion was to befriend them but doing that increases the risk of inviting more evil friends bearing unwanted nasties, mites etc.

Hurting them is definitely off the table.

And if me waving a water pistol in one hand and broom in other just causes them to side step 2cms, the suggestion of a scarecrow is probably not going to help either.

Anyone have any suggestions on what might deter the crows while not frightening the girls at the same time?

 

[Fancychooklady]

Fancy I am in awe of your being able to ‘run the farm’ for six weeks. I knew while I was sooking about one week on my own with 1 normal cat, 1 obsessed/psychotic cat, 6 chickens and 7 pond fish that I actually had it easy and there are people doing it a lot tougher; it is amazing what we can do when we have to and just how quickly we can also drop back into a comfort zone. As I mentioned, I was a single mum for 10 years and didn’t give it a second thought to the point that I could never picture being able to ‘share’ again and now I am so excited that hubby will be home tonight after just one week .. pathetic! Lol I hope the mainland trip is a very successful one Loving the Roo stories Kleonaptra and having a good chuckle. Beautiful eggs Deej211 Lol at chookaholic ChristieB Tee hee at the 5 minute escape appps. I have the rain coats on the run at the moment; we are predicted to have showers all week but at least only up to 5mm. I know we need rain also but it does play havoc with the deep litter in the run if the covers are not on. Sorry about the lengthy post but I started a thread back in July 2014 … My home has become ‘Crow Central’ Why? [https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/906780/my-home-has-become-crow-central-why] and revived it yesterday with:
[COLOR=333333]Howdy, I am reviving this thread as I need Help!

When I started this back in July 2014 it was because I had a heap of Crows hanging around and I was concerned about them and my little banties and chicks.

It was suggested “Your girls will get used to them soon enough” and they did .. the Crows do not seem to bother them at all. Me, on the other hand, they are driving me insane!

OK, I do not have the numbers now that I had back then but there is one pair who have moved into my front tree and occasionally friends of theirs drop by for a visit.

I know Crows deter Hawks but Hawks are not really a problem here.

I was talking to my neighbour about them the other day and she says it could be her fault because she feeds the wild parrots bread and honey every afternoon and this pair of Crows are always there and steal some.

Well, that explains, the large chunks of bread I keep finding floating in my fish ponds!

Anyways, these Crows do not shut up! I work from home, I am on the phone to clients and they are constantly asking “what is that noise?” … that noise is the Crows!

Just now I had one sitting right at my front door … taking to his mate at my front window but through the house … my ears are still ringing!

They sit outside the bedroom window at the crack of dawn and make enough noise to wake the whole house.

The section of my driveway which is under the tree they like to sleep in is white with Crow poop.

They have taken to stealing stuff from under our gazebo … I keep finding stuff which should be sitting on a shelf dropped all over the garden. They are constantly stealing our BBQ cleaner. They knock over the oil bottles next to the BBQ and are frequently standing either on the BBQ or the table under the gazebo.

I put watermelon out for the girls on the weekend and spent the majority of the day trying to keep the Crows off it.

I rescued a juvenile Turtle Dove from a Crow that was trying to eat it alive!

I mean these Crows no harm but I need something to deter them??

Earlier posts in this thread mention that they remember faces and I am definitely on their hit list now because I chase them with the broom, shoot at them with the water pistol, run around waving my arms etc!

No matter what I do, they just look at me and teasingly hop just out of reach!

They do not have access to the chicken feed because the run is covered so I do not believe it is the chickens attracting them but if I were to call someone to maybe help me, the first thing they will probably do is blame the chickens. "Want to get rid of the Crows? Get rid of the chickens!"[/COLOR]
And this ……….. In summary, one suggestion was to befriend them but doing that increases the risk of inviting more evil friends bearing unwanted nasties, mites etc. Hurting them is definitely off the table. And if me waving a water pistol in one hand and broom in other just causes them to side step 2cms, the suggestion of a scarecrow is probably not going to help either. Anyone have any suggestions on what might deter the crows while not frightening the girls at the same time?

The more animals one has , the more jobs there are. Being a single mum is no walk in the park either. My mum raised three kids on her own and being the eldest , I saw her struggles. We have a flock of around 100 crows hanging around down the back. I had just assumed that they had come in for grubs, being that the ground is so churned up by the livestock. Of course technically, we don't have crows in tassie, but ' stone the Ravens ' doesn't have the same impact. The other day they were making such a racket that I found myself thinking of Alfred Hitchcocks ' The Birds ' . We have also had a population explosion of white storks, but at least they aren't noisy.

 

[Kleonaptra]

I've worked hard to befriend my crow flock. They used to live here only half the year now one family stay all year. I have a wide variety of murder birds that they protect my flock from. I wish mine were that tame. The youngest comes and caws for his eggs from the back fence. If I'm running late, he tries sneaking into the shed for an egg raid. If I bust him, "no rook! You take the eggs I PICK for you!" If I go a few days without 'paying my protection money' they wreck up the place.

So, yes. Befriend them. Choose a feeding place, choose a feeding time and train them. Since you started out with agression and you are now providing them entertainment, (they are really, really, freaky smart I dare you to google some of it I think its on cracked) you may already be screwed, but its all you've got!