California - Northern

[Hangtown Farms]

Thanks! Soon I shall have my own chickens to taunt with my camera

do you have a plan yet on what you are getting and when?
I just hatched some nice dark layers partridge penedesenca x empordanesa

 

[chrissyr]

I am so frustrated with my chickens!!!! I have egg eaters in both the CL pen and the Orp pen. Blue jays may be getting the orp eggs, but there is no doubt the CL are eating their own eggs. I have had to go the the coop 3-4 times a day to rescue eggs as soon as they are laid, but today I had to show property so I did not get to collect eggs until 3:30. When I went to the coop there were 4 cracked eggs!!! I am livid!!

Then, I heard one of my Mille Fleur Leghorns roos making a weird noise so I went to investigate. His foot was bleeding and I realized the girls were tag teaming bitting at the wound. I picked him up to investigate and his toe has a deep cut. Urg.. Chickens can be sooo brutal. I treated him and put him in the rehap coop. I will let the wound scab over and hope to be able to put him back in a few days.

Time for a glass of wine.

Hi justruttin,
I am a HUGE believer now in not totally blaming the chickens for the egg eating. I thought for sure my hens were doing it. I'd rush out there every hour or two, and every day lose about half the eggs. I put my video camera out there to see who was doing it, and cull them. To my amazement, it was a Blue Scrub Jay!! I repeated the camera watch and over and over again, the same Blue Scrub Jay! Granted, your hens will clean up the leftovers if they find a broken egg ( mine did). But they NEVER broke open the eggs at all. I put a netting over the coop last year, and not even one more broken egg. Last week I saw the Blue Scrub Jay with what looked like a small bird egg in it's mouth on our fence though. Looked like he just robbed a nest in the tree, stopped to taunt us all... then flew away. Hate those things!!! So put a camera out there, you will know for sure. Those birds knew what time to come around for eggs too.

 

[Chickengirl1304]

I am sorry to hear that!

How was the warranty service?

They wanted me to send back the Turner at my expense two weeks after I bought it to get it repaired So I replaced the motor myself twice since then and now the incubator will only go up to 96°

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
I have had to replace the turner motors on my two once each but only after a year and fairly continuious usage.

I did have trouble with the temp regulating on the new one. I had to blow chick fluff off of the sensor.

I hope you have a better time with getting the incubator fixed.

 

[PetRock]

Hi justruttin,
I am a HUGE believer now in not totally blaming the chickens for the egg eating. I thought for sure my hens were doing it. I'd rush out there every hour or two, and every day lose about half the eggs. I put my video camera out there to see who was doing it, and cull them. To my amazement, it was a Blue Scrub Jay!! I repeated the camera watch and over and over again, the same Blue Scrub Jay! Granted, your hens will clean up the leftovers if they find a broken egg ( mine did). But they NEVER broke open the eggs at all. I put a netting over the coop last year, and not even one more broken egg. Last week I saw the Blue Scrub Jay with what looked like a small bird egg in it's mouth on our fence though. Looked like he just robbed a nest in the tree, stopped to taunt us all... then flew away. Hate those things!!! So put a camera out there, you will know for sure. Those birds knew what time to come around for eggs too.

I have a scrub jay that raids my coop! He/she prefers my Lav AM blue eggs. At least once a week I find one with a small hole pecked in it and occasionally I have found egg yolk near the big side door that I leave open during the day. I do have some pastel colored (pink, yellow, orange) ceramic eggs in there which blend beautifully with all the different colors of brown eggs. Before I put the ceramic eggs in there, the jay would get any color of egg. Now it only gets the blue ones. They are the only eggs that stand out color wise. They are smart birds and not color blind! The jays are nest building right now so maybe they have a higher need for protein in preparation for egg laying.

 

[Nikon]

do you have a plan yet on what you are getting and when?
I just hatched some nice dark layers partridge penedesenca x empordanesa

We are looking for Blue Orptingtons ( or even buff), an Ameraucana (will settle for an EE), and a BC Maran or Golden Laced Wyandotte. Looking to get chicks or pullets, and four chickens altogether.

 

[Nikon]

do you have a plan yet on what you are getting and when?
I just hatched some nice dark layers partridge penedesenca x empordanesa

Although I'm not dead set on a maran, would just like a dark chocolately egg to go with the brown egg and the blue egg. Are they sweet chickens?

 

[Hangtown Farms]

I have a question for all the NorCal folks (being that we all have the same predators and relatively speaking). The Hubs and I just finished our coop

and there has been some dispute with those who will not be named (no, not the Hubs, he's awesome <3 ) that there needs to be a roof of sorts over the chicken run. Here's where the coop lives for visual reference:





It's inside a fenced garden (the bottom of the fence has pressure treated 4x6 posts at the base, square wire in the middle and barbed wire at the top. Then inside that is the chicken run made from a dog kennel/run. We are thinking about digging down and burying some wire at the base but not sure if it's overkill or a necessity? Then inside that is the coop itself. We live on five acres next to a five acre lake. We have an occasional bear but never see them, Puma (mountain lion) but don't actually see them often, raccoons, fox and coyotes. There is a resident German Shepherd that keeps most of those at bay. Honestly the peskiest critter are the deer.

So to finally get to my question, said person wants to put a "lid" over the chicken run and fully encase it, probably to protect against birds of prey and extra raccoon protection? Do we need to go that far? And if so, what's the best way to put a roof over this thing? It's gonna have to be tall because the Hubs is 6' 8".

Thanks for any input!

here is my set up. with the netting on top.

 

[Ali707]

They wanted me to send back the Turner at my expense two weeks after I bought it to get it repaired So I replaced the motor myself twice since then and now the incubator will only go up to 96°

Well that is disheartning since I just bought that same one a few weeks ago. I have been testing it with the free quail eggs they sent along with it. I will see this week if anything hatches.

I did notice about da 4-5 of incubating that the egg turner seemed to be stuck in one position. It took me about a day to realize it because that thing moves so slow........ but, finally it dawned on me and I opened the incubator and pushed down on the turning mechanism just to see if it had come disconnected. There was a little pop and it has seemed to work since then

But that would bum me out if the darn thing breaks that quickly. If that is their best customer service they have then maybe saving up for a Brinsea product may be worth it for me in the future.

 

[ronott1]

Quote:
They should move up to the mountains and foot hills soon. They are protected and you need to get a permit from Fish and Game to remove them. Apparently you can catch them with Rat traps:

Trapping

Fig. 2. Scrub jays can be taken by the use of a rat snap trap. Bait the trap with a nut or nut meat and set as illustrated.​

Jays can be taken by using conventional rat traps baited with a shelled or unshelled almond or the meat of half an English walnut (Fig. 2). The best location for the rat trap is on a vertical limb of a tree. Nail it high enough in the tree to be out of reach of small children. Beneath the vertical limb there should be a horizontal limb that is frequented by jays. Fasten the trap, trigger down, with the bait about 7 inches (18 cm) above the horizontal limb. The trap will still work if it is placed on a horizontal limb, but other species of birds might accidentally step on the trigger. Other baits may be used. An unshelled almond is probably less likely to attract other birds than are the exposed almond or nut meats. Acceptance of nut baits is not as good when there is an abundant supply of ripe fruit or nuts available.
Trapping efficiency has been increased by enlarging the wire bail with a 7-x 9-inch (17.8- x 22.9-cm) piece of 1-inch (2.5-cm) mesh welded wire. Cut a 1-x 4-inch (2.5- x 10.2-cm) slot out of the middle of the welded wire to provide clearance for the trigger release wire and wire it onto the bail. Also consider using a 4-x 6-inch (10.2- x 15.2-cm) piece of sheet metal. Cut a “V” out of the sheet metal (for clearance of the trigger release wire) and fold over 1/2 inch (1.3 cm) of each edge to hold the metal on the bail. The trigger mechanism can also be enlarged by attaching a thin round piece (half-dollar size) of wood. This trap improvement was developed by Bill Clark and Rocky Loop, of the Tulare County, California, Department of Agriculture.
Little success has been obtained in trapping jays with modified Australian crow traps.