California - Northern

[waititout]

You know "Show-Offs" may just stick.  The boys would go for it I'm sure.

Totally!!!

 

[Nikon]

Scenery: We lived at the top of the hill where the road crested over the hill. You could not see the road until you popped over the top. There was a water ditch under the road at the top.

Now make yourself a cardboard shaped cat, put marbles in the eyes so they reflect light, attach it to wheels and tie that to fishing line. Put "kitty" in the road and hide in the ditch holding the fishing line. When a car comes, pull the line so the "kitty" moves.

We ended up with a car on our lawn once because of my brother's "skills".

Oh!!!! The hubs and almost ran one of those over. We saw it in the middle of Grass Valley at like 2AM. Was a good cut out too! No marble eyes though... would have been a nice touch. Oh geez! We were going pretty slow when we saw it so there was never a danger, but yeah... could cause a lot of mayhem. Speaking of "Mayhem" that would make an excellent insurance commercial! LOL.

 

[Hangtown Farms]

My raccoon story from another thread. I had eight birds escape their pens yesterday, seven of them six week old chicks. My last attempt to find the last one was at 9:30 last night wearing a headlamp.
****************
The continuing story of the stinking chicks.

Yesterday, after spending HOURS chasing chicks around in the heat, I was finally able to capture 7 out of 8. That one last chick evaded me. She even found a spot to roost, I was able to sneak up on her and make a grab. My fingers brushed over her, but hit the edge of the roost as I made my grab and I missed. I then followed her around the run and she flew at me, I made about four more grabs, but missed making good contact, even though I touched her each time.

Last night it was somewhat disconcerting (read that scared the cr@p out of me) to see those two pairs of eyes glowing back at me in the darkness. Looked pretty obviously to belong to raccoons and unlike me, they were totally unafraid. They are getting far too bold, they have been digging around the edges of the pens and now and then manage to reach an egg laid along the wire. Fortunately, the pen bottoms are lined with wire.

But it's been a good grazing ground around here lately, they made a trash raid about two weeks ago, they carried off the deceased hen I forgot to pick up (I did find their dining spot for her yesterday in all my attempts to corral the chicks).

Yesterday in all the uproar, another exchequer pullet put her head into the pen next door and the bresse tried to slit her throat. She managed to pull it back, but of course her "friends"/siblings/penmates then tried to remove the rest of her throat for her. I pulled her from the pen, but couldn't find where DH last put the BluKote, so she is currently in a hospital crate in the garage.

Anyway, just now I went looking for the final missing chick. I saw no sign of her or a final resting place for her. Of course, she only weighed about 2 pounds, they'd just throw her under their arm and take her home for a late night snack. I was morosely looking through the pens and thinking I'm down to about 3 exchequer pullets, counting the one in the garage.

I was doing my morning inspection and coming about the pens at the far end. There is a pen of bantam buff brahmas. There is a gap at the bottom of their gate, big enough for a raccoon, skunk, opossum to stroll through. I keep telling DH we need to adjust the gate better. I keep expecting to find carnage from a night time attack. The predator activity has gotten so heavy, I need to start setting the trap every night to reduce their population. I didn't want to do it while he's been gone, because I didn't want to deal with anything I might catch. Tonight I set it, it can be a welcome home surprise for him when I pick him up from the airport.

Anyway, I walked around that last corner of runs, looked in the pen...............................................and there was that leghorn pullet in with the brahmas. She apparently found the gap at the bottom of the door and squeezed in. She now wanted back OUT. I snagged her with my net and put her back with her "family".

Kind of an anticlimactic ending to the story, but it certainly wasted about 4-5 hours of my time yesterday, chasing those dang birds in the heat/humidity.

wow. lucky chick

Yeah, that was it, alright! Look what he had his employee do:



He put some old metal barn roofing on it. Since the roof is at an angle, there is a gap at the top. The guy put chicken wire over the gap, which will have to be replaced with something sturdier. Now I have to figure out what to put around the door, so that it is secure, and I can still easily open it. You can't tell, but there is heavy metal mesh on the ground around the pen so that nothing can dig under.

that looks great

 

[ChickNmamma]

Quote: I see you figured it out - but you can just put the eggs in front of her and she will plow them under her.

Quote: I like Show-Offs. The male Showgirls need a new name

 

[Miss Molly]

Well sweating would be one word.... another would be hiding.  I am hiding indoors or in my car with the AC.

I went home at lunch to start the misters, fan and give the chickens some frozen watermelon.......That wouldn't have been a bad thing but I almost locked myself INSIDE the coop!  

I put up a latching door lock so that I can better protect against Raccoons, and I didn't drill the hole yet for the wire for the inside release of the hook.

I had a big moment of panic when I pushed the door shut and heard the click.   Thankfully a small twig through the hardware cloth to lift the latch saved my life!  No one at home, cell phone on the kitchen counter, and no one to pick up my daughter after work.  

My last thought before I got it open was that I was going to find out how well that hardware cloth holds!  Chicken coop breakout!

OMG, I did that once. I had to crawl out the small chicken door. It wasn't easy. I almost got stuck, needless to say I had a lot of chicken crap on me. The family thought it was funny...well, I guess it would have been funny if it wasn't me...
Glad to here you got out ok ..

 

[liz9910]

90 degrees at 11:30 pm yuck

 

[OR4-hmom]

90 degrees at 11:30 pm yuck

I'm sorry, I remember how hard it was trying to sleep when we were in Chico and didn't get much cooling at night. We didn't have A/C, only a whole house fan. At least the dogs didn't insist on sleeping with us when it was that hot and moved to the floor.

 

[lawatt]

i've got no A/C in my house (and only one fan!), so am up early this morning with all the doors and windows open, trying to air things out as much as possible, before sealing it up again when the temps start climbing outside -- but i can't complain, i don't think it's getting as hot here as inland, "only" into the 90s...

 

[ronott1]

i've got no A/C in my house (and only one fan!), so am up early this morning with all the doors and windows open, trying to air things out as much as possible, before sealing it up again when the temps start climbing outside -- but i can't complain, i don't think it's getting as hot here as inland, "only" into the 90s...

I turned the AC off this morning and opened the door. I notices at 6:30 that the temp in the house was 81 so I turned on the Whole House fan. The will blow cool air into the attic and bring the 66 degree air into the house. It is already cooling off.

The neighbors have their AC running already.

 

[lawatt]

I turned the AC off this morning and opened the door. I notices at 6:30 that the temp in the house was 81 so I turned on the Whole House fan. The will blow cool air into the attic and bring the 66 degree air into the house. It is already cooling off.

The neighbors have their AC running already.

I'm up high enough that there's an atmospheric inversion, so it's 76° in the house, 74° outside. not a huge difference, but there's also a NE breeze, so everything's open, trying to get as much cool into the house as possible before the temps start climbing again.