Chickens for 10-20 years or more? Pull up a rockin' chair and lay some wisdom on us!

[HappyHenMama]

@ happy hen mama. first question i should ask you is how many chickens do you have ? how many nesting boxes do you have? it can be funny with that bird. she could be the only one in her mind to use that box. i doubt it but you never know. she maybe establishing dominance of queen hen or suffering from what i call the the" little chicken syndrome". that is when the smallest of the bunch of the chicks grows up and decides it is pay back time.
chicken curtains could work , however i never used them mine will either lay in a box or as they prefer the coop floor . they make a nest out of the straw and for some reason most of them lay in the corner in that nest. funny sight hen collecting eggs. 1 or 2 in a box and a whole bunch in the floor nest.

however in short i agree with bee just let it be and watch to see what happens.

I have two coops each one has 5 nests in it and I have 9 hens, only 1 hasn't started laying yet, and 2 Roos. The coops are connected by a small chicken size door that I can close off if I need to. Funny I haven't noticed her pecking at anyone in the small coop, only the big coop and they do all tend to want to lay in the same nest, so it could be that she doesn't want anyone else using "her" nest. I'm going to leave it be for now and see how things go. I know I have observed her chasing ANY of the Production Reds away from the nests in the Big Coop. It seems to be geared toward only the PR.

I'll continue monitoring to see how it goes. Thank you Bee and Bruce for your response.

 

[MagicChicken]

how can you feed squirrels to the chickens if you can't kill them? Like I said above on hawks. Federal and state permits required. It is a total B'S' law imho, but it is the law.

Stonykill, I can kill them after I trap them. I just can't SHOOT them. There's a difference

. Besides, my neighbors would have conniptions if I started shooting squirrels. Mainly because I'm not the best shot... and I'd be shooting toward their yard...

Now, if those squirrels are dumb enough to go into a trap that's a whole different story!

Quote:
Bee, you are right. I would definitely have to control the feed if I put the pens on top of the ground squirrel colony. But after Walt's comment I will put the pens in another place. He's right. It's asking for trouble to have an enclosed pen/run on top of a rodent colony. Although the ground squirrels might relocate themselves once they realized they were penned in.

Don't have a cat of my own any more, but my place is a haven for all the feral cats in the neighborhood. They haven't made a dent in this ground squirrel colony in the six years I've lived here. So it goes.

Sarah

 

[Beekissed]

How far away from the proposed site will this colony be? If anywhere close they will just indulge in your coop provisions anyway. Generally speaking, the rodents come after the food supply is presented and not before, but either way, they will find your feeds.

I like ground squirrels too and probably wouldn't try to eliminate them either unless they become a problem for your baby chicks. We don't see many ground squirrels anymore and kind of miss them here....too many 'yotes and foxes around here that keep the numbers down.

 

[Gypsi]

I just wish the coyotes would handle the weasels as well as they handle outdoor cats. I keep big dogs in my backyard, the coop is not up against the fence so dogs have full access BUT I keep the dogs in the house at night most nights. They were out for a couple of weeks at the height of the weasel attacks.

There are acres of open land around me that I do not own, not much I can do about wild critters except fence well and pen well.

Gypsi

 

[Beekissed]

My dog, Jake, killed a possum last night and has had fun all day keeping the buzzards off it....gives the poor thing something to do.

 

[fultzie]

just a word on the hawks..we use traps on our fench posts..hawk almost always lands to pick out its prey..dont have to bait it or nothing ..just sit it right on top of the posts and end of story ..no noise from a gun ..(what? me ? i never seen any hawk!! )

 

[Leahs Mom]

just a word on the hawks..we use traps on our fench posts..hawk almost always lands to pick out its prey..dont have to bait it or nothing ..just sit it right on top of the posts and end of story ..no noise from a gun ..(what? me ? i never seen any hawk!! )

Wait...wait..... what kind of trap on the fence post?

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

My dog, Jake, killed a possum last night and has had fun all day keeping the buzzards off it....gives the poor thing something to do.

I need to borrow your Jake.

We've got a possum right now that's tearing into the compost.

 

[Beekissed]

That's what led this possum to his doom...the garbage pile full of corn cobs.

 

[Erin~TheChickenLover]

That's what led this possum to his doom...the garbage pile full of corn cobs.

Does it ever time!