Colorado

Hi Brother Josh.
Congrats on your hatching!
I have some speckled Sussex that are 3 months old, a buff naked neck, and nice americauna that are 3 months old too if you are interested. PM me. I'm in South Boulder.
 
Well I just flashed back a year when there was one in the barn this morning, then 3 in the garage, then 2 more next door at the other house. I've read 2 convincing theories. 1: they fly west from Nebraska corn fields every year and make it to about Utah. 2: the larvae live underground 'till it starts to warm up. Both could be true. Last year I sealed every window and door and replaced any screens with holes in them. I actually repainted the TV room because of all the splotches in the walls. 2 more things as well. If you hang a light bulb over a container (like a litter box) full of soapy water they fly towards the light then get stuck in the soap. Also Vortex makes these traps with little blue LED lights and a fan inside. The fan sucks them into a trap when they get too close to the lights. They're made for smaller insects but you can remove the safety with a screwdriver. It makes quite a commotion when they go through the fan but it makes me smile every time.
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They are about the size and shape of a can of tomato's and are generally pretty quiet. Still these little squirts know exactly when it's time to watch a movie and where the TV is, and I'm barely holding on to a thin shred of sanity already
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Sorry Wendell! I was still typing when you wrote that, Wierd eh? Do you think we're Corsican brothers?
LOL. Maybe!
 
They have been doing this migration for eons. The plague of each May/June. Make sure they don't have any openings to get into. They will even get in through the roof vents and then though the attic access into the house. Duct tape works pretty well to seal it up. If we go in and out of the doors after dark, we make sure that the lights in the house are off so minimal numbers go in after the light. We also place a goose-neck lamp on the dining room table turn it on, and place a large bowl of soapy water under the light. They go after the light and then get caught in the water. Beth makes me turn off the bedroom light and leave the bathroom light on for a while so they all go in there at night. Then I get to go into the bathroom and close the door, then kill all that are in there before she will attenpt to go to sleep. Crazy!
Ugh, I hate those things about the same as mice. But I'll deliberately let the chickens out and then love to open the basement door where those dog gone things like to hide. Its a moth & chicken frenzie. I just love seeing my chickens gobble them up.

I will be trying the soapy water thanks for the info. Everything else is exactly what I have my husband do before bed. hehehe


Sweet! I read the article. If that's the case I have nothing to worry about this year, as there isn't a single plant left as far as the girls free range
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I checked the Silkie eggs scheduled for lockdown tonight and believe the cold weather while they were laid, combined with recovery from shipping stress, impeded development, and I have no eggs headed for hatch. I will have some in three days going to the hatcher, some Cream Legbars (so have my fingers crossed!) and more Silkie eggs laid here, and the Silkie eggs I set last Friday are almost all showing veining, so at the least I should have some hatching the 31st. In between the CL and the last Silkie eggs from here I have a set of Silkie eggs shipped that are about 50% showing good development, mainly Blues, so maybe I will have some of those hatch as well in about a week and a half.

The Speckled Sussex juveniles I put in the layer coop and run have still not figured out how to put themselves to bed, so I just finished putting them in for the night, but I just can't get mad at them, they are so pretty and sweet :) Bob would say they are dumb as a box of rocks, but they have only been out in this new to them setup since Sunday, so I won't think they're dumb until it's been a week and they still aren't figuring it out. At least they are smart enough to stay under the coop when it's raining :) Luckily there are no problems between them and the two hens, barely a peck.

The recovered wry necked Silkie is acting as if nothing was ever wrong, bless her heart, re-integrated with no issues.

Sandy, that link to the pictures at random thread is incredible, jeepers, I could spend days looking at that thread!

Gypsy moths - Margie, right there with you, they are created for the entertainment of cats LOL! My first spring here in CO I had show dogs eating themselves sick on them - had never experienced anything like it. That was 1998 - moved here in August of 1997 - I had hairless dogs, and quickly learned about the proximity to the sun and its relation to sunburn. Preston, I would say even if your chickens have destroyed some gardens there are almost always some cutworms anywhere there is grass, that has been our experience anyway. I love when thechickens dig them up and devour them, those things are flat nasty on plants.

Since the dog attack the girls have been mainly confined to the run, which they hate. Me too. Considering electronet. Anyone here use it?
 
I checked the Silkie eggs scheduled for lockdown tonight and believe the cold weather while they were laid, combined with recovery from shipping stress, impeded development, and I have no eggs headed for hatch. I will have some in three days going to the hatcher, some Cream Legbars (so have my fingers crossed!) and more Silkie eggs laid here, and the Silkie eggs I set last Friday are almost all showing veining, so at the least I should have some hatching the 31st. In between the CL and the last Silkie eggs from here I have a set of Silkie eggs shipped that are about 50% showing good development, mainly Blues, so maybe I will have some of those hatch as well in about a week and a half.

The Speckled Sussex juveniles I put in the layer coop and run have still not figured out how to put themselves to bed, so I just finished putting them in for the night, but I just can't get mad at them, they are so pretty and sweet :) Bob would say they are dumb as a box of rocks, but they have only been out in this new to them setup since Sunday, so I won't think they're dumb until it's been a week and they still aren't figuring it out. At least they are smart enough to stay under the coop when it's raining :) Luckily there are no problems between them and the two hens, barely a peck.

The recovered wry necked Silkie is acting as if nothing was ever wrong, bless her heart, re-integrated with no issues.

Sandy, that link to the pictures at random thread is incredible, jeepers, I could spend days looking at that thread!

Gypsy moths - Margie, right there with you, they are created for the entertainment of cats LOL! My first spring here in CO I had show dogs eating themselves sick on them - had never experienced anything like it. That was 1998 - moved here in August of 1997 - I had hairless dogs, and quickly learned about the proximity to the sun and its relation to sunburn. Preston, I would say even if your chickens have destroyed some gardens there are almost always some cutworms anywhere there is grass, that has been our experience anyway. I love when thechickens dig them up and devour them, those things are flat nasty on plants.

Since the dog attack the girls have been mainly confined to the run, which they hate. Me too. Considering electronet. Anyone here use it?
I was so hoping your girl would show back up like mine did, so sorry she is gone. Glad your wry neck Silkie is all better, just amazing something like that can happen. What did you end up giving her? Vitamins?

Yep, I visit that site often, as some of those pictures are so beautiful!

I know nothing about the netting. Will you put up a perimeter fence? Or around the chickens area? Do they make netting just for chickens? I have not researched that one yet.
 
Hatch Update: Hard to believe that it has been 3 weeks since the massacre. The eggs from that night are hatching now. So far, the silkie eggs are doing the best although one of the darker green eggs has hatched. I believe I have 7 in there now with 4 more that have pipped.

I did everything wrong on this hatch. I 'forgot' to stop the automatic turning and then realized this morning that I left the separators in there too. To make all of that even worse, I didn't even put them on lockdown until yesterday so this is a dry hatch. So I either completely couldn't count my days due to grieve or something is wrong with my temperature and they are hatching early.

Thankfully, for whatever reason, even when I completely screw up everything with my hatches, the eggs I set tend to do well. I think I've had every opps there is from loss of heat to forgetting to turn the turner on. This time, I can add leaving it in the autoturn tray and not bringing the humidity up for lockdown. sigh.

I will leave them in the incubator until tomorrow night and take pictures. This time, the silkie babies are not going out to the broody.
 
We finally got our coop/run set up secured enough to house chickens! The coop still needs paint, a pop door, ramp, and watering system, but I am SOO excited to just have the girls out of my house. And they sure love their new home. :)








 

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