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We cooked up some damaged eggs yesterday, (scrambled with no salt....) and fed the scrambled eggs to the chicks. It took them a couple of minutes, but before long they were all over the eggs, and had it cleaned up in less 5 minutes after starting. Chicks are so entertaining!
 
Godiva said:
I like your tarp idea yawningreyhound! Something I found helped with mice getting into the feed (you have only mentioned them in the water but nonetheless...) I mixed a bunch of cayenne pepper into the feed for a while and the mice decided to try food that had less spice in it :) I also set live traps in the coop and was very busy for a while deporting the unwanted critters to another pasture area. I think watching the hens destroying straw bales, cabbage treats etc is very entertaining. Even more so if you put it just barely out of their reach and they have to jump a bit to get a decent bite LOL
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Tell me more about CABBAGE TREATS, Godiva! Some days they're stuck in the run due to snow and I'm always struggling to entertain them so they don't entertain themselves with each other's feathers!

I left the water uncovered last night and I think the rodent problem is solved (except of course if they come in the ALWAYS OPEN IN THE DAYTIME pop door). No floating mousies today!

I can't believe how I left that hole. I was protecting from fox mainly, so that little opening in the weird offset corner of the hardware fabric didn't bother me...duh. Mouse highway.

We set live traps for years and I'd relocate them by the river. Now we have a "live trap" named Sunny. Since he's confined mostly to the house, garage, and yard, he's been vigilant. Sometimes a little TOO vigilant.

So he has to wear a Cat Bib to reduce his predation. He killed a mouse AND a junco a few mornings ago--he was "inside" so no bib. May have to change that. Sometimes I think he does that to remind me that it's purely from the goodness of his heart that he allows the chickens to live.


No snow, so I took up the tarp. I'll lay it back down again if and when it starts later today.
 
And here it comes! Hard, sideways blowing corn snow. I've never seen the chickies do such a fast retreat into their run. One ran by the ramp and looked around like "Hey, where'd everybody go?" I herded her back in.....

Will it ever end? Will it? Jim says it will, He's never lied to me before. There's always a first time, tho'.

I spread the tarp out again, weighted it down with lumber, and now we'll see how the clear-area-for-the-chickies experiment works.

And today we have ravens and crows. I think they're both, some are just HUGE, some just look like crows. There's a large population here in Pinewood Springs and today they discovered the chicken scraps. The hens were squawking and carrying on, and I'm running outside like a banshee to see what's up...crows and ravens. That's what was up.

New location for chicken scraps.

I had a raven/crow fly over me last summer with a fledgling Stellar jay in its mouth. Haven't liked them AT ALL since. Didn't care much for them before either. Loud raucous invasive HUNGRY darn things. I'll hear a smaller species getting all worked up in the forest and I've learned to run out there immediately because it's always the crows/ravens hunting and tormenting. I use a super soaker. An unloaded pellet gun (just for the noise), and rocks and dry branches. Anything I can pitch at them.

I'm a vet tech and am supposed to love all animals. I don't love crows or ravens. Not even a little.
 
yawningreyhound said:
And here it comes! Hard, sideways blowing corn snow. I've never seen the chickies do such a fast retreat into their run. One ran by the ramp and looked around like "Hey, where'd everybody go?" I herded her back in.....

Will it ever end? Will it? Jim says it will, He's never lied to me before. There's always a first time, tho'.

I spread the tarp out again, weighted it down with lumber, and now we'll see how the clear-area-for-the-chickies experiment works.

And today we have ravens and crows. I think they're both, some are just HUGE, some just look like crows. There's a large population here in Pinewood Springs and today they discovered the chicken scraps. The hens were squawking and carrying on, and I'm running outside like a banshee to see what's up...crows and ravens. That's what was up.

New location for chicken scraps.

I had a raven/crow fly over me last summer with a fledgling Stellar jay in its mouth. Haven't liked them AT ALL since. Didn't care much for them before either. Loud raucous invasive HUNGRY darn things. I'll hear a smaller species getting all worked up in the forest and I've learned to run out there immediately because it's always the crows/ravens hunting and tormenting. I use a super soaker. An unloaded pellet gun (just for the noise), and rocks and dry branches. Anything I can pitch at them.

I'm a vet tech and am supposed to love all animals. I don't love crows or ravens. Not even a little.
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I don't mind the crows around here because they keep the hawks away. A hawk flew over me the other day while I was in the garden with the chickens and I heard a bunch of squawking and 2 crows chased it off. I've never had a problem with the crows coming into our yard or bothering the chickens. I don't like hawks anymore though! We have a pellet rifle at the ready by our sliding glass door to scare them off if need be.

I was out the in the yard yesterday since it was almost 70deg out (snowing really hard right now!) and let the chickens out to do some free ranging. I didn't notice our gold laced polish but I wasn't really counting them. But an hour or so later I went to lock them back up in their area and couldn't find her. I looked everywhere, she is nowhere to be found. She is the one that can escape their area and I found her in the front yard a few days ago! She is skittish and won't come to us when called so there's no hope of just calling for her. I'm afraid she hopped a fence into a neighbor's yard. All of our neighbors have at least 2 dogs so this is not a good thing. I couldn't see her in their yards, but I can't see all of it and who knows if a dog carried her off. We walked around our cul-de-sac and didn't see her. She didn't come home last night either. Stupid chicken!!!

Our chicks are all doing good now. No more deaths. We combined the bantams in with the bigger girls so we could free up the brooder for the hatchlings this weekend. If all the developing ones hatch we'll have 18 chicks.
 
trsturself said:
I don't mind the crows around here because they keep the hawks away. A hawk flew over me the other day while I was in the garden with the chickens and I heard a bunch of squawking and 2 crows chased it off. I've never had a problem with the crows coming into our yard or bothering the chickens. I don't like hawks anymore though! We have a pellet rifle at the ready by our sliding glass door to scare them off if need be.

I was out the in the yard yesterday since it was almost 70deg out (snowing really hard right now!) and let the chickens out to do some free ranging. I didn't notice our gold laced polish but I wasn't really counting them. But an hour or so later I went to lock them back up in their area and couldn't find her. I looked everywhere, she is nowhere to be found. She is the one that can escape their area and I found her in the front yard a few days ago! She is skittish and won't come to us when called so there's no hope of just calling for her. I'm afraid she hopped a fence into a neighbor's yard. All of our neighbors have at least 2 dogs so this is not a good thing. I couldn't see her in their yards, but I can't see all of it and who knows if a dog carried her off. We walked around our cul-de-sac and didn't see her. She didn't come home last night either. Stupid chicken!!!

Our chicks are all doing good now. No more deaths. We combined the bantams in with the bigger girls so we could free up the brooder for the hatchlings this weekend. If all the developing ones hatch we'll have 18 chicks.
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Oh NO! I so hope you find her!!!!!! My neighbor found her 8 year old hen ON TOP of the tuff shed a few weeks ago. We all wonder what scared her! Thinking good thoughts.

And we have birds of prey round here....guess I'll be grateful to the crows for something!
 
I don't mind the crows around here because they keep the hawks away. A hawk flew over me the other day while I was in the garden with the chickens and I heard a bunch of squawking and 2 crows chased it off. I've never had a problem with the crows coming into our yard or bothering the chickens. I don't like hawks anymore though! We have a pellet rifle at the ready by our sliding glass door to scare them off if need be. 

I was out the in the yard yesterday since it was almost 70deg out (snowing really hard right now!) and let the chickens out to do some free ranging. I didn't notice our gold laced polish but I wasn't really counting them. But an hour or so later I went to lock them back up in their area and couldn't find her. I looked everywhere, she is nowhere to be found. She is the one that can escape their area and I found her in the front yard a few days ago! She is skittish and won't come to us when called so there's no hope of just calling for her. I'm afraid she hopped a fence into a neighbor's yard. All of our neighbors have at least 2 dogs so this is not a good thing. I couldn't see her in their yards, but I can't see all of it and who knows if a dog carried her off. We walked around our cul-de-sac and didn't see her. She didn't come home last night either. Stupid chicken!!! 

Our chicks are all doing good now. No more deaths. We combined the bantams in with the bigger girls so we could free up the brooder for the hatchlings this weekend. If all the developing ones hatch we'll have 18 chicks. 
[/quote]

Hope she shows up, you just never know, I had one that was gone for a few days, and then one morning, there she was..... She is my oldest and wisest, she will be five years old this spring.

It is a gound blizzard outside here right now, not much snow, but blowing wind makes it look like more. Geez, so tired of this winter weather! Guess the last few days spoiled me as it was so nice out, and no frozen water bowls, etc.

Glad you will have some new hatchlings soon, looks like your homemade bator is working just fine! :D
 
Percheron chick said:
Crows and magpies steal my eggs. Not a problem now because I'm gagging on eggs but a month ago when I was lucky to get one a day they were eating more than me.
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Wow! I don't think the crows could figure out how to get into our nest boxes. I think they would be more interested in the chicken food and food scraps if they managed to get into the chicken area.
 

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