Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[featherhead007]

Yeah sure the fewer the better. But, a rooster mates many many times a day, and a hen lays fertile eggs for a couple weeks after one time, so I would think a rooster would service way more than 10 hens. Of course a rooster for some reason has his favorites, but I bet he gets to the ones he doesn't like at least every couple weeks??

Sounds like I was, (back in high school)!

 

[Rainwing]

last night i put the cockerels in the coop and they survived, so tonight is the second night for the little "covid generation" cockerels, and the first night for the pullets.

i hope it is reinforced enough. what put an end to my previous flock 2 years ago was raccoons breaking in. but now it takes me a full minute to get the door unlocked with all the adjustments made. its constant anxiety though. and five years back or so i lost a barred rock pullet to a rat. i've never lost any other pullets like that afterwards, even younger pullets, but it always haunts me.

mouse and rat traps set out of reach of the chickens, so i'll find out what roams the coop soon enough.

 

[Beer can]

There was somebody advertising piglets of a very good breed and They didn't want much money for them I think about $40 per piglet.

The numbers that they leave have been flying off the advertisement.

So many people are looking to raise their own meat and I'm wondering if it will have an effect on the meat market when they come back full force.

once you get a taste of homegrown meat, you never want to go back to the store...

$40 a piglet...back in the '90s they were $25, now, well were before this, usually $80 for any piglet.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

We use one for Basket-Case ... errr ... Skye, DD's dog. Without it, she finishes her meal in minutes and goes looking for more trash ... errr ... things ... to get into. As a youngster, when we had to leave her for longer periods, we'd fill it with kibble, then plug the hole with peanut butter. She was happy for nearly an hour!

Oh... you are supposed to plug the hole? No wonder our dog gets the treats out in 30 seconds, duh!

 

[21hens-incharge]

Oh... you are supposed to plug the hole? No wonder our dog gets the treats out in 30 seconds, duh!

I don't plug them and River is still chasing hers around, then playing with a toy, then back to the wobbler.

 

[Beer can]

last night i put the cockerels in the coop and they survived, so tonight is the second night for the little "covid generation" cockerels, and the first night for the pullets.

i hope it is reinforced enough. what put an end to my previous flock 2 years ago was raccoons breaking in. but now it takes me a full minute to get the door unlocked with all the adjustments made. its constant anxiety though. and five years back or so i lost a barred rock pullet to a rat. i've never lost any other pullets like that afterwards, even younger pullets, but it always haunts me.

mouse and rat traps set out of reach of the chickens, so i'll find out what roams the coop soon enough.

Trail cams work great to see what your dealing with. I have many predators here and rarely have them harm my birds even though my coops not predator proof. Luckily I live out in the country so a gunshot at night doesn't bother any of my neighbors.
I've seen coyote, fox, bear, fisher cat, we have others but those I've found near my coops
Raccoon eliminated. Skunk one time getting hatched from broodies was a prob caught that one in a live trap. Saw it on my trail cam, had plans if I caught it. Long stick dunk it in our pond..yeah changed my mind. What a mistake, now that I have it what to do? Ended up using .22, stunk a little bit, mostly when it rained for the rest of the summer.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I don't plug them and River is still chasing hers around, then playing with a toy, then back to the wobbler.

Our Sheltie pup has no interest in any toy other than his little tennis balls, and then pretty much only if we will toss them for him. If we quit, he will play by himself for a bit, he can dribble them like a basketball player for a while before losing interest. The kong is only interesting until he gets the goodies out.

 

[Beer can]

My birds are safe.

 

[SnapdragonQ]

I think that would work. I would check the hens often to make sure no one is getting injured.

Can you throw bedsheets over them?

I don't have big enough ones because she's ginormous!
Most of the other roses are against a southern exposure brick wall, but I've got probably 100' of rose beds that are between 8' to 15' deep. I had thought it would be great if I had a giant roll of plastic I could drape off the porch railing, like an awning... but alas even my tarps aren't that big. Ima hopin' and prayin' Mr Weatherman will be wrong.

Yeah sure the fewer the better. But, a rooster mates many many times a day, and a hen lays fertile eggs for a couple weeks after one time, so I would think a rooster would service way more than 10 hens. Of course a rooster for some reason has his favorites, but I bet he gets to the ones he doesn't like at least every couple weeks??

It would only be temporary so I could collect enough eggs for the incubator (holds 22) then he would go in with everyone (12 hens) until I want to hatch something again. (He's not with most of them right now)
My goal is to ensure, as much as possible, the eggs I set in the incubator for the first time are fertilized. Plus this way I can choose the bigger Rock hens for the fertilized eggs. If they are all together I won't know whose eggs are whose, besides the EE.

I will be combining all the adults eventually anyway because I'll need the smaller pen the Aussies are in for the newer chicks.

 

[Rainwing]

Trail cams work great to see what your dealing with. I have many predators here and rarely have them harm my birds even though my coops not predator proof. Luckily I live out in the country so a gunshot at night doesn't bother any of my neighbors.
I've seen coyote, fox, bear, fisher cat, we have others but those I've found near my coops
Raccoon eliminated. Skunk one time getting hatched from broodies was a prob caught that one in a live trap. Saw it on my trail cam, had plans if I caught it. Long stick dunk it in our pond..yeah changed my mind. What a mistake, now that I have it what to do? Ended up using .22, stunk a little bit, mostly when it rained for the rest of the summer.

I'd have to buy a cam then. Usually I stick a head out the window and aim a flashlight at the woods to see what's happening.
The raccoon problem was huge, and probably still is. Years back my cat was hissing at the glass door and I looked over. I thought the back of a raccoon was the back of another cat, but I was wrong when it poked its head up. Then I saw around 11 other raccoons all on the porch... We didn't leave anything on the porch or eat there, never fed the cat on the porch. My first flock of hens were kept in rabbit hutches as chicks temporarily. In one week, three were dead, one's wing completely removed, another's wingtips missing, and one left with a skeletal wing. This was even after we reinforced it with hardware cloth. The attacks stopped when we set up the coop, and that peace lasted for about 5 years, until that one fateful night where they broke in and massacred everyone.
When I was in high school there were so many city slickers that moved here who would feed raccoons cat food and then show the pictures to me saying that they were cute. They would try to name the raccoons too and talk about their personalities. On top of that, other people who owned chickens would relocate them near my road when they trapped them, instead of euthanizing the raccoon. I think that was how they got to such high numbers.