Pic time! The babies are about 4 weeks now.
After the bunnies got some yard time I had to chase them back into the cage. They would have preferred staying out.
It's amazing how well the little ones handle cold already too, it's about 15F outside at the moment and they don't mind it at all.
I like stir fry bunny the best!
heyNot sure this applies but please keep in mind (maybe for future pens?) that winged predators like owls and hawks will land on the "top" of a netted pen (you don't say how you have "covered" your pens?) and when birds like the ducks leap in the air (natural reaction to a threat is for waterfowl to LEAP up...when on water, this works out well for them avoiding being eaten by say big mouth Bass, turtles, Pike, or even eagles swooping in to pluck them off ponds), oft times one can find an entire pen of ducks slaughtered--heads dislocated from bods. Both the owl/hawk and the ducks lose because the hawk/owl sits on the top killing the leaping ducks but is unable to retrieve its intended MEAL and keeps killing until the entire pen is dead and no more ducks are panicking and leaping up to be caught.
http://articles.extension.org/pages/71204/predator-management-for-small-and-backyard-poultry-flocks :
I observed this double netted pen thing the first time I visited a keeper of ducks here in Alberta...querying them as to why they had double netted the top of their netted pen.
About 8 inches between the lower and the top net is enough to deter a bird of prey from getting its talons into leaping ducks. Your taller pen may work better too as ducks can leap and fly up but there is a limitation as to how high they will go. The pen I viewed with the double netted top was about ten or so feet to the very top. You may use a less strong netting on the lower level...one that keeps ducks from going to the next level. Some use orange coloured (thinking snow fence could be laced together?) as it is a vivid colour that birds of prey will see and maybe not even bother to land and stress your waterfowl out.
We have roofed all our runs in coloured metal...so no need to "double net" any of our roofs as the metal deters any predation from the assortment of owls, hawks, eagles, ravens, crows, magpies, etc..
Glad you are progressing towards your entire family being relocated to your new home...and yeh, I recall spending several lonely months awaiting my own family to join me in Alberta while our house sold on the WEsT Coast and I worked at my new job at the new location. Totally sucks but you'll be too busy with other things when you do get to go to the new place. Yah & Congrats!
Doggone & Chicken UP!
Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
we had a owl who must be nesting somewhere close and possibly two I often listen to em on the porch...eagles galore, ..today however I went outside with loki and let the flock out to range and suddenly heard loki going off some neighbors pitbull cross was wandering the neighborhood,,, the roosters are super watchful...I've let them out to free range and gone inside for a second to do something come right out n they have the girls all gathered back in the covered pen...look up n sure enough theres an eagle flying about....
least on the island we dont have to deal with like bears n cougars here!...so far just eagles, owls n stray dogs...have heard something bout weasels but havent seen or heard direct confirmation of that... otherwise racoon and possum seen on the island but nowhere in my area.....which seems odd considering the woods...Besides the winged predators, the most aggressively hard to keep at bay predators for us are grizzly bears and cougars, never mind tiny weasels could become an issue some day. Sheep barn has welded wire panels over windows and a sliding barn door but don't do one much good when the young black bear swung by chased by neighbours into our place in the DAYtime...ack.
Jacobs calmly noted bear in the background...YIKES!
The lower level of net could even be chicken wire (yeh, I know...dumb name as "chicken" wire don't usually even keep chooks in!) or as the link I posted says, something orange (get a deal on snow fence if you find any in your area Deb?) but then again, other than our greenhouse and new orchard area, colour co-ordination for orange is kinda difficult. But hey, desert area, terra cotta look. I do know you are designing yer coops to be purdy too...something to admire past how pretty poultry is.
We use hardware cloth in most all applications (seen a red tailed hit it full tilt and we both laughed our butts off...you may view the birds nicely, soft and not harmful to birds hitting it, or birds of prey hitting it on the other side either...dang hawk!), but with hardware cloth, one may avoid using it in areas where it gets wet as the coatings may leach and poison yer birds (canary in the mine shaft syndrome...birds lean towards being more sensitive and kicking before creatures like us get ill). One time Rick had some hardware cloth over the winter tub for his pond fish (they jump too but sans water, leads to their deaths--ugh) and he noted he lost a fish...the bubbles of water from the filtration system leached some of the uglies off the hardware cloth into the water. Quick water change and new top not with hardware cloth--we learned from that blunder tout sweet. Fun how we all learn the HARD ways, eh.
Red Golden Pheasant hen in front of hardware cloth
Silver Pheasant pair behind hardware cloth
I would suggest that one avoids stucco wire...I know it's cheap but we had some from a crow recovery cage that we put up for a pheasant and she lost an eye on it...ended up dead from this injury. So I guess, chicken wire is less nasty (softer, better connections...stucco can have the joints bust and that could be what harms the birds...) if you want something wirish fer the inside top of the netted area.
Tara
I have no idea what kind of mojo or voodoo ya'll hens use, but it works every time.......Just when you think you have all the predators covered, another one shows up, right?
We do have bears here, but thankfully they haven't come onto the property yet. Right now they should be sleeping anyway.
@CanuckBock those are pretty pheasants!
I am looking at ostrich or emus,call me crazy. There is an Emu farm not too far from where we are moving too. Prices seem reasonable too. They want $100 for 1-3 day old babies. How do I convince hubby?
now if i only knew what worked last time...mind you DH catches on, he's not stupid, so I have to keep coming up with new ideas. I call it keeping each other on our toes
I am looking at ostrich or emus,call me crazy. There is an Emu farm not too far from where we are moving too. Prices seem reasonable too. They want $100 for 1-3 day old babies. How do I convince hubby?
