EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[duluthralphie]

Brother says he's ok so far. Really smoky there with ash. Friends have lost their homes. Actually got a hold of sister in law as Mike didn't hear his phone.
If you have been watching the news about Santa Rosa he's in the town next to it. Literally there's not much of a divide if any. All or most of Santa Rosa was evacuated and he says they are in his city now.

Best too you, You need a place to stay come on over here...I can use help bathing chickens....

 

[kajira]

We found a chick who can't walk - well its half grown. I dont' know what happened to it's leg, I assume it broke it's leg or something to that effect, it's otherwise "fine" besides not standing/walking. oldest daughter brought it inside and won't let her father cull it - so she's got it living in the brooder with 2 of the silkie chicks she rescued from broodies that rejected them when they hatched. She feeds it water/food everyday and makes sure to move it around enough to not get sore. I don't know if it will ever walk again, but as long as I'm not the one taking care of it, I really don't care. LOL her dad finally just went "meh, well see how it does I guess." lol He's such a push over with our chickens these days ^.^

 

[kajira]

If you want them to be effective hunters don't feed them! If you feed them they won't hunt seriously.

We put out 1 cup of food per day for 4 barn cats. Only 2, out of our 4 cats, eat the food, and they catch mice/rats ALL the time. They don't eat them, they kill because they like to kill.
The problem I've had with barn cats if you don't offer another food source, is your chickens and small critters get tempting if they are easily accessible. I've had a barn cat kill half-grown and nearly fullsized red sex link chickens. If they get hungry, those chickens become their next target.

 

[kwhites634]

I to had a sudden death, my polish hen was fine when I tucked them in. By AM, passed.

You said on the hatchalong thread that we're neighbors. Where are you?

 

[Akrnaf2]

We put out 1 cup of food per day for 4 barn cats. Only 2, out of our 4 cats, eat the food, and they catch mice/rats ALL the time. They don't eat them, they kill because they like to kill.
The problem I've had with barn cats if you don't offer another food source, is your chickens and small critters get tempting if they are easily accessible. I've had a barn cat kill half-grown and nearly fullsized red sex link chickens. If they get hungry, those chickens become their next target.

chicken and cats don't mix!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Ha!!

Ha! back at you!

Hey there! No good stories, this page just moves so very, very fast.....

But I do want advice.....After 8 years or so of owning chickens, I think I now have more rats than I do chickens. Found out the entire neighborhood is overloaded with these critters. We've been having fun pinging them with pellet guns. We have the water bucket traps. Snap traps. They are reproducing faster than we can dispatch them. Our local animal shelter traps or takes in feral cats, spays and neuters them, then they adopt them out as barn cats. I'm thinking of picking up a few. They have the feral cats living out at the shelter with farm animals, living in the barn with the chickens. I know my indoor only cat will bolt outside if you aren't careful and will head over to the coops and will snag a rat - that I have to kill. So, I'm hoping any barn cat I adopt will also be interested in taking out some of these. Does anyone else have barn cats? If so, how much do I feed them? If I feed them the same way I feed my indoor cats - will they hunt the rats? Anyone have downsides to having barn cats? By the way, I don't have a barn, we are going to set them up in my basement.

Hi!! Long time since we've crossed paths.

We've always had barn/outside cats. They help, depends on the cat. If they've been feral chances are they're should be decent mousers. We got two kittens about 15 years ago and they had babies before we were able to get them fixed. We made the commitment to fix everyone. Ouch. But even having 15 cats won't rid you of all the mice/rats. I'd say my previous dog was more efficient at killing rats than the cats. He was outstanding! As long as there's feed available...there's rodents.We also have tons of round bales and square bales for rodent housing. We're sure to keep that away from the farm site.

One downside, cats may eat things you don't want...such as small chicks or chickens. We took in a housecat we acclimatized to living outside and a very thin, starving cat we brought home to save years ago...and they'd work together to take down my full grown rabbits. We have one of our aged females right now who hunts the baby rabbits as they come out. But we don't raise dumb rabbits either so they don't have much to worry about...lol. Cats can live a very long time, it's a long commitment.

I think DH feeds for cats about 1/2 a large margarine container morning and night. Cat food is fairly expensive. We keep them in tip top condition so they don't get sick. That's more expense one doesn't need. Except for one cat with either a possible cancer issue, our cats haven't seen the vet since they've been fixed. We've never given our cats shots; right or wrong...they've never been ill. They winter outside so they need to be fed. No animals in the houses at all...been there done that. I've never allowed cats to live inside...allergies.

On a side note, we've been overrun by rats since being flooded in 2014. As soon as our rabbit population grew starting last fall...the rats have disappeared. (The rabbits broke out and we left them out.) There's nothing in the machine sheds, the granaries, the coop...just no rats at all! But we see the rabbits clean up every little bit of grain spilled or blown when working with the grain (which is all the time) I see some of the bunnies wait for Dh to make feed for the cows; they wait under the bins so they get whatever grain is spilled... They're so smart! I also see them spending more time where the guys were unloading grain in the yard. The roosters are lazy eaters...the baby buns spend a lot of time in those pens cleaning up the leftovers. Good bunnies!

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I have a grand solution for all those plagued by rats... move to AB, no rats there...

There's supposed to be no rats in SK either. There are. Unfortunately.

 

[kajira]

Ha! back at you!

Hi!! Long time since we've crossed paths.

We've always had barn/outside cats. They help, depends on the cat. If they've been feral chances are they're should be decent mousers. We got two kittens about 15 years ago and they had babies before we were able to get them fixed. We made the commitment to fix everyone. Ouch. But even having 15 cats won't rid you of all the mice/rats. I'd say my previous dog was more efficient at killing rats than the cats. He was outstanding! As long as there's feed available...there's rodents.We also have tons of round bales and square bales for rodent housing. We're sure to keep that away from the farm site.

One downside, cats may eat things you don't want...such as small chicks or chickens. We took in a housecat we acclimatized to living outside and a very thin, starving cat we brought home to save years ago...and they'd work together to take down my full grown rabbits. We have one of our aged females right now who hunts the baby rabbits as they come out. But we don't raise dumb rabbits either so they don't have much to worry about...lol. Cats can live a very long time, it's a long commitment.

I think DH feeds for cats about 1/2 a large margarine container morning and night. Cat food is fairly expensive. We keep them in tip top condition so they don't get sick. That's more expense one doesn't need. Except for one cat with either a possible cancer issue, our cats haven't seen the vet since they've been fixed. We've never given our cats shots; right or wrong...they've never been ill. They winter outside so they need to be fed. No animals in the houses at all...been there done that. I've never allowed cats to live inside...allergies.

On a side note, we've been overrun by rats since being flooded in 2014. As soon as our rabbit population grew starting last fall...the rats have disappeared. (The rabbits broke out and we left them out.) There's nothing in the machine sheds, the granaries, the coop...just no rats at all! But we see the rabbits clean up every little bit of grain spilled or blown when working with the grain (which is all the time) I see some of the bunnies wait for Dh to make feed for the cows; they wait under the bins so they get whatever grain is spilled... They're so smart! I also see them spending more time where the guys were unloading grain in the yard. The roosters are lazy eaters...the baby buns spend a lot of time in those pens cleaning up the leftovers. Good bunnies!

If you want ot kill small rodents, get a small terrier breed, and train them to only go after rats and mice. They will be better mousers, than most cats. The nice thing about dogs with a job - is you can train them to leave the chickens alone, better than most cats.
3/4 of our cats, don't bother the chicken, but I have 1 barn cat, i've been tempted to shoot because he intentionally kills chickens, just for the sheer fun of it. The dogs have kept him out of the yard after watching him kill one of the baby chickens my great Pyr was raising. She took it personally and no longer allows him in the yard, so he lives by our dumpster now right outside the fence. LOL

 

[Wickedchicken6]

What!?

It's the same here if the pet is from the HS. They won't adopt out to a farm...it might mean the pet "might" go outside. So I don't support them. I've taken in a few housecats that have never seen outside and they lived a happy carefree life here. The last cat was called Casper because they never saw her in the house. She did my chores with me everyday. We loved her and she didn't bother my chicks at all.
Hug a kitty!

 

[BantyChooks]

chicken and cats don't mix!