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

[hippiestink]

My fabric order is at my in-laws! I should get the package tomorrow afternoon or the delivery slip to go pick it up!

 

[Akrnaf2]

Thank you Benny!! I am quite a ways south of the fires so far. We've been lucky that our hills are still "un-burnt" this year. All around, we've had fires. Thankfully, nothing close by. But the ones up Sonoma are horrible - the winds were so bad yesterday - we were getting 50 mph gusts. I hope it wasn't as bad north of here. There are hundreds of people missing. The fires spread so quickly, there was no escape. As far as I know, both fires are still uncontained. My thoughts go out to everyone in the path of these fires.

Good to hear and welcome back!

 

[Jessimom]

Hey!!

Hey Banty!! Hi everyone! I've missed you all!!!

 

[ronott1]

Hey Banty!! Hi everyone! I've missed you all!!!

Where have been?

Any good stories?

 

[Jessimom]

Where have been?

Any good stories?

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.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

The sound garbage man made when he took the lids off our can by the road. I heard him an acre away..

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Hi @Jessimom !
Me Connie, Husband Tarzan..
Nice to meet you..

 

[BullChick]

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.

I do not have them, but the neighbors' cats do help a lot with the mice.
If you don't know, most cats learn from Mom. If she hunts, and kills they will too. If she leaves the rodent alive, babies will not usually kill their prey.
Also, you can make an outdoor cat house. One storage container inside of another, with foam insulation, and straw bedding. The straw lets the cats snuggle in, and keeps snow moisture away from them.

 

[ronott1]

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.

I had to poison the rats--took about a year to get them out of the neighborhood. They just kept coming and coming and coming....

The big old norway rats are too big for most cats to kill. You would be better of with a Terrier dog. That type of Dog will want to eat the chickens though.

I used just on bite and used a wire. I placed the bait where the chickens could not get them. They take the bait back to share with the nest.
I have been rat free for almost 2 years now!

 

[Jessimom]

I had to poison the rats--took about a year to get them out of the neighborhood. They just kept coming and coming and coming....

The big old norway rats are too big for most cats to kill. You would be better of with a Terrier dog. That type of Dog will want to eat the chickens though.

I used just on bite and used a wire. I placed the bait where the chickens could not get them. They take the bait back to share with the nest.
I have been rat free for almost 2 years now!

I have an owl that hunts the rats, and a couple of eagles that nest in my trees, that I'm sure catch a few. Even the baits that are supposedly not harmful to secondary animals, is found to be killing them anyway. So, I'm really struggling to not poison them. We have so many trees around the coops, and that's how the rats travel - the cats at least will be able to go up in the trees. My dog (Akita/Lab) loves to chase them, but isn't fast enough. None of the rats we caught were super large. Bodies maybe 5 to 6 inches?