That would be really cute if they weren't evil chicken-killers!
Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock
- Thread starter BY Bob
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I have close to 80 chickens ( a little over 80 birds between chickens and ducks.) I need a way to keep track of them all! So, for chickens: Blue, Red & Yellow bands for my 3 BR breeding groups. Those purple are for my new (this year ) BCM & Welsummers, I use spiral brown bands for my broodies (they stay as long as they live), and I have just started using colored zip ties on legs for age. Clear/white was 2 years ago, last years are getting green (before this year's get too old to tell them apart) and this year's will get blue zip ties.
I am in that odd place with my chickens where they are pets and raised for eggs & meat. I usually process my older girls at 2.5 years. (Note the usually, I currently have 6 that are 4 - and NOT broodies - that I just couldn't process
- and I have only 'expanded' to this many chickens in the last year or so. I started with 8 total about 6 years ago- Chicken math is REAL!!!))1 week old chicks enjoying their 'mini-jungle'.
A very dirty 'white' chick enjoying a dust bath!
- Jun 3, 2021
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I caught 5 kits plus Mama.
6 or 7 kits?!? Wasn't sure it there was another in the way back or not. I knew they could have larger litters...but 7 is a LOT for a mom to feed!
They are very cute. I have many cute fox videos.That would be really cute if they weren't evil chicken-killers!
To be fair - when this lot were around there weren’t any chickens.
One of their children or children’s children is absolutely an evil chicken-killer however.
Unfortunately, everyone loves chicken for dinner. Chickens are about as low on the food chain as you can get.They are very cute. I have many cute fox videos.
To be fair - when this lot were around there weren’t any chickens.
One of their children or children’s children is absolutely an evil chicken-killer however.
?hmmm, maybe earth worms are lower? But they have a natural defense of the ground for cover.
I think it was 7. At one point I thought 8 because there is another one in the grass, but I think it is one that went around and was already counted.
When I first watched the video I couldn’t believe how they kept appearing!
They were living in the barn and I had seen them out on that bit of gravel a few times so I put the trail camera there.
Mom does look pretty exhausted! She was a good hunter - she would leap up and grab the mocking birds/gray catbirds out of the sky and they would gang up and fly at her as a mob but it didn’t deter her.
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Thanks so much. I have definitely learned something. Thanks for indulging me.@BY Bob - Electric fence power - long post, but is it what you want to know? I have been learning about these things myself!
Here is the unit that converts the power and pulses it, sending zaps along the positive line out to the fence. The grounding is here also, very bottom of picture, the line goes to a long ground rod. I drove the rod pretty deep because it's sort of where we store bikes and other things and I don't want it sticking out even four inches. The rod is like a couple feet long. The unit needs shelter of some kind. This is the ground floor of our hybrid pole-barn / truss garage. Sander is circa 60's or possibly earlier....DH saves everything. Notice the toaster oven under the box next to the wire roll?
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The wire roll is the remaining wire from a 500 foot roll. I won't cut it until I've run this for a while as I'm not sure of the length I need eventually. The exact footage they had precut was probably good, but maybe not, and this was the next step up. The Premier guy advised no splices. Since I've never done this kind of thing I wanted to allow for do-overs!
Ground rod close-up. Band clamp attaching the wire. I need to hammer in some staples along the wire paths. After I did the nails I spoke to DH and of course he had a little box of staples somewhere!
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The unit is powered by a wall wart into an outlet to the right of the wagon tires in the first pic.
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Out the window and across the swale. Cleared the setup plan with Premier, told them I didn't want to bury the line because wood delivery and any other trucks (septic guy) need to go around here. The yellow line is the extension cord used only for waterer and coop warming panel in winter, nothing to do with the fence, but you can find the black fence wire by finding it.
View attachment 3235647
Into the woods, I need to fix the lines taut better, does anybody know what you get to hold on to a line and then fix it to something? Some kind of Gripple? It needs to grip but not pierce or pinch. All I found were for going out of electric boxes and those have teeth. I used two zip ties, one around the wire, the other hooked into it, & effort made to not pinch anything. That orange box is for the extension cord, it's a weather tight connection box for another length (think this 150 feet is fine, I'm not operating power tools on the far end, it's very low draw). After here both lines go along the crooks of trees over towards the fence. There's a ski path below to the right.
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Fence end, yellow extension cord is coiled up in the back. There's a handy tree limb that goes over the path so the wire comes down after the path to the fence posts.
Now the clip ("Powerlink") from the fence to the cutoff switch is attached, those are the orange "jumper cable" jaws. Volts are good, no loss due to the long roll of wire. The guy at Premier recommended the next higher Energizer unit than I was thinking, one joule instead of half a joule, because of the length of fence I have and could use. Not sure actually if the cable length is an issue. Anyway, it works!
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I've gone to the barrier of aviary netting between them and the electric fence. They are familiar with the aviary netting and know they can touch it and browse under it, but they are very wary of the white poultry netting and stay away. I worry less this way and there is no temptation to get at wonderful greens that could get them zapped. There was an occasional zap last year and even though it's quick it does hurt. I do watch them when they are out of their aviary area with me and anywhere near the dreaded fence. However they've been very good with staying away, no zaps at all this year. I see them look at a green near it and decide against it.
An electrifying topic, they agree!
View attachment 3235720
Don’t forget to count the geese!I have close to 80 chickens ( a little over 80 birds between chickens and ducks.) I need a way to keep track of them all! So, for chickens: Blue, Red & Yellow bands for my 3 BR breeding groups. Those purple are for my new (this year ) BCM & Welsummers, I use spiral brown bands for my broodies (they stay as long as they live), and I have just started using colored zip ties on legs for age. Clear/white was 2 years ago, last years are getting green (before this year's get too old to tell them apart) and this year's will get blue zip ties.
I am in that odd place with my chickens where they are pets and raised for eggs & meat. I usually process my older girls at 2.5 years. (Note the usually, I currently have 6 that are 4 - and NOT broodies - that I just couldn't process
1 week old chicks enjoying their 'mini-jungle'.
View attachment 3236262
A very dirty 'white' chick enjoying a dust bath!
View attachment 3236263
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