Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[bgmathteach]

I have fish oil capsules and am considering cutting some open and putting on her feed. I give these to my dogs for skin issues and they help a lot. Any thoughts?

Can't hurt to put one a day on her feed for a few days/week.

 

[GregnLety]

From the moment I received this picture of Duke I knew he was coming home to be here forever. He is still just as sweet as he looks in that picture. 80 pounds of sweetness and love. He is the only dog we have paid for and is the best $100 ever spent.

 

[RoyalChick]

I never caught one with mine. Seems like they sensed the electricity or something. Later, in the same spot, caught a couple with the snap trap. However, can't catch any now - they have learned how to foil every trap type I have tried. Snap traps? Sprung every morning, bait gone, nothing in them. Glue traps? They have learned to scratch sand/dirt on them.(BTW: I hate killing ones caught in glue traps. i feel like a horrible meanie) Different kind of snap trap? Caught 1, then never sprung again, but bait gone every time. I give up.

Maddening!

I try to shuffle between snap trap, zappers, and nothing. I also use baited but not ‘set’ snap traps and zappers and I move positions.
I try to not let them get used to anything.
So far I have a pretty high kill rate.
I also use my cameras to identify where they are getting in so I can seal those holes.
It is a never ending war!

 

[RoyalChick]

I can't poison them,as they could well die in the chicken run. They have tunneled under the decrepit barn. Chicken run uses 1 wall of barn as 1 wall of outdoor run. I was going to try @BY Bob 's method of dry Ice, but I don't think I can possibly cover all the access holes. Maybe I will just cover as much as possible, and the dry ice may kill off some & lessen the #? It is hard to explain, but it is a pole barn with board & batten on outside, but part was horse stalls for draft horses, and on the inside there are 2x8x 10s, and there is a gap between inside & outside the diameter of telephone poles (the 'poles' in the pole barn) that the rats can access, but I can't.

I did get the 'mother & father', but won't be long before the others are reproducing...and there are lots of them (?maybe more than one reproducing pair in a colony, so only got 1 set??)

dirty little buggars!!

There are some guys who use ferrets to hunt and kill them. Not sure if anyone in your area. You would have to teh home the chickens while the ferrets were working.

 

[RoyalChick]

While working on the run today we decided to let the tweens decide if they wanted to come out the pop door and supervise the work. Turns out they sure did want to. Unfazed by the hammering and the air tools they explored and munched bugs. The only thing that spooked them really was the air compressor coming on. They high tailed it back into the coop when that came on.

Biscotti and Cinnamon pointing out the clear OSHA missed bottlecap violation. They take their supervisory duties seriously!
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Pecans fluffy butt strut
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Pecan Flour and Ginger keeping eyes on our work.
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Glad to see they are taking their supervisory duties seriously!
They are adorable. Love the names too.

 

[RoyalChick]

I have fish oil capsules and am considering cutting some open and putting on her feed. I give these to my dogs for skin issues and they help a lot. Any thoughts?

Don’t think it would do any harm but it would be a vitamin boost not providing any extra protein.

 

[Ponypoor]

Wow thunderstorm moved in quick.

We had rain all day, at one pint we had one huge clap of thunder which made me the chickens and the horses jump! And that was it haha no other thunder - weird or what?!

 

[Ponypoor]

I have fish oil capsules and am considering cutting some open and putting on her feed. I give these to my dogs for skin issues and they help a lot. Any thoughts?

We can get fish oil in jugs at the feed mill, it’s used as a top dressing for horse and cattle feed. Have used it, horses surprisingly like it! The increased fat gives extra calories. I may go back to it for my old gals as they have issues with keeping weight as they age.

 

[Ponypoor]

There are some guys who use ferrets to hunt and kill them. Not sure if anyone in your area. You would have to teh home the chickens while the ferrets were working.

Might be an option - crazy critters….

 

[ValarieF]

Up early it 4 am Ive been up for a bit cant wait for the chickees to get up.