Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Kris5902]

But what do you do with a bucket full of mice?

Release them in the back yard and watch them beat you back to your house through the snow?

 

[bgmathteach]

I let the Princesses out to enjoy their larger area anyway and they are having a grand old time.
Of course the first thing that happened is a hawk came and sat high up watching them.
This is causing me all sorts of angst about the right balance of security vs freedom and I am going round in circles on what to do.

You could use a shade cloth for any space that doesn't have a tall tree in it. I did that with my mobile coop. Shade cloth was 12X20, and ran the electric netting out 20', across 10', then back 20'. The tractor was the last 10' edge of the rectangle. (Your coop could be.) I used step in stakes and bungees around the edge...just outside the electromesh, plus in the center (to offset drooping) I used a shepherd's hook plant hanger. Of course, this would be significantly smaller (I believe ) than what you are intending...but it would negate the hawk issue.
Shade Tarps

 

[Marie2020]

I've got a problem with princes. Agatha was always nervous going into the coop and I have just found out why .
Princess is waiting for both Tina and Agatha too go into the coop and attacking them . Flexi seems nervous these days and is always with Tina and Agatha. Tonight I've shut the coop door and left princess bully in the run with the perches. She has all the food so it's hardly a punishment. I will reassess the situation tomorrow as it's getting dark now. I may have to make a separate arrangement for princess I'm not having her bullying all the girls. Maybe this is why Agatha is laying soft shells

 

[Kris5902]

Well I would give them directly to the chickens (unless someone tells me crows like them in which case they can share).
But how do you dispatch the bucket of mice? Drown them (cruel)? Put them in the mouse zapper (why not let them walk in on their own)? Gas them (dry ice maybe)? Feed them live to the chickens (they might escape)?
My point is that a kill trap takes out the extra step of dispatching them and does so in a rapid, humane and stress free way.

Thanks… I really don’t like the drowning option, I don’t think they are good for eating once gassed. I suppose you could compost them. I usually toss bodies out and either the ravens or chickens eat them… (don’t tell my egg customers!)

 

[Marie2020]

But what do you do with a bucket full of mice?

There's mountains and woods around her away from homes. I'll have too think it through. Some put water in the bucket

 

[Kris5902]

I've got a problem with princes. Agatha was always nervous going into the coop and I have just found out why .
Princess is waiting for both Tina and Agatha too go into the coop and attacking them . Flexi seems nervous these days and is always with Tina and Agatha. Tonight I've shut the coop door and left princess bully in the run with the perches. She has all the food so it's hardly a punishment. I will reassess the situation tomorrow as it's getting dark now. I may have to make a separate arrangement for princess I'm not having her bullying all the girls. Maybe this is why Agatha is laying soft shells

What breed is princess? Flexi is your barred rock, yes? They are usually pretty dominant/resilient to bullying, so I’m a little surprised by this.

 

[RoyalChick]

Thanks… I really don’t like the drowning option, I don’t think they are good for eating once gassed. I suppose you could compost them. I usually toss bodies out and either the ravens or chickens eat them… (don’t tell my egg customers!)

Body disposal isn’t an issue. It is how to humanely kill them when you catch them.
You can relocate them and not all of them will beat you home. Or you can kill them.
I used to relocate which is why I am the proud owner of a collection of live trapping devices.
What I won’t do is kill them in an inhumane way. So no drowning buckets of mice. And no sticky traps.
Both the expensive ‘zapper’ and the very cheap snap traps are humane, instantaneous ways to kill them.
Chickens kill them in an inhumane way but I am powerless to intervene in that process.

 

[Marie2020]

Release them in the back yard and watch them beat you back to your house through the snow?

Nice one kris

 

[featherhead007]

“Daddy, go away. Can’t you see I have a job to do?”

 

[Marie2020]

What breed is princess? Flexi is your barred rock, yes? They are usually pretty dominant/resilient to bullying, so I’m a little surprised by this.

Kris I never can tell what she is, bob and a few people here have a similar chicken. Flexi is a bantom and has brown in her

I think princess has accidentally hurt flexi, she's very clumsy. But she was trying too throw the two little ones out off the coop . They need comfort as much as all my girls
I will be watching out tomorrow and see how behaves