Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[ValarieF]

Congratulations. Now you just need to roughly sell about 999 more dozen to even begin to hope to break even with your initial start up costs on raising chickens. Lets not look at it that way though. Depending on your egg price, let us say if you can sell 3 dozen a week we can say they the girls are paying for themselves now. If you turn around and invest the egg money into your feed bill that is.

My start up costs were only the cost of chicks and food and bedding so not that much. Webasically turned our shed into a coop

 

[BY Bob]

Boreal owl

Has anyone had any experience with boreal owls and chickens?

This owl has been hanging out in the tree right beside the largest of my runs.
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It looks large in this photo, but it is very small. I am worried that it could fit through the fencing as gray jays regularly do. It's body is more squat than a gray jay, but it is also puffed up due to the cold.

I have closed off that run and just left the covered one accessible to the hens. Am I being overly cautious? This owl is here during the day and at dusk and is not at all phased by our two dogs barking at it from inside the house.

Edit to add that the run is netted.

If you have identified the owl correctly it feels like there is not a lot to worry about. Here is what I can find regarding their prey.

Prey Items are mainly small rodents, especially Voles. They also eat lemmings, shrews, mice, and moles. They occasionally take small birds, squirrels, bats, frogs and beetles.

If I had batams or young pullets/chicks I might be worried but I don't think they will take on an orpington for example.

 

[BY Bob]

(They also cheat, eating tootsie roll pops!)

And why do they all wear glasses?

 

[featherhead007]

And why do they all wear glasses?

Exactly! See, you can’t trust owls !

 

[featherhead007]

Being that it’s Friday the 13, there’s no way I’m going up on that roof by myself.
Even Jaffar is angry at me.
(And I ran out of meally worms today too)

 

[Lexicon]

If you have identified the owl correctly it feels like there is not a lot to worry about. Here is what I can find regarding their prey.

Prey Items are mainly small rodents, especially Voles. They also eat lemmings, shrews, mice, and moles. They occasionally take small birds, squirrels, bats, frogs and beetles.

If I had batams or young pullets/chicks I might be worried but I don't think they will take on an orpington for example.

In that case it's welcome to the numerous voles and squirrels around here, although we don't see much of them during the cold months.

It's way smaller than any of my hens who are mostly fluffy types on purpose. From what I read, it perches and waits and then swoops down which it couldn't do from that location due to the netting over the run, but I had heard stories of owls actually going into chicken areas to hunt and that was making me concerned.

Thanks for your response and research!

 

[BY Bob]

Happy Friday

 

[featherhead007]

Happy Friday

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Wow, thems some really fluffy butts!

 

[RebeccaBoyd]

My start up costs were only the cost of chicks and food and bedding so not that much. Webasically turned our shed into a coop

Ok then, 199 more dozen eggs then.

 

[RoyalChick]

Happy Friday

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There are some spectacular fluffy buttts there!