Quote: I deliberately obtain a crop of roosters to eat by breeding young hens. Almost all of the offspring tend to be male if she is under a year old. I obtain breeding roosters by breeding hens over two years old. Then they produce some really good males whereas not one young mother's son has been worth breeding.
She sounds instinctive enough, she should stop brooding when her system tells her that period has passed for now. Missed the 'season'.
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Good stuff, love it when cats are doing their job. Mine used to but because of paralysis tick poisoning she stopped doing her job and I temporarily had to take care of the vermin problem myself. She and her son used to catch rabbits twice their size and eat them. My chooks eat mice and rats, and snakes, lizards, toads, frogs, etc but the issue is at night time they aren't eating them, that's when the rodents might eat them.
My cat's son (Hunter) got his name from killing a mouse when it was the same size as him. His eyes were not properly open, he was a week old, and he suffocated it with his mouth over its mouth; it was a full grown mouse, not injured or ill, lol! Just one very instinctive cat. Then he buried it in the bedding and went to suckle but had to repeatedly stop and check nobody had stolen his mouse, eventually he dragged it to his mum' side and cuddled it while he suckled. He also sucked on the mouse a lot but had no teeth and could not even walk with his belly off the ground yet, far too young, so eventually of course I removed his prize.
Quote: Actually a good easy source of water is a prerequisite for vermin.
Nothing rats like better than having food and water laid out right next to their nesting areas.
If you train a hen who is learning to brood that food and water come to her, it will dissuade her from leaving the nest to tend to her own health, which will be detrimental. I sometimes give food and water to hens as babies are hatching but would not supplement a hen just because she's on eggs. But each to their own I guess. Best wishes.
