How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

[gander007]

Quote:
@karenerwin So sorry to be reading about your loss really stopped my heart this morning and I can only imagine how tor-up you are inside how horrible you must feel as it takes so much work to get to where you are or working to get ..


This is my new cage I was working on and it is all covered with 1/4 wire to try and keep even the snakes out but the weather out here has not been cooperating much with the rain and then high winds that I have been dealing with the last three days but that is only an excuse I use as I just hurt all over but I am trying and it still wont be enough as I will need to start on another once I finish this one and in this one will be smaller cages for other chickens that will be separated but for growing up ...






I still have so much further to go as I have been attacked for the last two nights but the cages were secure enough to protect the chickens and I consider myself lucky as last night I had winds that blow several cages across the yard and one of the bigger cages I had was on the front porch with yard chickens roosting on top of it the worst part was there was no bottom on the cage so the two hens I had inside so I could gather info about their egg production got out and the roo's started making a lot of racket chasing the ladys around the yard alerted me to the over turned cage and then after cleaning that up I started checking other cages and then I up righted them but the yard was a mess so I have been up since 3 this morning and haven't been able to sleep so when I read your message this morning I was throne ...


I can not say enough about 1/4 inch wire at least for the first 3 foot from the bottom of the cage up and a good heave border at the base for minim protection but even I cant make all those requirements myself and most of my cages are 1/4 inch wire on all 6 sides and it has saved my flock more then once and I fright right now is one of my geese is sitting on eggs and she has another 18 days to go according to my records and my other goose momma that is chose to go into the chicken coop so the door is closed every night for her safety only wile she sits on her eggs and she still has around 20 days ..




Momma really wants to be left alone when she sits on her eggs ...



Wow I guess I fell asleep in the chair

Your damage sounds like a ferret or a weasel, the ferret I have here steels eggs all the time but it mostly steels at night and the crows steel eggs during the day and I have had several chickens damaged and I did contribute the damage to the ferret as it happed at night but mostly it is just feathers ripped of the rear end of the hens, but I have had several hens sucked dry with the head and neck missing but I have had Bob Cats eat the head and neck also but thy leave feathers everywhere as they eat the entire chicken and I might find a chicken wing and that would be about it ..




When I took this photo the Bob Cat was holding one of my EE roo's that was 3 years old and just one I really liked or he would not had lived so long but after reading BYC's rules I trimmed down the photo so you cant see the roo at the end of his front right leg is holding on to, oh this is a real live wild Bob Cat and I am only a couple of feet away and his breath was so nasty that a tic-tac would not have helped and if you are wondering if I let him go that day the answer would be no and no I did not shoot him it was simply him and me and a shovel and he lost and later the Deputy's told me to shoot and then when I started shooting and people complained the Deputies said it was not their jurisdiction because I had live stock not pets and I was outside city limits but the only real trouble I got was from the state trapper who mad me pick up all my leg traps that have been in the family sense the late 1800's but they still worked so well but it seems California had out lawed such practice or use and license's are no long issued

Well I think this is long enough and I did not intend it to be so long so I will let you go and I hope you are able to get the culprit or make some more secure cages and I more then know it is expensive

gander007

 

[tnbyc9]

14/15

 

[cabinchicky]

7/13 from Festers coop, one egg lost under my Cochin due to toe nail going through it.3/4 from Stumpy's girls today. None from the youngsters yet. We did get my quail pen/double brooder almost done today! Hubby was so ready to sit while I painted it.

35"Lx30"D with 30"H on the bottom and two 18"H on top.Hope to get the doors done and installed and move it in the coop tomorrow.

 

[BY Bob]

Another 3 for 3 day. Way to go ladies!!

 

[Daethen]

8/15 today. Started to introduce the new chicks and it went pretty well.

 

[pennyJo1960]

@ gander007
oh my heavens I am sorry about the roo and thankful
you too are still alive to tell the story

 

[karenerwin]

@karenerwin So sorry to be reading about your loss really stopped my heart this morning and I can only imagine how tor-up you are inside how horrible you must feel as it takes so much work to get to where you are or working to get ..


This is my new cage I was working on and it is all covered with 1/4 wire to try and keep even the snakes out but the weather out here has not been cooperating much with the rain and then high winds that I have been dealing with the last three days but that is only an excuse I use as I just hurt all over but I am trying and it still wont be enough as I will need to start on another once I finish this one and in this one will be smaller cages for other chickens that will be separated but for growing up ...






I still have so much further to go as I have been attacked for the last two nights but the cages were secure enough to protect the chickens and I consider myself lucky as last night I had winds that blow several cages across the yard and one of the bigger cages I had was on the front porch with yard chickens roosting on top of it the worst part was there was no bottom on the cage so the two hens I had inside so I could gather info about their egg production got out and the roo's started making a lot of racket chasing the ladys around the yard alerted me to the over turned cage and then after cleaning that up I started checking other cages and then I up righted them but the yard was a mess so I have been up since 3 this morning and haven't been able to sleep so when I read your message this morning I was throne ...


I can not say enough about 1/4 inch wire at least for the first 3 foot from the bottom of the cage up and a good heave border at the base for minim protection but even I cant make all those requirements myself and most of my cages are 1/4 inch wire on all 6 sides and it has saved my flock more then once and I fright right now is one of my geese is sitting on eggs and she has another 18 days to go according to my records and my other goose momma that is chose to go into the chicken coop so the door is closed every night for her safety only wile she sits on her eggs and she still has around 20 days ..




Momma really wants to be left alone when she sits on her eggs ...



Wow I guess I fell asleep in the chair

Your damage sounds like a ferret or a weasel, the ferret I have here steels eggs all the time but it mostly steels at night and the crows steel eggs during the day and I have had several chickens damaged and I did contribute the damage to the ferret as it happed at night but mostly it is just feathers ripped of the rear end of the hens, but I have had several hens sucked dry with the head and neck missing but I have had Bob Cats eat the head and neck also but thy leave feathers everywhere as they eat the entire chicken and I might find a chicken wing and that would be about it ..




When I took this photo the Bob Cat was holding one of my EE roo's that was 3 years old and just one I really liked or he would not had lived so long but after reading BYC's rules I trimmed down the photo so you cant see the roo at the end of his front right leg is holding on to, oh this is a real live wild Bob Cat and I am only a couple of feet away and his breath was so nasty that a tic-tac would not have helped and if you are wondering if I let him go that day the answer would be no and no I did not shoot him it was simply him and me and a shovel and he lost and later the Deputy's told me to shoot and then when I started shooting and people complained the Deputies said it was not their jurisdiction because I had live stock not pets and I was outside city limits but the only real trouble I got was from the state trapper who mad me pick up all my leg traps that have been in the family sense the late 1800's but they still worked so well but it seems California had out lawed such practice or use and license's are no long issued

Well I think this is long enough and I did not intend it to be so long so I will let you go and I hope you are able to get the culprit or make some more secure cages and I more then know it is expensive

My mistake was that when I was building the coop I was thinking about small chicks & trying to make sure they stayed in the roop/run area instead of thinking about keeping predators out. I focused the keeping out part on skirting going outwards from the coop and piling rocks & bricks on top of that to try to prevent animals from digging under. I don't know why my brain didn't also think about predators going through the spaces in the fence.
My husband was suppose to work on the 2nd door for the interior coop ( currently it only has 1 door and the other side is open). But he has a lot of aches & pains & didn't get it done while I was gone. My daughter, foreign exchange daughter & I were all volunteering at a local food pantry today until 12:30 & then we went to a friends house until 3 & then I had to drop my daughter off at her job, then go by the feed store to pick up more chicken food. When I got home my foreign exchange daughter said we were all going to a movie tonight ( Hubby, me & her ). I thought we were going to work on the chicken coop door. Hubby & daughter overruled me, so we went to the movie then picked up my daughter from work and got home around 10 pm. Hadn't had dinner yet, so I started on that & my hubby went & attached a door (man door) across the open side of the coop. It only covers the lower side, so if the creature can climb or jump, it isn't really going to do any good, but I think he felt bad that he hadn't gotten any of it done while I was gone.
I'm pretty irritated. Especially since tomorrow morning I am suppose to go site-seeing with our foreign exchange student & a friend of mine and I know I can't get out of it. Hopefully, we will get back in enough time that I can get the boards cut so that we can get a proper door on the 2nd side of the coop. That way I will just start locking up the birds like I do in the other 3 coops.


Did you end up getting a couple more turkeys? Facing that bobcat with just a shovel was ... amazing, crazy...wow! and to be able to get a picture of it that close up!!! while it was still alive. Just makes me shake my head. I am glad to hear that the local law enforcement in your area acknowledge that you are able to defend your birds!
I hope the weather is more cooperative for you! At least you know the cages can hold up to a beating.

Chicken keeping just isn't for the faint of heart, is it!
I got 12 eggs today. I expect that to drop off over the next couple of days due to some of the chickens being upset over the attack. Oh, and I did move the trail cam over so that it is inside that coop/run. It had been on the other side of the house facing the woods where I lost the small juvenile rooster a week or so ago.

 

[cabinchicky]

@Gander007 and Karenerwin I am so sorry for the trials you have been facing. Prayers to you both! I learn so much from you!

 

[gander007]

Quote:
Oh ya I understand all of that I once ordered over a dozen Guinean or Kits and they were so small and more full of energy this I had imagined and I put these little Kits in a old rabbit cage my mistake as the holes were 1"X2" and the kits just ran right out of the cage and when I got back it was total carnage as only one kit was left in the cage and I still have him today but the others ware total snacks for the geese who were more then happy to chase them down and snack on them, wow would a way to learn about keeping creatures in a cage but keeping them out is really a interesting fact and really hard some times as my momma goose who chose this year to have a nest in the chicken coop had a had full of eggs the other day and this morning I noticed she had only one egg and this is a doubled walled shed with a porch purchased from Home-Depo so it was a solid structure when my father purchased it back in 2010 just before he passed as he wanted a coop with electricity so he could go in at night and not need to bring a flash light and a cooler so the heat would not lastly go over 130F degrees in the summer again so he could go in the coop and not pass out from the heat as he was eighty six years old at the time .

But problems are all a part of raising poultry or any animal but the truth is children I did have less problems with

I understand your hubby's pain problems as the VA pay's me for 100% compensation for just being in daily pain and they are the ones who gave me the geese and ducks for rehabilitation there idea was it would wake me get up every morning and feed them and water but it is defiantly not a ten minute job as most would think ...


Oh I did not put in my Saturday egg count ..



9 eggs



6 eggs from the control group

3 eggs from the free range chickens

but I did find where the girls were depositing the eggs

Temp 82F degrees with 20 MPH winds all day, nothing like chewing on sand when I go outside

Ya them chickens have brains alright they put the eggs behind some 55 galleon metal oil drums in one of the sheds and they have old oil in them so they are more then heave and I am unable to move them anymore

Here is a zoom in of the new nest I found and there are more eggs scattered around that are not in the picture and the camera is on a selfie stick I barrowed from a neighbor ..




Now if the wind would just die down a bit so I could go out and finish some task in the yard

gander007

 

[cabinchicky]

8/13 from Festers coop. Lost two eggs again to claws so only 9 now under my broody girls. 3/4 from Stumpy's coop. No new layers from the youngsters, have a while to wait yet.Quail should start laying soon. Pen/brooder is done and in Stumpy's coop! Hubby and son had to remove the coop door to get it in, lolol! One thing he forgot to measure was the door jam, lololol!