Howdy Fellow Chickeneers

Date sort Score sort
Bocrates

Bocrates

In the Brooder
6 Years
Nov 5, 2013
31
4
24
9,000ft, CO
My Coop
My Coop
I want to say thanks to all on BYC for all the great info over the years. Finally decided to join so maybe I can help someone the way the community has helped me.

I admittedly have a love/hate relationship with chickens. I grew up on a small farm with chickens and guineas in appalachia (I hated checking them every freezing cold morning before school). So I swore them off for 20 years. However after buying a home on a quiet 5 acres in the CO mountains, with a wife that loves animals, I found myself building a coop and run last spring (I'll get some photos up). Everything seems second nature and easier than I remember. I am actually enjoying it. I think I missed these darned things. They actually make me laugh some days when it's just me and them.

My only problem so far is that folks up here don't really have the same mentality on wildlife as I do. They feed the squirrels, foxes and coons by hand at their doors. The elk, deer, and bears are as tame as the family dog. I have trapped 9 foxes since June, The dogs actually alerted me to another fox standing on the roof of our coop at 4am last Sunday, our coop is 10ft from the house, when I yelled, he looked at me like "yes, what do you want". I can't remove them from my property and my wife would shoot me if I shoot them. So I have to call the authorities, wait around, they take the foxes somewhere and release them, and then we repeat. So again, love/hate. But I am back in it seems. And they are fun.

best,

Caleb
 
Last edited:
welcome-byc.gif
Seems like you must know your way around a bit. I hope your second run at poultry is a better experience.

Best wish with your flock.
 
Welcome to BYC
frow.gif
Best of luck with the predator issues!
 
Maybe I'm out of line here but the three SSS's apply. Shoot, Shovel, Shut up. Don't let the wife know if it hurts her feelings. Just my opinion. It is legal to kill predators that are attacking your livestock, believe it or not that includes a neighbors pet dog. I wouldn't kill a neighbors dog, but I did make him pay me for the 4 chickens he killed and he thanked me for not calling animal control, or shooting his kids pet. The point I'm trying to make is you gotta do what you gotta do to protect your flock. The foxes are part of the food chain above your chickens and below you.

Welcome and enjoy!
Steve, :frow
 
Welcome to BYC!

You can thin predator numbers and reduce encounters with regular effective hunting pressure. If you aren't allowed to kill them, perhaps befriending a predator hunter would be an option. Once you find a good predator hunter (with references) that you trust, take the wife on vacation and let the hunter go to work. If your neighbors are close, look for a guy or gal who likes to use an air rifle and night optics instead of rifles and lights.

I'm no wildlife hater, but a nuisance animal is a nuisance animal. An effective predator hunter can eliminate or thin a predator population to the point where their natural food will be more than enough, so they will be less apt to seek handouts. As an added benefit, any remaining animals will most likely have a new found fear of humans.
 
Not out of line at all. I am getting very close to the extermination route. Believe it or my wife allows me to go hunting multiple times a year as long as I don't talk about it or clean any ducks, elk or deer at the house, but since she is home a lot, the 3 SSS's are hard to pull off. And my neighbors would freak out. My up the hill neighbor called the house this fall when she saw me sighting in my bow before archery season because she thought I was hunting. I've brought up the issue casually at a few summer bbq's and people looked at me like I was a psycho. But after losing 3 hens in one lightning fast raid in July and waiting for animal control to maybe or maybe not show up several times, I am close to just biting the bullet. Perhaps after I thin these things out I will start dropping off delicious eggs to everyone.
 
Last edited:

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom