Ideal Dozen Again

[3KillerBs]

 

[RubelliteRose]

I'm so sorry Hoping your possible single comb SLW wasn't taken

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Damn snakes! They seem to be especially heavy this year, we've killed 2 and my neighbor behind me has killed 3. I hope you still have the littles you really wanted, I'm sorry

 

[3KillerBs]

Damn snakes! They seem to be especially heavy this year, we've killed 2 and my neighbor behind me has killed 3. I hope you still have the littles you really wanted, I'm sorry

I'll figure out what I've still got when I get home from work.

I don't kill the snakes; we need them to control vermin. I just tossed it way down the hill into the brush pile. I've got to figure out how it got in and reinforce that area.

 

[Iluveggers]

Oh my goodness I just found your thread! What a roller coaster!

Congratulations on the new babies!

So sorry to hear about the snake attack. I’m nervous about snakes here but they eat the mice and voles so I hear you on not wanting to kill them.

 

[3KillerBs]

I still have 1 Brahma, 3 SLWs (including one with a single comb), and 3 yellow chicks who might be all Delawares or might be 2 Delawares and 1 California White.

I definitely lost the chipmunk-stripe Delaware.

I'm not sure if I lost the CW I was calling "Repecka" after the hen in my ventilation drawings. I could only tell which was was her by behavior -- she was the one who came up to my hand boldly. I'm too sore from a long and very busy shift on my feet to sit in a bad lawnchair and observe them closely.

I felt along the bottom of the coop trying to identify a possible place of entry and found one spot where I could *barely* get two fingers under the frame so I blocked it up with some small rocks. I also found that the door has warped just a little bit so that there is a small area that I can slip a finger between the door and the frame. It's more than 1/2" inch, but less than 3/4".

This iteration of the brooder doesn't have a wire apron because it's sitting on a packed gravel pad that the previous owner had put in an awkward location. We can only get through it with a pick so it's safe from dogs, etc.

 

[3KillerBs]

The remaining 7 are still with me this morning.

Last night when I checked on them at dusk they were curled up next to their brooder plate instead of under it.

I told them that was a little advanced for being only 1 week old, but they know where the plate it when they want it.

 

[3KillerBs]

They are old enough to tell what the similar-looking chicks are now.

I still have:

3 of 4 Silver-Laced Wyandottes

1 of 4 Delaware

1 of 2 Light Brahma

2 of 2 California White

The Brahma and one of the CWs had pasty butt pretty badly though none of them had pasty butt in their first week. I know it's associated with stress and I presume that seeing half your friends eaten by a snake is pretty stressful.

 

[3KillerBs]

This week I lost 2 more to, presumably, the snake again -- including my only remaining Brahma and one of my SLWs.

Very frustrating.

I moved the babies to the integration pen a week early -- and the night temperatures promptly plummeted -- but they're safer huddling in 58F with 3/4 of their feathers than getting munched on.

I'm going to have to go over my brooder with a fine-toothed comb to see how the snake is getting in because apparently the hole underneath that I blocked wasn't the point of entry.

 

[3KillerBs]

58F last night, but they're fine this morning. Buzzing around their little pen looking confused by the huge monsters on the other side of the mesh. LOL