Illinois...

[MeepBeep]

Huh? We do in fact have real 13 lined ground squirrels in Illinois and they are distinctly different from chipmunks...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteen-lined_ground_squirrel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chipmunk

I know those as gophers and find them listed as such . I guess they go by both names .    Thirteen-lined ground squirrel (Minnesota gopher)    Found this on the Minnesota DNR site . So I guess 2 names for same animal .

They are commonly mistaken and called gophers but they are not gophers, gophers are from the family Geomyidae the 13 lined ground squirrel is from the family Sciuridae, making it a squirrel not a gopher...

Wikipedia even has a blurb about the common mistake...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher

 

[Junibutt]

Junibutt & MeepBeep
I almost forgot....
Here are your chicks from DD's 3rd trial hatch. We decided to keep these 3 for now to see how they grow out.

Sorry been away so didn't check this. They are growing up faster than the chicks I have. That tells a lot how free-ranging helps. Just curious about the chocolate split to mottled, I have not see her pic.

P.S. If you put an @ sign before the username, that particular user gets an email notification that they got mentioned in an post.

 

[Junibutt]

This morning we noticed that our broody is down to 2 chicks. We could not find any sign or remains of the cream colored orp chick on the left. I feel bad for not looking under mama last night, so I can't be sure of what happened Mama broody always takes such great care of them. After the bad T-storms this morning, I can't be sure if a murder scene was washed away or if a predator had take out or if the frightened chick is simply hiding. It's been several hours, so my guess is the chick is not coming back.

Poor DD did not have a good start to the day and now we are leaving for the state fair where she will present her poultry science project. Hopefully I'll have better news to report the next time I log on.

Sorry to hear about the cream orp

 

[Faraday40]

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood?

If it' has a long slender, weasel-like body = be careful & lock up the coop!


If it's small & has stripes = wild chipmunk/ground squirrel
If it's kind of big, brownish, no stripes, & sort of plump then my guess would be woodchuck (gopher) or whatever you'd like to call it.
* Either way they're rodents & not seeking out a chicken dinner.

If it's larger than a chipmunk (but smaller than a wild rabbit) and has a short black tip tail = Prairie Dog - not native, so would be someone's pet.
Here's my sweet prairie dog, Yahoo. He was the best pet we ever owned.

They are social animals & greet one another by opening their mouths & touching teeth. When Yahoo saw us, he'd open his mouth & give a big "smile."

I highly doubt you have someone's pet P-dog, but I wanted to share these cute pics anyway.

 

[Faraday40]

@Junibutt

Did I do that correctly? (the @ + name)

I ended up selling the brown mottled orp with a black orp & a choc orp male. (One way to reduce the number of males is to package them with females.) We still have too many chickens, but thankfully no additional predator losses. The boys have been crowing A LOT & I see hawks daily. Whenever they crow mid day, it's usually a hawk (or lawnmower) nearby. We've had chickens & been free ranging for 4 years & this was our 2nd loss. The 1st was a 20wk old pullet who didn't stay near the flock. A hawk picked her off. That was 2 yrs ago. What's hard for me is not knowing what happened with the mauve-white chick. I suspect a large hawk was able to carry her off. The only 2 chicks we have are a CCL & the other white-mauve orp. I'm pretty sure both are females. They are rather tame for broody chicks.

We still have "Brick." Boy is that rooster beautiful! He's so magnificent I'm in no rush to get rid of him. Because his temperament is fine, There's no need to rehome unless we have a problem. For now the 3 males get along well, so we'll see how they do when Brick hits that 6-8 mo old stage. The lav roo has yet to crow. He's #3 of 3, so perhaps he'll always be quiet. The lav is also a little skittish, so there's a chance he may not work out. I don't want to keep one roo, so a back up is a good idea right now..... especially with all the hawk sightings! I can use all the predator protection we can get.

BTW- Trouble went broody -AGAIN. I've gotten a few calls asking about lav orps, so I let her have a couple eggs. (DH doesn't know.

) I gave her some orp eggs & 2 Spitz-Orp eggs. I'd love to see an orp with a mohawk. LOL Of course I won't want to keep any of the chicks, so if you're going through chick withdrawal just let me know.

 

[cavemanrich]

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood?

If it' has a long slender, weasel-like body = be careful & lock up the coop!


If it's small & has stripes = wild chipmunk/ground squirrel
If it's kind of big, brownish, no stripes, & sort of plump then my guess would be woodchuck (gopher) or whatever you'd like to call it.
* Either way they're rodents & not seeking out a chicken dinner.

If it's larger than a chipmunk (but smaller than a wild rabbit) and has a short black tip tail = Prairie Dog - not native, so would be someone's pet.
Here's my sweet prairie dog, Yahoo. He was the best pet we ever owned.

They are social animals & greet one another by opening their mouths & touching teeth. When Yahoo saw us, he'd open his mouth & give a big "smile."

I highly doubt you have someone's pet P-dog, but I wanted to share these cute pics anyway.

I remember these pix from a while back and the little critter did look similar to what you are holding. You can make a much clearer distinction between woodchucks and prairie dogs. I don't have much knowledge about ether, so both look very similar to me. I thought about catching him and offer him to you as a new addition to your pet collection. Gratis of course, and I would have delivered him as well. I'm quite sure that it is a woodchuck, so you would most likely pass on him as pet. Not being harmful to my girls, (chickens), he can stay.

 

[chickendreams24]

http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/zip/5749882234.html

For all of my Illinois chicken friends who might appreciate some egg cartons.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Need your opinions. I have 2 growouts that have me stumped. These are my black orps from Heirloom. I obviously have a cockerel and pullet, but the third one has no comb, thin legs and small feet, but has that upright tail. Larger male is crowing. What do you guys think?







The other 1 in question is my harlequin spangled. I have thought it was a boy from early on, then I thought girl, back to boy. No crowing, opinions?




He was sunbathing poolside in this pic!

 

[Faraday40]

Need your opinions. I have 2 growouts that have me stumped. These are my black orps from Heirloom. I obviously have a cockerel and pullet, but the third one has no comb, thin legs and small feet, but has that upright tail. Larger male is crowing. What do you guys think?



The other 1 in question is my harlequin spangled. I have thought it was a boy from early on, then I thought girl, back to boy. No crowing, opinions?


He was sunbathing poolside in this pic!

Pic 1: Looks like 2 pullets & 1 male to me. Gorgeous BTW!
Pic 2: The sunbather looks like a male. Besides the comb/wattles, it looks like he has pointed saddle & hackle feathers. If you have 1-2 dominant males already crowing, this guy may never crow. We have a 5+ mo old roo that has yet to make a crow attempt.

 

[ChicagoClucker]

Thanks @Faraday40 , I just needed confirmation to what I was seeing and to quiet the doubt I had going on in my head. Really thinking about trying to keep the Black orp, along with my SL orp. We shall see. The harlequin spangled (not filling out) will be going unfortunately along with Clyde (side sprigs) and Mick my SL bantam (I think).