INCUBATING w/FRIENDS! w/Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs No problem!

[attimus]

It is 2.5% amprolium so should work like powdered corid except that the corid powder is 20% so the amounts would have to be adjusted accordingly.

http://www.revivalanimal.com/Cocci-Rid.html

Since he's gone, you could have a sale and sell off all the stuff that is in the way.

The directions on the bottle say one tsp with 1 lb of feed for two weeks. Good for pet/exotic poultry and racing pigeons. Was wondering if there was anything more specific or any awarness of any general concerns of its use.

 

[casportpony]

 


The only reason I could think of for older roosters would be the amount of meat. Does he want older roosters or just any age? 20 is a lot either way.

Older would be for flavor. They would still need chewing unless one is extremely proficient at cooking them.

 


Holy moly - I'm not sure what your setup is like, but with my limited experience with just a few roosters, I would think that that many year old roosters would take a lot of feed and a lot of housing (and, depending on the former, maybe a lot of rooster first aid). How do you do it?! (And what do you charge?!)

- Ant Farm 

Very good point. I'd be surprised if anyone would be willing to pay what it cost to raise them to that age for old rooster meat. Feed is just the beginning. Electricity for incubation and brooding, bedding, housing, pasture seed, etc..

Not making a dime on them. Ducklings I do better with @ $5 each, and peachicks are $25 each. Of course it costs way more than that to feed and care for the mothers, but it does help offset some of the feed costs.

-Kathy

 

[chickendreams24]

Tonight was a bad night. We lost our flock master and only large fowl rooster, Twitch, to a predator tonight around 10 pm. We live in South central WI and if anyone has any suggestions as to what it sounds like I would greatly appreciate it.

What I know. Our flock was out late tonight BC DH2B was in the fields and didn't get home until 9:30 we were out for about a half hour but didn't bring them in BC DH2B was starving, so we were going to eat and then bring them in. Our flock is fooled by our yard light and frequently have to be brought in when the weather is nice BC they think it's still day time. We have never lost an animal to a predator although we've had a couple close calls with hawks. Our roosters do a great job protecting the ladies.

So firstly, we were outside and came inside just long enough for me to pee so less than 5 minutes, when we heard a huge ruckous. I flushed and ran outside thinking DH2B would also run and investigate, he didn't, but he's been in the fields all day so I kind of understand. Okay so I get outside and I see one of the broody's chicks a 4-5 week SLW standing in the middle of the yard cheeping, said broody is laying on her side under a tree. I thought she'd been attacked. She got up when I approached and seemed fine. I looked around and realized I only saw hens and our two bantam roosters. I walked towards the slw chick and found some feathers. Flight feathers, hackle and saddle feathers. Not a lot but enough that I was worried because I didn't see Twitch.

I ran in and grabbed DH2B and flashlights. And we searched and searched and searched. At first we assumed it must have been an owl. But then found a trail of sparse feathers(several of our flock are molting so feathers are in abundance around here but we were sure these were his) leading across the yard to our barn yard where the trail dead ended. We then started to wonder what could have done this and continued our search on foot. Before driving up and down the road to see if we could see anything. (I believe this is when the predator left the barn hard and headed into the field.) We ended up driving the truck out into the field behind out house on a whim. We saw eye shine and followed it. But the field was too rough and we were worried the old truck would get stuck(they redid the irrigator this year so there's some two foot deep ruts from trucks)

We got out and followed the eye shin on foot. Twitch was nearly 12-15 lbs and towards the bigger end of the scale. He was a massive bird and strong as an ox. Great with his ladies but aggressive to my mother and I. He was also quite good at fighting and dodging attacks. I know this from seeing him with our other roosters and from having to kick him when he came at me. His aggression had earned him a spot on a list of birds to cull. That being said I respected him he was a great flock master never started a fight with another roo and even though he would assert dominance and put them in their places he was kind and gentle to the other birds especially the hens.

Okay the point is although we never got a good look at the animal BC it kept it's distance it's eyes were very very close together and it was small very close to the ground. I know some animals can help be distinguished by the color their eyes shine, this animal's were green in the light. The ground is too dry for tracks but it left no blood and no drag marks. It was carrying the huge bird in its mouth. I believe it too small to have been a coyote. It didn't seem to act like a coon.

We followed it into the field and found a place where it was plucking Twitch still no blood or any tracks. It eyes never seemed to change height. It was fast and it went over a half mile carrying the carcass. We followed it to some train tracks near our house before we lost it following it down the tracks.
I'm not 100% sure what all we have around here but I know I have seen skunks, heard coyotes, DH2B saw a fox but it was about a mile in the other direction, racoons, and some people say badgers are around here too. I've no clue what could have taken such a massive bird without leaving more then a couple handfuls of feathers and no blood. We have been seeing a pair of osprey or eagles around but it was clearly on the ground and never took flight. I may have missed some possibilities.
What are the most likely options that it could have been? Should we assume it will try to come back? Hell this is all new and I'm very frustrated and upset. I so wanted answers but the animal was always just out of our lights so all we could see was eye shine and the approximate height.

Over the last month or two there have been several nights where our great dane was frightened to go outside we assumed she was smelling something but had no idea what. Now I wonder if the two things are connected. I have seen her chase racoons and she's been outside when we could hear coyotes without acting scared.

We have also had something trying to dig under our stairs. A pretty sizeable hole too. We have had to fill it in several times but not for about a week, maybe two. We would fill it in and the next morning it would be larger and deeper even after we started putting large rocks and a couple pieces of concrete in it.

I'm leaning towards badger BC they are so low to the ground but are still very large and strong but I've really no clue.

Hope you can help.

I don't have any good ideas, but I am so sorry this happened, and I know how scary it can be. I hope you figure out out. 

Sorry to hear about twitch! Badgers are atrong and great diggers. But i havent a clue. Dont think a skunk or coon would run away with it. Not sure if a opossum would have the strength to carry it off like that.need you a hunting cam to watch for it to come back. Ive had a coyote running my fence lately...in the day time. Its not even afraid of my dogs.

Oh my gosh, that's terrible! I'm so sorry.

Badger or Fisher..... In my opinion...o live in the U.P. North of you.... We have big fishers here.... But from what you describe I'm betting it's either a badger or a Fisher

Options are badger, fisher, grey fox, red fox or bobcat.
I vote for at least one game cam and some conibear body traps and snares.

X2

I believe you're leaning in the right direction. I can't think of anything else strong enough to carry a load as heavy as you say your bird was over that kind of distance and be built that close to the ground, unless it would be wolverine, and I'm not even sure southern WI is within their territory.

I believe the tip-off would be the green color of the eye shine, but I have no idea what that would be on most any animal you care to name.

I don't know anything about eye color shine..... But I know about badgers and fishers..... I had to trap one here last fall..... It was huge..... And yes their eyes are close together...

I've sat in my tree stand and watched badgers and fishers...... Big mean critters

Thank you all for your support and your help. Keep it coming! I have no idea where to find the information I need about eye shine and what predators are even around me. Anyone think the DNR would be any help? Normally I prefer to leave nature alone but if this animal ran off with our largest bird it could easily take any of our other birds.

 

[casportpony]

@casportpony do you have any information on a product called cocci rid, distributed by Thomas laboratories. It was the only thing my local feed store had rated for poultry.

Save you money and get Corid instead. It's labeled for cattle, but can and is used for poultry. The Cocci Rid is only 2.5%, so you'll have to use way too much if you want it to work.

Treatment dose for chickens ~908 mg per gallon. 2.5% means that one gram has 25 mg, and one teaspoon of powder probably weighs about 3 grams. Corid powder is 20% (200 mg per gram) and one teaspoon weighs ~3 grams

908 mg Corid dose - 1.5 teaspoons per gallon

-Kathy

 

[Fire Ant Farm]

Quote: He wants older ones.

-Kathy


Holy moly - I'm not sure what your setup is like, but with my limited experience with just a few roosters, I would think that that many year old roosters would take a lot of feed and a lot of housing (and, depending on the former, maybe a lot of rooster first aid). How do you do it?! (And what do you charge?!)

- Ant Farm
Most of my chickens are just mutt ranch chickens that I don't breed on purpose, but quite a few will sneak off and nest in the bushes. When they hatch I try to sell the hen with the chicks for $20. Have four or five sets like this right now. Sometimes no one is buying, so they end up being fed then sold. The local feed store will "take" my unwanted chicks, but I don't get any money for them. Once bigger, the store will give me $5 each. Roosters sold here are priced depending on size - $5 for smalls, $10 for medium, $15 for large.

When I get a rooster call I will go catch as many as I can and put them in the sale pen. Not sure how many I have right now, but doubt I can get 20 for him.

Feed, yes, lots of feed. Not making a dime on anything here.

Housing - they free range. Since they free range, they don't really fight.

-Kathy

Thanks! You may have a lot more land than I do - I have about an acre in the back where the chickens are. Unfortunately, two (now one) of my four (now three) roosters are of the type that are very protective/prone to fight, and so I'm constrained to separate them all out at this time. It's working out ok, I suppose, as I'm in town and am limited in rooster numbers by noise anyway, so I keep separate families/paddocks. I know other folks have had better luck at the free-ranging-no-fighting thing than I have...

I have two girls who keep trying to sneak off and have babies - I keep finding and breaking the nests so far. Too many night predators that would likely eat them on the nest...

- Ant Farm

 

[casportpony]

It is 2.5% amprolium so should work like powdered corid except that the corid powder is 20% so the amounts would have to be adjusted accordingly.

http://www.revivalanimal.com/Cocci-Rid.html

Since he's gone, you could have a sale and sell off all the stuff that is in the way.

The directions on the bottle say one tsp with 1 lb of feed for two weeks. Good for pet/exotic poultry and racing pigeons. Was wondering if there was anything more specific or any awarness of any general concerns of its use.

That amount is not enought to treat they types of coccidia that chickens get. Return it and get Corid, AmproMed, or Amprol instead.

-Kathy

 

[casportpony]

With the Indians, I guess it's because they use them mainly for curries... not sure why the other people want them older. Maybe just because they are bigger?

-Kathy

Flavor. Hi Kathy
My customers like/want them older including hens Works for me.

A Chinese lady prefers the hens.

-Kathy

 

[canadachickens]

@ChickenCanoe

in answer to your earlier post, I am roughly 700 miles north east of Calgary.
Calgary is not threatened by any fire situation at the moment, but given how dry that whole area is, it could change in a blink of an eye.
They are expecting some rain showers today and tomorrow.
Fort MacMurray is about eight hours due north of Calgary, they got some rain showers last night, but nothing close to anything that will slow down that monster fire they are dealing with.
Lots of information on the net about the fires, just type in 'Fort Mac'.
I pray for that whole community, because the area I live in is similar forest, and it can be gone in a flash.

 

[Pensmaster]

A Chinese lady prefers the hens.

-Kathy

I sold old hens live to one customer she had her sister over for dinner. She asked her sister where she got these awesome chickens and could she get more.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Most of my chickens are just mutt ranch chickens that I don't breed on purpose, but quite a few will sneak off and nest in the bushes. When they hatch I try to sell the hen with the chicks for $20. Have four or five sets like this right now. Sometimes no one is buying, so they end up being fed then sold. The local feed store will "take" my unwanted chicks, but I don't get any money for them. Once bigger, the store will give me $5 each. Roosters sold here are priced depending on size - $5 for smalls, $10 for medium, $15 for large.

When I get a rooster call I will go catch as many as I can and put them in the sale pen. Not sure how many I have right now, but doubt I can get 20 for him.

Feed, yes, lots of feed. Not making a dime on anything here.

Housing - they free range. Since they free range, they don't really fight.

-Kathy

Must be a hobby.

I hate losing money - even though I do. However, I rarely sell anything for much less than they cost me to raise to that point.
Before I give them away, I'll eat them all.

The directions on the bottle say one tsp with 1 lb of feed for two weeks. Good for pet/exotic poultry and racing pigeons. Was wondering if there was anything more specific or any awarness of any general concerns of its use.

Do any of your birds currently have coccidiosis?

Not making a dime on them. Ducklings I do better with @ $5 each, and peachicks are $25 each. Of course it costs way more than that to feed and care for the mothers, but it does help offset some of the feed costs.

-Kathy

I sometimes break even just on egg sales. Selling birds bumps it up a little.

Thank you all for your support and your help. Keep it coming! I have no idea where to find the information I need about eye shine and what predators are even around me. Anyone think the DNR would be any help? Normally I prefer to leave nature alone but if this animal ran off with our largest bird it could easily take any of our other birds.

Here's a list of your fur bearers, most of which are predators.
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/wildlifehabitat/furbearers.html

If you build it, they will come. If they exist in your state, they may eventually show up.

Our family has had chickens in this area since about 1880 or so. I've never seen or had an issue with mink. However, starting 2+ years ago, they've nearly wiped me out on multiple occasions.

That amount is not enought to treat they types of coccidia that chickens get. Return it and get Corid, AmproMed, or Amprol instead.

-Kathy

Agree. The difference between 2.5% and 20% is pretty dramatic.