INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Old Salt 1945]

Bradselig, uh, no thanks. I don't need that type of exam equipment around here, but Old Salt may find it useful.

Brad, if you had made the offer prior to the Sunday get together, I would have been a buyer. But on Sunday, Too Fast demonstrated how those tests could be done through the taste-testing technique. So any samples I am curious about, I will be mailing to him.

John

 

[Old Salt 1945]

Sort of new to raising chickens. Got our first 4 red pullet chicks from TSC beginning of april this year, & 4 EE chicks about a week later. One EE got killed last week from a couple of dogs that got loose

& one EE has turened out to be a He (but he is very non-agressive & a Beauty). Here's some pictures of two-tone, our cockrel :

I am intrigued by your Avatar. What breed of chicken is that? I recall seeing something similar many years ago. As I recall, they have 4 drumsticks.

John

 

[Old Salt 1945]

Hey, that fecal hook looks interesting. The holidays are coming up and I'm always looking for unique gifts.

I knew if you really tried you could be as twisted as me. Of course, we can only aspire to reach the heights of accomplishment of Too Fast, but this was a remarkable attempt.

Keep up the good work.

John

 

[Little Ameraucana Mom]

I've been trying to find out what's been killing my chickens for a month now and I have no idea. A week or so ago I posted on the predator and pest and what killed my chickens. Well they gave me good info but I got different answers like bobcat, coon, fox, etc. I never got a definite answer back so I'm going to ask you guys.
Three chickens were killed and one severely injured but then died in surgery. A young roo and three hens were the victims.
This is how I found them.
The first kill
The young roo had nothing left of him. Some bones were eaten but not much. The head was still connected to the body but no feathers were left on the neck.
Almost a week and a half later a hen was killed.
Most of her was left but by her thigh was a whole with some eaten from the inside.
Injured hen was found that same day.
She had a very deep infected back wound. No maggots were in the wound.
One week later another hen was killed and found in the same conditions as the roo.

I have traps set outside for two almost weeks now but the predator is ignoring them.

Thanks!

I had a skunk do this once. Put cat food in your trap for bait. they seem to like it, I've caught coons and possums with cat food also.

 

[DarthLayer]

Is your pen only enclosed with chicken wire?  Despite the name, that stuff isn't strong enough to keep predators out, as you have seen, they tear through it pretty easily.  I'd recommend something like 2x4 welded wire.  That is strong enough to keep things out, but even then you will want to cover the bottom section near the ground with 1/2" hardware cloth to keep things like raccoons and opossums from reaching through. You should cover any windows and vents in the coop with the hardware cloth also.  

I hope that you are successful in catching whatever it is (my guess is raccoons).  Once they find a source of food, they'll keep coming back until there isn't any more.

We used chicken wire as a netting. The bottom is actually welded wire. When we moved to this house now it came with a sheep pen with a chicken coop and pen in it which was quite convenient because we got chickens two years ago. The chicken pen though didn't have a covering ao we built one. We are going to replace all of the fencing soon because the original posts for the fence are decayed and the wire is rusted. I will definitely will used the welded wire again and use the hardware cloth. We are renovating our whole coop because when it was built, it was built on the ground so the floor is decayed. I already have plans on to keep it predator proof better now. Thanks for the info

 

[Old Salt 1945]

Doggonit!! I never even thought about it. I would have been more than happy to pick some up for folks on here had I known. My apologies....I will keep posting how the hatch is coming along. I'll candle in a few days, probably on day 7. Hate to mess with them too much after they've been set.

Well, young man, it's your error. Now you have to fix it. Just march yourself back down into hostile territory and get more eggs like you should have in the first place.

Or not.

John

 

[pbirdhaven]

Had a call from my vet a few minutes ago. She says that Artoo (my ailing African grey) is doing fine, but she wants to give him one more breathing treatment Saturday morning, and then he can come home.

Thanks for the good wishes!

 

[Old Salt 1945]

I've been trying to find out what's been killing my chickens for a month now and I have no idea. A week or so ago I posted on the predator and pest and what killed my chickens. Well they gave me good info but I got different answers like bobcat, coon, fox, etc. I never got a definite answer back so I'm going to ask you guys.
Three chickens were killed and one severely injured but then died in surgery. A young roo and three hens were the victims.
This is how I found them.
The first kill
The young roo had nothing left of him. Some bones were eaten but not much. The head was still connected to the body but no feathers were left on the neck.
Almost a week and a half later a hen was killed.
Most of her was left but by her thigh was a whole with some eaten from the inside.
Injured hen was found that same day.
She had a very deep infected back wound. No maggots were in the wound.
One week later another hen was killed and found in the same conditions as the roo.

I have traps set outside for two almost weeks now but the predator is ignoring them.

Thanks!

If it is happening at night, it may be an owl. I had a Great Horned Owl that would kill several pinioned pheasants per night about 30 years ago. I found some that were somewhat eaten, but most had their throats ripped out and the blood gone. I thought it was a weasel as they will do that sort of thing. I waited up for it with a shotgun. When I saw it was an owl, I asked him not to return. He didn't. The blasted thing killed 30 or 40 pheasants before I discouraged him.

UPDATE:

After reading subsequent posts, I agree that it is likely a raccoon. Raccoons are very smart. If he has tripped a trap once, you won't get him to revisit the trap.

I recommend a body grip style of trap of at least 6" x 6". Leave the hole he tears and put a trap over the hole. When he crawls through the hole, it will trip and get him. Use sewing thread to attach the trap to the fence wire over the hole. The idea being that the thread will break away when the trap is triggered. Test it a couple of times with a stick to make sure it will behave the way you want it to. You only get one chance and then he will be trap-shy.

Traps are less than $10. There are lots of youtube videos on how to use them.

John

 

[bloonskiller911]

Quote:
I would say you have a coon AND possum problem. they don't come back every night but will skip a few. what kind of traps do you have out? lock your chickens up, set live traps or steel traps with marshmallows. or if there is a rural king near by, get cuff traps they work great on coons. bait them with tuna. i don't know what your personal preference is, but i say kill them. if you don't they will come back. if you relocate them they will become some one else's problem. there are other ways to discourage them also, but they are illegal, mostly mixing baits that will kill them automatically. good luck, we have a really bad time with coons and possums. i stick to steel traps personally, and i set them in the run, against the door, or where ever the predator is getting in. (i don't worry about neighbors dogs or cats getting into them either, since they shouldn't be in my chicken yard!!) again good luck getting rid of your pests!!

 

[CRSelvey]

Hey everyone!
Animal lover, I am so sorry you have to get rid of your animals. Rottweiler's can be such good dogs, but unfortunately many insurance companies won't allow them since they are on the dog bite list. We switched to a company that didn't care what breed we had as long as our dog didn't have a history of biting. Maybe your family can look into that as an option?

I have a sick chick question. I started the sick chick on Corid Monday afternoon and picked up the new chicks Tuesday (who had also been started on it). If its a 5-7 day treatment, shouldn't I be seeing improvement in all three? One of them is acting more sick and has more blood in her poo than she did earlier in the week, but. Is it just too early to tell or should I start giving her the water in the dropper? She just sits around sleeping most of the time. Even though they are over 8 weeks, I put the heat lamp back on them so that she doesn't get cold. The medicine says not to add anything else into the water, but I just don't like how she is responding. What do you think? I'm just a little nervous after already losing one of them this week.



By the way, the Easter Egger roo that was posted earlier this week was just GORGEOUS!
Vicki- I hope you get that boy under control.
Mother2Hens and Old Salt, you are cracking me up.