INDIANA BYC'ers HERE!

[Soon2BChixMom]

I guess it's going around.
Yesterday we lost 1/2 our quail to this visitor:
View attachment 1297952 View attachment 1297953

BTW- Does anyone know what kind this is. I've always been calling them Coopers hawks because they're not as big as the red-taileds.

Had a rough day trying to deal with plumbing and a water bill that was 4 times greater than it should be. We can't afford the huge water bill, so there's certainly no money for a plumber!) After trouble-shooting I discovered problems with both of our toilets, researched how to repair, got the parts (& my dad for help), and finally fixed the toilets....... and then had to replace a shut off valve that broke after the repair. I walked into the house from the 2nd trip to the hardware store, the kids came home, one was crying, the other was stressed, and our elderly dog pooped on the floor. As I carried the mess outside to the trash, a hawk came flying at me from deep inside the garage. The garage door was open and the hawk was helping itself to our quail. A total of 5 quail were brutally killed and another 4 were too injured to save. The hawk grabbed what it could & pulled the pieces through the bars. (Thankfully DD’s silkie & the chicks were safe – also caged in the garage only 24" away.) The poor poultry survivors were all in shock as they witnessed the carnage.

I ended up putting the surviving quail into their big summer cage condo. (Mostly because the garage cages were bloody.) The hawk continued to attack them until I put a tarp over the whole cage. Then the hawk kept walking around the perimeter of the chicken run searching for an entry point. It also sat on the window flower box & staring at the chickens inside the coop. Every time we opened the garage, the hawk flew back inside looking for dessert. What was even more scary was how close the kids could get to the wild bird.

The flock was locked up all day and the quail must be covered or they will not come out of their hiding hutch.

Yikes! Hawks are really brazen to keep at it even while you are near.

 

[Nyla]

I walked out side one day to find out why my dogs were barking and found a raccoon digging in my feed bin. Plus I have cameras up all around my property and watch them once a week.

I plan to take it far away and release it. It's so cute. I once took in 3 baby raccoons and bottle fed them every 2 hours for 1 month. They were the cutest things! I re-homed them to my family's farm out in Kentucky. They have legally pet raccoons, and can pass them off as their pets off-spring. Their raccoons come from domesticated hand raised raccoons right here in Indiana from a place called Tiny Tracks. They also sell Foxes. We will be getting a pet fox within the next year. Sounds Ironic right? Lol
This is the type of fox we will be getting is a American-bred red fox of the White Mark color phase/morph/subspecies. Or a silver fox. More on the side of White Mark! (Photos from Tiny Tracks)

Silver
White Mark

How did you know there was a racoon trying to get in? Glad you got him, now what are you going to do with it?

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

I guess it's going around.
Yesterday we lost 1/2 our quail to this visitor:
View attachment 1297952 View attachment 1297953

BTW- Does anyone know what kind this is. I've always been calling them Coopers hawks because they're not as big as the red-taileds.

Had a rough day trying to deal with plumbing and a water bill that was 4 times greater than it should be. We can't afford the huge water bill, so there's certainly no money for a plumber!) After trouble-shooting I discovered problems with both of our toilets, researched how to repair, got the parts (& my dad for help), and finally fixed the toilets....... and then had to replace a shut off valve that broke after the repair. I walked into the house from the 2nd trip to the hardware store, the kids came home, one was crying, the other was stressed, and our elderly dog pooped on the floor. As I carried the mess outside to the trash, a hawk came flying at me from deep inside the garage. The garage door was open and the hawk was helping itself to our quail. A total of 5 quail were brutally killed and another 4 were too injured to save. The hawk grabbed what it could & pulled the pieces through the bars. (Thankfully DD’s silkie & the chicks were safe – also caged in the garage only 24" away.) The poor poultry survivors were all in shock as they witnessed the carnage.

I ended up putting the surviving quail into their big summer cage condo. (Mostly because the garage cages were bloody.) The hawk continued to attack them until I put a tarp over the whole cage. Then the hawk kept walking around the perimeter of the chicken run searching for an entry point. It also sat on the window flower box & staring at the chickens inside the coop. Every time we opened the garage, the hawk flew back inside looking for dessert. What was even more scary was how close the kids could get to the wild bird.

The flock was locked up all day and the quail must be covered or they will not come out of their hiding hutch.

I'm so sorry! That had to have been frightening for the kids too. Whats been getting ours is a sharp shinned, also a small hawk. The chest barring was grey, not red like this guy. This looks like it might be a juvenile red tail. But you might have slightly different birds a prey depending how far north you are. We have had a nest of red tails return annually, luckily they never bother my birds. The sharp shinned are fearless. One even dive bombed me ! I caught it in my bantam coop a few years back eating my silkie rooster. Actually squeezed into the wire XL dog crate! I ran in there opened the crate and grab my 2 hens. It came right back going after me! The guineas finally killed it. I respect the laws and will not harm them myself. The Guinea were sounding off terribly, so I went back out after securing my hens. Found the one 1 dead Silkie roo, and 25+ guinea fowl flogged and pecked said hawk to death. I called DNR and they basically acted like I was bothering them .

 

[Chaneys Ranch]

These hawks are just awful. I have thought hard about this, and we have removed several bushes (poisonous) last fall. I think that's impacted the safe places for my birds to hide. The hawks seem to start in late winter every year and its always this nasty little breed. I replaced all the poisonous Japanese Yew with blueberry bushes. I may buy more this spring in hopes to provide more safe places.

 

[JanetMarie]

I guess it's going around.
Yesterday we lost 1/2 our quail to this visitor:
View attachment 1297952 View attachment 1297953

BTW- Does anyone know what kind this is. I've always been calling them Coopers hawks because they're not as big as the red-taileds.

Had a rough day trying to deal with plumbing and a water bill that was 4 times greater than it should be. We can't afford the huge water bill, so there's certainly no money for a plumber!) After trouble-shooting I discovered problems with both of our toilets, researched how to repair, got the parts (& my dad for help), and finally fixed the toilets....... and then had to replace a shut off valve that broke after the repair. I walked into the house from the 2nd trip to the hardware store, the kids came home, one was crying, the other was stressed, and our elderly dog pooped on the floor. As I carried the mess outside to the trash, a hawk came flying at me from deep inside the garage. The garage door was open and the hawk was helping itself to our quail. A total of 5 quail were brutally killed and another 4 were too injured to save. The hawk grabbed what it could & pulled the pieces through the bars. (Thankfully DD’s silkie & the chicks were safe – also caged in the garage only 24" away.) The poor poultry survivors were all in shock as they witnessed the carnage.

I ended up putting the surviving quail into their big summer cage condo. (Mostly because the garage cages were bloody.) The hawk continued to attack them until I put a tarp over the whole cage. Then the hawk kept walking around the perimeter of the chicken run searching for an entry point. It also sat on the window flower box & staring at the chickens inside the coop. Every time we opened the garage, the hawk flew back inside looking for dessert. What was even more scary was how close the kids could get to the wild bird.

The flock was locked up all day and the quail must be covered or they will not come out of their hiding hutch.

I don't like what they do, but great pictures of a beautiful bird.

 

[Soon2BChixMom]

I walked out side one day to find out why my dogs were barking and found a raccoon digging in my feed bin. Plus I have cameras up all around my property and watch them once a week.

I plan to take it far away and release it. It's so cute. I once took in 3 baby raccoons and bottle fed them every 2 hours for 1 month. They were the cutest things! I re-homed them to my family's farm out in Kentucky. They have legally pet raccoons, and can pass them off as their pets off-spring. Their raccoons come from domesticated hand raised raccoons right here in Indiana from a place called Tiny Tracks. They also sell Foxes. We will be getting a pet fox within the next year. Sounds Ironic right? Lol
This is the type of fox we will be getting is a American-bred red fox of the White Mark color phase/morph/subspecies. Or a silver fox. More on the side of White Mark! (Photos from Tiny Tracks)

View attachment 1298139 Silver
View attachment 1298142 White Mark

That is crazy. We have a farm connection that takes the raccoons to train his hunting dogs.
However, when I was younger I knew a family that had a pet skunk. They had it de-scented. I guess that is what you call it. It still had a smell though. Just couldn't spray.

 

[pginsber]

I am already SOLD on the heat mat for seedlings!!!! Plants are coming up earlier. Some of my seeds are from 3 years ago, and the Tomatoes shot up boom! I learned to use cinnamon to prevent mold, anyone have good tips to share?

I'm a big fan of heat mats, too. In early Feb, I started pansies, eggplants, rhubarb, rosemary, and lavender. These grow more slowly than tomatoes, peppers, etc., so if I want to get them all to be the same size when I plant outside, I start the slow-growers early.
I've never heard of the cinnamon thing. Pansies are hard-to-start IMO and they like warm & moist, the same conditions that mold likes, so I'm interested to try the cinnamon.

This weekend, I'll start the remainder of the indirect sowing seeds. Tomatoes, peppers, basil, cilantro, coleus, etc. I used to start zucchini and melons, too, but those seedlings are so susceptible to damage/breaking when you replant them I just directly sow now.

I LOVE SPRINGTIME!!

 

[pginsber]

I'm in a quandary, and would appreciate some other's opinions.

We live in the city (Indianapolis), 6 miles from downtown. We also live 3 blocks from the river in a mature, semi-wooded area. We get many creatures-foxes, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, woodchuck, beaver, hawks, etc.

Our coop run is smallish. It's 5' chain link on all sides, including the top, and buried 1 ft. We have an automatic coop door. Our indoor/outdoor dogs had notified us that an opossum was somewhere. Went out to find it ON TOP OF our coop run.

Thankfully, the opossum had not gotten inside the coop run and coop door had already closed. I saw the opossum again last night walking through my neighbors yard.

So, here's my quandary. I definitely don't want to kill it. I don't want to trap & relocate right now, because I believe it's baby season. (I don't want any babies to die because I relocated their mom.) Can someone confirm if it IS or IS NOT birthing season for opossums?

I was thinking about putting food out somewhere else to draw it away from our coop yard, but there are so many other creatures, I don't want to attract some other problem.

Old Salt & Hoosier Cheetah would probably tell me to shoot it and be done. I really don't want to harm it, I just don't want it to continue to come around.

Ideally, it's NOT baby season and I can trap and relocate it. I need somebody more astute than I to assure me I won't be killing babies.

 

[Nyla]

Cinnamon keeps mold away? How could I use it with Fodders Grass? @jchny2000

 

[Nyla]

Normally around my area, opossums don't start having babies till late April.
Your should be well in the good range to relocate without the dangers of killing it's babies!

I'm in a quandary, and would appreciate some other's opinions.

We live in the city (Indianapolis), 6 miles from downtown. We also live 3 blocks from the river in a mature, semi-wooded area. We get many creatures-foxes, coyotes, raccoons, opossums, woodchuck, beaver, hawks, etc.

Our coop run is smallish. It's 5' chain link on all sides, including the top, and buried 1 ft. We have an automatic coop door. Our indoor/outdoor dogs had notified us that an opossum was somewhere. Went out to find it ON TOP OF our coop run.

Thankfully, the opossum had not gotten inside the coop run and coop door had already closed. I saw the opossum again last night walking through my neighbors yard.

So, here's my quandary. I definitely don't want to kill it. I don't want to trap & relocate right now, because I believe it's baby season. (I don't want any babies to die because I relocated their mom.) Can someone confirm if it IS or IS NOT birthing season for opossums?

I was thinking about putting food out somewhere else to draw it away from our coop yard, but there are so many other creatures, I don't want to attract some other problem.

Old Salt & Hoosier Cheetah would probably tell me to shoot it and be done. I really don't want to harm it, I just don't want it to continue to come around.

Ideally, it's NOT baby season and I can trap and relocate it. I need somebody more astute than I to assure me I won't be killing babies.