International Black Copper Marans Thread - Breeding to the SOP

[kfelton0002]

a rat is trying to make a nest under my coop. I have been burning cloth pieces in the hole for the last 2 days and it keeps coming. they ignore poison that I left for them.

It won't harm your grown birds but protect your littles from it or it will take them.

 

[Punkybrewster]

Rats to little ones are like weasels to full grown birds

 

[chickengr]

I am not sure what kind of rats these are. I have never had them hurt my chickens but they always bring some disease. I have just found another hole under another coop

 

[chickengr]

@Chooks man where are you?

 

[Punkybrewster]

Im sure very busy.
Isnt it going into spring down under?

 

[Punkybrewster]

No, i think summer...

 

[Minky]

Rats taking down chickens. That is crazy. Those must be some huge rats! I only have tiny chipmunks that my chickens could take out, but chose to ignore.

I am having a bad chicken week. My pullet with the dislocated hip who has been in isolation for 6 weeks and was starting to walk a bit with a limp, seems to have given up. She weighs nothing, lays there all day, I've had to bathe her twice, and when I take her out, she doesnt even stand and try and walk anymore. I'm so sad, but I think I have to let her go. My other pullet who was healthy on Sunday night and has some sort of nerve damage suddenly- isnt getting better...and is also not eating or drinking, so I will have my husband take care of them both tomorrow. What a sh@tty week.

 

[Minky]

I'm so sorry! That is terrible.

I've had the same run of bad luck this year, time and again! I had 3 very nice and clear eyed marans grow outs in a large outdoor brooder with some young Games a few days ago I've been watching closely. A cockerel and two pullets, all starting to show proper copper coloring, but too young to join the older grow outs. Rats burrowed in and wiped the entire pen out. The birds were too young to roost and were sitting ducks on the ground. I have waged war on the rats and have been putting out poison. I hate them!!

That's awful. Im so sorry I had no idea they can dig. I was feeling like I was due for an attack, its been 2.5 years of nothing...and we are right in the forest, and have fisher, foxes and coy wolves, ferrel cats. When we built the outdoor pen, we dug down almost 2 feet below grade with chicken wire, so Im confident about the pen, but the barn (where my main coop is) is so old, the chickens have been digging for bugs in a couple of corners, and I can see sunlight coming in through 2-3 inch gaps now. Gotta correct that. I cant loose anyone else. Two to freak injuries is enough.

 

[kcrandall]

No, i think summer...

It’s mid-spring down under. Their summer is Dec. thru Feb.

 

[kcrandall]

Rats taking down chickens. That is crazy. Those must be some huge rats! I only have tiny chipmunks that my chickens could take out, but chose to ignore.

I am having a bad chicken week. My pullet with the dislocated hip who has been in isolation for 6 weeks and was starting to walk a bit with a limp, seems to have given up. She weighs nothing, lays there all day, I've had to bathe her twice, and when I take her out, she doesnt even stand and try and walk anymore. I'm so sad, but I think I have to let her go. My other pullet who was healthy on Sunday night and has some sort of nerve damage suddenly- isnt getting better...and is also not eating or drinking, so I will have my husband take care of them both tomorrow. What a sh@tty week.

I’m sorry your girls aren’t getting better. It’s never easy to make those decsions but I try to focus on the good life they had.