Maine

[hoppy]

I feed layer pellets and grower pellets (always unmedicated) for ducks.

What does everyone feed there laying call ducks. where do uget it.

 

[Stephaniemac]

Yesterday morning I went out to the coop and my mallard drake was missing. I thought maybe he flew off... This morning I got up to find my bantam roo in a neighbors tree roosting and 5 full size hens gone! No sign of them anywhere! These are birds that have free-ranged in my back yard for a year and a half! I live practically in town with neighbors on all sides of me! Any thoughts on what could make off with 5 full sized birds in one night and leave no trace? :-(

 

[CoopChick719]

Yesterday morning I went out to the coop and my mallard drake was missing. I thought maybe he flew off... This morning I got up to find my bantam roo in a neighbors tree roosting and 5 full size hens gone! No sign of them anywhere! These are birds that have free-ranged in my back yard for a year and a half! I live practically in town with neighbors on all sides of me! Any thoughts on what could make off with 5 full sized birds in one night and leave no trace? :-(

A human?

So sorry to hear this Stephanie!!

 

[danib]

Meet my new goat!

 

[danib]

We lost our Nubian doe a few weeks ago. This ones not even 3 months old yet. Eventually my plans are to breed her and milk her. I have a wether (neutered male) Nubian that's at a friends house now (goats are pack animals, so he had to find a temporary home after my Nubian died until I could get a new goat). The friend is going to give me a 3 month old doeling to keep mine company until breeding season is over. Apparently my wether is a good companion for his full grown doe right now. So this fall I should get my wether back, lose the doeling that's not mine and if mine makes weight, then breed her.
Her ears are called elf ears. They're LaMancha style ears. There's smaller LaMancha ears known as gopher ears which are just little nubs. Because she's only half LaMancha (and half oberhasli) she has the "larger" elf ears.
A far cry from the Nubian ears I'm used to:

too cute!!

 

[ashandvine]

Yesterday morning I went out to the coop and my mallard drake was missing. I thought maybe he flew off... This morning I got up to find my bantam roo in a neighbors tree roosting and 5 full size hens gone! No sign of them anywhere! These are birds that have free-ranged in my back yard for a year and a half! I live practically in town with neighbors on all sides of me! Any thoughts on what could make off with 5 full sized birds in one night and leave no trace? :-(

Coyote, and fox come to mind.

 

[Stephaniemac]

Just ran home for lunch and found 3 of them had been hiding in a neighbors back yard, he knew they were mine and kept feeding them so they wouldnt take off before I got home! 2 are still gone and I doubt they will be found.

 

[lazy gardener]

Just ran home for lunch and found 3 of them had been hiding in a neighbors back yard, he knew they were mine and kept feeding them so they wouldnt take off before I got home! 2 are still gone and I doubt they will be found.

So sorry. Perhaps they'll show up yet!

 

[Stephaniemac]

Well we found the feather piles from the two missing birds, no carcasses, no blood, but obviously dead birds. We also found a well traveled animal trail leading from a den in the hill behind our house where the feathers were. So now the game camera is up and the birds are locked in tight! Hope tonight we figure out what it is and dont lose anymore birds!

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I almost died laughing at my chickens today.

I recently integrated 4 birds into the main coop. What I do is put them in a wire cage in the coop for a few days, and then release them after a few days. This protects them from the evil big biddies and shows them where their new "home" is. After being released they usually find their way back to the coop at night, sometimes with a bit of convincing (ie chasing) but it's usually pretty smooth.

On Sunday I moved the next 3 birds into the cage in the coop to be integrated. I was going to release them Tuesday night but it turned out I had to work really late Wednesday and BF would be putting the animals to bed, so he asked that for ease I leave them one more day in the cage. Not a problem. I released them early this morning.

I won't be integrating any more into that coop for some time so I took the cage out of the coop to air and dry out. I left it outside in the run as I was going to grab it on my way back to the house after locking everyone up.

I went outside when it started to get dark to assist if need be. I found the following scene:



... all the regular biddies put themselves to bed in the coop. The 3 new ones found their "home" (albeit moved from its original location) and put themselves to bed in it.