Minnesota!

[Vashjir]

I have had problems with hawks too. I covered all of my pens but I do let the birds out from different coops and pens on different days. We put a 2' piece of chicken wire around our blueberries to keep the chickens out because they scratch around and blueberries have rather shallow root systems. One day I let the RIW's out into the pasture but one of the girls managed to go over the fence and get into the blueberries and before I could blink there was a hawk. I scared off the hawk but it had already killed her. That hawk kept coming back. We have crows around and when the crows see any hawks they will chase them off, so I started putting any eggs that were cracked that I wasn't going to put out for sale for the crows to eat. I kept putting the eggs in the same spot and went online to listen to crow recordings for a friendly call and when I put the eggs out I started trying to imitate the call. Now the crows hear me and they come to investigate.

I actually heard about using crows from a naturalist at the wildlife refuge across 35W. He said those owl statue things attract them as well since the crows like to attack them. Unfortunately I have a real pair of great horned owls that live near by and eat all the crows. Plus my dog likes the frozen/reject eggs too much

 

[cmom]

Quote:
I had problems with Owls killing my birds also. I put my game camera out and saw the owl kill on video. That is why I covered all of my pens. My DH built a couple of coops with no fronts and the owls could get in. Since I've covered all of the pens I haven't had any more problems.

 

[duluthralphie]

Very cool! Do you have a pick of the 'porcelian egg'?

I will try to take one and post it here. It never seems to look as good on the iPhone as it does in real life. I will edit this post and put it on here when I get it.. I will try different backgrounds and see if that helps.

 

[duluthralphie]

I will try to take one and post it here. It never seems to look as good on the iPhone as it does in real life. I will edit this post and put it on here when I get it.. I will try different backgrounds and see if that helps.

I lied, I started a new post with the pictures, it is easier than editing when you have my technical abilities.

I get carried away with pictures but I think I have some that may show its beauty. I cannot believe how excited I get over egg pictures.

The first picture is with a brown egg on a white napkin.



This picture shows the porcelain egg on a black background with a blue egg on a white napkin. Blue eggs are hard for me to get the color right on my iPhone.


This is the porcelain egg. at least I think it is, it, to me is the perfect egg. I would marry it if I could and my wife would not commit me for it.

Look how beautiful it is, a nice cream color, perfect condition.... The other eggs are blue and light brown.



And here I am holding it. I get a tingle up my arm just holding such a perfect egg! Oh the other egg is brown. A medium shade of brown.



And now I am holding it with a blue egg



The eggs are left to right, light brown, olive, The prefect egg, a blue egg and a medium brown



Again left to right: Olive, Light brown, Medium brown, Porcelain/cream and the blue


same picture different exposure.




There is a young couple that would like some chickens for themselves, I cannot give them any because I do not know who lays the porcelain egg and I would hate to sell or give her away. I do not even dare send another chicken to freezer camp until I know who's egg it is.

 

[AmericanKraut]

Ya, and my yard abuts the 35w noise barrier, city hawks aren't afraid of much.

We lived right near 35W, too, first in "Nordeast" Minneapolis and then Dinkytown. We had raccoons that I swear would take down a Mack truck.

 

[cmom]

Quote:

 

[Scott16475]

Very cool pics, duluthralphie! I agree; you don't want to give away the porcelian egg layer. You also mentioned sending a hen to freezer camp. Do you process that yourself and does someone do that for you? I've thought about it for my own chickens one day but this 44 year old 6'4' guy isn't sure I could do it.

 

[Rhetts]

duluthralphie-I love your egg pictures! I never get tired at looking at all the eggs everyone posts pictures of!

Keeping predators at bay is a full time job with them coming from all sides literally. Aerial and ground. My brother in law, who shares a property line with us, tells me he has bobcats, martens and weasels regularly. The weasels have made it to our house and we accidentally trapped 3 this summer and the kids saw one just a couple weeks a go. This fall we had 4 or 5 bald eagles take up a temporary residence in our trees for a couple weeks. That was really interesting. We lost a rooster this summer to a hawk that wasn't afraid of my DH. Then the coyotes & wolves have been heard but not seen yet. Pretty sure that is where on of the drake rouens went. Ah yes, the challenges of the Minnesota land.


Switching subjects here............I wanted to ask about how many hens can a rooster properly care for? can you put 2 roosters in one flock or do you need to separate a larger flock into 2 smaller ones? As of right now I have 25 hens. I plan to get a rooster for them. DH and I are considering getting more chicks and we are not sure if we can add them at some point to this flock or do we start a whole new flock with a rooster of their own? How many of you manage more than one flock and how do you do it?

Sorry for rambling on so. Just trying to get some ideas and see what might work for us. Thanks.

 

[Scott16475]

The streak ended today. 3 out of 4 eggs. If I could only figure out who didn't lay today...

 

[Scott16475]

duluthralphie-I love your egg pictures! I never get tired at looking at all the eggs everyone posts pictures of!

Keeping predators at bay is a full time job with them coming from all sides literally. Aerial and ground. My brother in law, who shares a property line with us, tells me he has bobcats, martens and weasels regularly. The weasels have made it to our house and we accidentally trapped 3 this summer and the kids saw one just a couple weeks a go. This fall we had 4 or 5 bald eagles take up a temporary residence in our trees for a couple weeks. That was really interesting. We lost a rooster this summer to a hawk that wasn't afraid of my DH. Then the coyotes & wolves have been heard but not seen yet. Pretty sure that is where on of the drake rouens went. Ah yes, the challenges of the Minnesota land.


Switching subjects here............I wanted to ask about how many hens can a rooster properly care for? can you put 2 roosters in one flock or do you need to separate a larger flock into 2 smaller ones? As of right now I have 25 hens. I plan to get a rooster for them. DH and I are considering getting more chicks and we are not sure if we can add them at some point to this flock or do we start a whole new flock with a rooster of their own? How many of you manage more than one flock and how do you do it?

Sorry for rambling on so. Just trying to get some ideas and see what might work for us. Thanks.

Hi, Rhetts!

I can't answer any of your questions as I'm new to chicken ownership but I wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your story on northern Minnesota wildlife.