Nevadans?

[sherylreno]

I know I had a Red Tail Hawk in my backyard last week Sunday for sure. I'm not sure about Aubrey's though but we are only 1/2 a mile away from each other.



The top feathers were more red than this one but it matches with what I saw.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

That's nothing like what I saw it was all black and white barred, like a barred rock- very pretty consistant barring.an had a very small beak....

 

[NevadaRon]

Seth she's beautiful!!! I'm jealous.

Cecelia, congratulations! I hope the morning sickness gets better.

Peep_Show that's like a live-action horror film. If they were my ducklings I'd be crying and freaking out, trying to save them, even though there's nothing I could do.

SagebrushMama how pretty! It's snowing here, but it's the slushy kind that melts when it hits the ground. A lot of mopping to do tonight, thanks to dogs and hardwood floors.

Which leads me to the dumb question of the season. This morning, I let my chickens out to roam around, then it started raining again and they got drenched. They were more concerned about strutting around the garden than going someplace warm. I wasn't ok with it, though, so I locked them back in the coop. But though the coop is sheltered, it's unheated, and they don't like to go into the warmest part for anything but laying an egg. So do I need to be concerned about wet chickens when the temp drops below freezing? Do I need to (and I'm laughing as I type this) bring them in and let them dry off?

Well we had lots of snow in Dayton this morning, too, kinda like SagebrushMama's pic, and my chickens were out in it. They don't seem to mind it at all, other than having to dig through it for food! Actually they don't seem to mind that much, either. They really like digging and scratching around in just about anything.

ETA: Congratulations Cecilia! I hope you feel better.

 

[sherylreno]

Perhaps a falcon then?

 

[sherylreno]

Here's a picture of a falcon taken in the Reno area:

 

[SunnyDawn]

OK I had to go look it up cause I knew that catfish were herbivores (sorry ex teacher I can't help myself). Carp are omnivores but found no reference to them eating anything but worms, eggs and crawfish. They are mostly bottom feeders but will eat plants on the surface. I'll have to admit that any omnivore that gets big enough will eat whatever is handy though so I believe it's possible they could eat ducklings. *sniff*
What I thought interesting was that they are not only related to the goldfish but they are capable of breeding with each other! Now I know more about carp than I ever needed to. I've always just considered them a poor eating fish that are extremely invasive.

Bull frogs, OMG, are horrible creatures that will eat anything in sight! Including small mammals! There's a bad sci-fi movie in there somewhere. Don't know why I didn't know this, I knew they were cannibals so it makes sense...

Ron those turbines you mentioned are pretty pricey but from what I've been reading any system that hooks you up to the grid is super costly. Whatever happened to that company that started in Reno called Mariah Wind? They had a nice little turbine but it was waaaaay over-priced. I think I'm starting to like Kim's idea of a DIY model. Don't really have to hook up to the grid (though it would be nice to be paid back for energy you produce and don't use). Just a battery to run basic services off of in case of a power outage (like this morning) would be wonderful.

BTW if you are hooked up to the grid and it goes down how complicated is it to run off grid? I imagine that being connected would mean that you are still out of luck if it goes out? IDK I like the idea of having batteries and their website says that their system doesn't use them. They are tied directly to the grid without a battery at all.

 

[SagebrushMama]

Huh, I didn't know that catfish were herbivores, I thought they ate whatever they come across. I remembered that the carp Lake Mead were big enough to eat a ducklings, and I think my grandfather was the one who told me about it but he hates carp anyways.

 

[americanvalkyrie]

OK I had to go look it up cause I knew that catfish were herbivores (sorry ex teacher I can't help myself). Carp are omnivores but found no reference to them eating anything but worms, eggs and crawfish. They are mostly bottom feeders but will eat plants on the surface. I'll have to admit that any omnivore that gets big enough will eat whatever is handy though so I believe it's possible they could eat ducklings. *sniff*
What I thought interesting was that they are not only related to the goldfish but they are capable of breeding with each other! Now I know more about carp than I ever needed to. I've always just considered them a poor eating fish that are extremely invasive.

I keep hearing that they're basically just pretty carp, and they make the water dirty and so full of ammonia that you can't eat any other fish that live in the same pond. And they're very hardy and prolific. My landlady set this pond up with koi and a few goldfish. The raccoons ate all of the big, slow koi, but left the smaller goldfish. They bred last year and produced at least 300 fry in a 1,000-gallon pond. They ate enough of each other that there are about 150-200 left, and they're not growing too much because they're competing for room. I'm not going to thin it out, though... these ducks I'm getting in the spring will thin out the weaklings for me just fine. And that's after whatever survives this wacky weather.

My chickens are 9 months old and have been in this same coop since June. They don't seem bothered by the normal weather, even the cold weather, but it hasn't been this cold and damp on them yet. Bringing them inside to dry might traumatize them more than being cold. I'm just concerned that they won't dry out with the low temperatures.

 

[aubreynoramarie]

Good sleuthing Sheryl! I found him on google!



The image tag says perigrine falcon but it doesn't really look like them because perigrines have solid colored backsides and this guy is fully barred.

 

[sherylreno]

Ducks create so much nitrogen the fish will die from it and the ducks will eat them when they do. I don't think any fish can live in the water from it. People on here talk how all their fish died once the ducks went into the pond.

I think you'll be fine with your chickens as long as their coop is dry. I'm watching my birds closely tonight too.

I'm getting real excited about my female ducks. They keep going into the coop and messing around with the straw in the nest boxes. The drake stays out though, I don't think he'll go in there after he had to spend the night last week. I'm hoping there will be an egg in there when we get home.

If anyone who hatches eggs would like to hatch any ducklings just let me know. I have no idea how much to charge for hatching eggs but I think it would be fun to see what they would look like.