Nevadans?

[SparksNV]

Sunny: beautiful birds!

Jason: Thanks for the compliment - my dh is all poofed up like a rooster!


A bit of a panic here - Driving home after soccer practice and we turn onto our street & what do we see climbing out of the sewer - yup, a raccoon!!! I didn't think raccoons were around our neighborhood. Now, I am not sure what to do about the chickens. We lock them up at night (hopefully it's secure) but during the day they are in their run which is just a yard with a 6 ft fence. Will raccoons attack them during the day, too? How do ya'll deal with this threat? I was being very naive thinking they were not in our neighborhood.

 

[SunnyDawn]

Yea, we get some huge coons here. The sherriff came around to warn us that the coons are hunting together now (very unusual) and had killed a 65lb black lab in our neighborhood. Good news is that coons usually hunt at night. Unfortunately this can be earlier in the evening and later in the morning than I'd like.

I don't let the gals out until it is full daylight and we lock 'em up as soon as they go in to roost.
I still hear about a daylight attack now and then though.

I can't keep my gals locked up all day. I do have a 6 foot fence that helps some. However the neighbor's trees that border the fence make me very nervous. How hard would it be for a coon to climb those trees and drop into my yard. Locking the coop up tight seems to be working so far.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

A 'coon would worry me too. Ugh, I have not yet had to "deal" with a 'coon - the closest one I know for sure lives up by the ponds; and I just about drove into the ditch the night I saw him/her cross the road

You might want to post in the pred/pest area - you will get lots and lots of advice - from lock them in the coop to get a gun..........sift thru and see what will work for you and the chicks. I know coons will pull a chicken piece by piece thru wire, so hardware clothe works well cause the little buggers cannot get their fingers in. (Ugh, out of the sewer! - yuck)

What I would worry about is it starts visiting - say to eat the chicken feed, or snack on eggs - the girls get use to seeing this new critter and soon are not afraid of it (could be another "dog" to them), soon it can walk among them without the chickens giving it another thought and then it will grab one for dinner (maybe not, but not a chance I would want to take).

I know I am no help






Sunny the girls look wonderful. Is that Honkers hanging out in the first pic, upper right-ish (upper left in second pic)? I love how Miss. S. Belle has her head tilted to look at the camera in the first pic also. The Buff O girls are really starting to come more into their Orp bodies it looks like their getting really fluffy britches. Aww, who am I kidding........they all look great.

 

[HorseFeatherz NV]

Oh no Sunny - could that be what got the chicks while you were on vacation? A 65# dog..........goodness, I have heard (growing up) of coons drowning dogs who are chasing them, but in the 'city'?

Maybe they, coons and dog, were fighting over the yard or food, how horrible for the lab's owners.

 

[Knemeyer]

SunnyDawn, your birds are gorgeous!

 

[NevadaRon]

Beautiful flock SunnyDawn!

Your BOs have that beautiful gold color to them. When do they start to change? Mine (~14 weeks) still look like some kind of mutts - feathers that are half white and half a dirty brown color.

Unless the Big R Store was wrong and they aren't really BOs? But they did have that gold color as chicks

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
Thank you! Honkers is on the upper, leftish in the first pic and, yes, you can see her butt as she wanders off in the second pic. That is Sweet Cheeks on the right in the first pic, you just can't see her fluffy cheeks at that angle. Honkers should be the smallest of the three but she is just HUGE! Belle was the only one I got to look up toward the camera. No one else wanted to stop eating long enough.

Quote:
I don't think so. The neighbors said they saw a big cat hanging out on the top of the fence and since it only took the young chicks a cat makes sense. They scared it off with a BB gun and a few squirts with the hose 'til it finally got the idea. This was after our vacation so I'm pretty sure it was the culprit.

By then I was keeping the little ones locked up 24-7. I felt bad for them but I didn't know what else to do.

Quote:
Thank you! I am so nuts about them. I can't figure out why. I've had chickens many times before and never saw them as more than livestock. Maybe 'cause I'm older and have time to observe and enjoy them like I never had time for before.

Or my DH is right when he says I'm turning into an old softy?

 

[SunnyDawn]

Quote:
Thank you!
I don't know about your birds but mine were very gold colored at a much younger age than 14 weeks. Two of them had a few tails feathers that looked dirty but that was about it. Can we see pics? A lot of us on this thread have BOs and they can let you know how they compare to their birds as well. HorseFeathers has some beautiful heritage BOs and may be more helpful answering this question than me. Mine are hatchery stock.

A silly question maybe but I'm not used to seeing anyone, except those into mathematics, use that symbol for "approximately". Is this becoming more common or are you a math nerd too?

 

[vegaschick]

KandJsmama - Yikes! That IS a big deal here! Several years ago BC (before chickens) we had a pair of hawks try to nest in our palm trees, but the local birds harassed them constantly until they just went away. I'm in the Whitney township so we are probably a bit more suburban than you but WHOA, is right! Like NevadaRon, I covered my run to protect my girls, keep the dang doves outta my feed (I still get the lil birds occasionally), and to keep my EE's in my yard (I swear they have a gene that forces them to find the highest point possible). I do let them out to "free range" in my backyard sometimes though.


Knemeyer - Sorry about your little Sultan. I just got rid off my most vicious girls (both Wyandottes), but they're still a rough bunch, sweet as pie to me but mean to newbies. It really is a mob mentality with chickens so I wouldn't isolate her completely. I would let her heal, letting one of the others visit for company and keeping them used to her (maybe start with the polish, then one of the others at a time). Away from the others, one of the meanies may gentle and form a bond with her. Just an idea. Anyways...good luck with her.

SunnyDawn - Those are BEAUTIFUL birds! I love the variety in your flock and I swear you have all the kinds/colors that I want. I'm so tryin' not to be jealous....and where are you getting Barnevelder pullets from, you lucky duck?

 

[SparksNV]

Good Morning!!!

I have been looking at the "pests & Predators" forum and that is what scares the ** out of me - how smart coons are! My dh doesn't believe me that hook and eye latches are a piece of cake to coons. I would love to dispatch the coon (or have dh do it) but I live in a subdivision where a gun would definitely be noticed. I am going to call the county animal control this morning. There are a couple of homes that have chickens that were closer to the coon - I don't know if they have had any problems. It was just such a shock to see it coming out of the sewer in our neighborhood! I tried to take pics with my phone but wouldn't you know it, my memory was full! Olivia & I were so excited that we couldn't erase pictures and then take one before it scampered away.

Poor Meringue - I had one of those flystrips that roll out of the tube, hanging in the coop = she must have flown up and got stuck to the strip yesterday morning. Dh & Olivia had to catch her and take the strip off of her - she lost a few feathers & still has some of the flystrip gung stuck to her feathers. So no more flystrips where they can "fly" close to!

I put a couple of golf balls in the nesting boxes - so hopefully, the gals will get an idea of what the boxes are for! My neighbor have me 4 golf balls - 2 are white and 2 are flourescent orange. Does the color make any difference or is it just the shape?

Carol