New Englanders! Much ado about New England!

[joanie_maine]

I'm in Central Maine...in Temple, which is near Farmington.

I raise bantam cochins

 

[birdlovin gal]

Welcome joanie_maine! Your cochin avatar is gorgeous!

 

[joanie_maine]

Quote:
Thank you!

I'm working hard on having wonderful buffs

 

[maine chicks]

Beautiful Buffs-That is what I'm adding to my flock this spring and I can't wait. I guess the wild turks will just be a passing thing. Last spring my dog used to chase a momma and her chicks when they got too close to the house. Am I correct that they will be fine as long as none of my chicken chicks get into turkey feed?
Birdlovengal, are you going to put a big fence up around that garden

or is it for the birds? I'm putting fence up this year-last fall the chickens striped my climbing rose of all its leaves

 

[the simple life]

Welcome to all the new members, its great how many people are from this area!
Birdloven gal, the problem with letting chickens and turkeys run together is that the turkeys get what they call blackface which is a disease they get from the chickens.
I have heard of people sucessfully raising both in a mixed environment and then I have also heard of the people who had turkeys get sick and die from it.

Edited to add: I just realized what you were asking, if you mean that the turkeys are just passing through the yard I don't think its as big a problem as when people are housing them together and keeping them in the same run.
I am pretty sure they pick up the organism from the soil as well but you have a large area there and I doubt its going to be a problem for you.
I love how big your property is, yard envy here.

 

[LilPeeps]

Quote:
Just wanted to correct you here, it's blackhead, not blackface

 

[gotpoodle]

I woke up this morning to all my wild bird feeders trashed by a bear! My pole feeder was bent in half, and my wire feeders were bent and broken. <sigh>. Now I have to buy all new feeders.
Anyone have trouble with bears and their chickens? If the chickens are locked in a wooden coop at night, will the bears destroy a pen/coop trying to get at them?
We have black bears that show up every year or so.

 

[the simple life]

Yikes, what town/city are you in?
We don't have them in our area, hawks are our problem with the chickens.
There was someone who posted some pictures and had a thread here a while ago about how a bear went in her coop and killed her chickens and tore the place apart.
I know it was at night but I don't think it was in the middle of the night.
Still though it was evening and the bear destroyed her coop and killed her chickens.
Maybe you can put up an electric fence to keep them away.
I didn't think bears would bother with bird food, who knew?
The more the cities build up and force the wildlife out of their homes the more we are going to see these incidents.
I am on a beekeeping forum and Connecticut is having a regular problem with bears from what the members are saying, someone posted a picture of a bear just walking down their road in the middle of the day without a care in the world.

 

[Echoes]

Connecticut here

 

[gotpoodle]

Quote:
I'm in Fitchburg, MA. We get a lot of interesting wildlife here on the other side of rte 495! LOL! Apparently we are also on a moose trail that runs down from NH and we have had lots of them lately, too. But at least they don't eat chickens.

I don't have chickens yet, still in the planning stage, but this makes me nervous!
Is it even possible to keep a determined bear out of a coop?
I have a friend in Ashburnham (next town over) who has had nightly bear visits for the last two weeks. She started to bring in her bird feeders at night...I plan to do the same. I'm just glad I haven't gotten chickens yet. They might have had a nice buffet last night.