NY chicken lover!!!!

[Tab's chicken obsession]

I woke up yesterday to a mouse on the kitchen counter. It looked at me and seemed to saunter down the counter around the microwave and into the gap between the countertop and cabinet. Usually when a mouse sees you they run for their lives, not this one. I woke up today to a dead mouse in cabinet under sink, dead mouse in my pot and pan cabinet, the trap behind the microwave was licked clean of the peanut butter but not sprung. I think the mouse was laughing at when he did it too. Hopefully it was him in the other trap from trying to get away with goodies a second time.

me getting last word.

 

[happyhensny]

We've tried cat food, anchovies. Trap baited with rabbit, chicken and duck. Left out salted bait with some sucess. It just seems to prefer live bait (and why not?) I think its a whole colony of Coons bc the neighbor at the top of the hill mentioned the house (abandoned) was "Overrun with them" Nice huh?

I'm going to have to save up and try the live bait/gallon drum thing. Oh, we tried the gallon drum thing too with the bait at the bottom.

These are some seriously smart coons.

I've come to the conclusion that I need wire skirting. And electric poultry netting. Followed by a dog moat. Its frustrating to no end, I keep fixing the coops and they keep figuring out how to get in (in ways I had not considered even!)

But on a positive note, hey, the Rats are gone from the back coop finally... Which probably means I have a mink. Sigh.

I am sorry, Coons are smart animals. I really do not like them at all after a group came and ate 32 of my meat birds in one night. Didn't even eat them all, just killed and killed My fault of course, they were 7 weeks old due to go to the butcher the next week and apparently the coop was not predator proof enough. Drives me crazy when they make Webkinz out of the nasty things.

I had a mink, he slaughtered without purpose, just to kill. Got out of the trap I baited with raw liver, sat there looked at me and went back after a chicken. Sorry, but I shot him-no more mink-no more dead chickens!

Predators.

I have my run covered with welded wire I was out there one afternoon and all of the sudden all the birds came flying inside and I hear a big "boom". I go outside and there is a hawk sitting on top of the run. HA! You can't get in! I've seen it twice!

I woke up yesterday to a mouse on the kitchen counter. It looked at me and seemed to saunter down the counter around the microwave and into the gap between the countertop and cabinet. Usually when a mouse sees you they run for their lives, not this one. I woke up today to a dead mouse in cabinet under sink, dead mouse in my pot and pan cabinet, the trap behind the microwave was licked clean of the peanut butter but not sprung. I think the mouse was laughing at when he did it too. Hopefully it was him in the other trap from trying to get away with goodies a second time.

me getting last word.

We have 2 cats and they will not kill anything in the house. Good when we have chicks, bad when we have mice.

 

[Lynzi777]

All this talk about wild animals makes me wonder what's living up the mountain behind us other than deer!

The kids and I went up there this past week and as we got further and further away from the house, I just kept thinking to my self, Ok, I know there's hunting allowed up here, but what about other "hunters". This summer should be interesting! I'll have to ask my neighbor if she's ever had any problems with predators on her property. She has chickens but from what I can see she has a small shed that it looks like they may go into at night. So they're well protected. Still makes me wonder...

 

[stonykill]

All this talk about wild animals makes me wonder what's living up the mountain behind us other than deer!

The kids and I went up there this past week and as we got further and further away from the house, I just kept thinking to my self, Ok, I know there's hunting allowed up here, but what about other "hunters". This summer should be interesting! I'll have to ask my neighbor if she's ever had any problems with predators on her property. She has chickens but from what I can see she has a small shed that it looks like they may go into at night. So they're well protected. Still makes me wonder...

well a good guess besides deer would be possum, raccoon, bears, Fishers, all types of owls, eagles, bobcats, and maybe even a mountain lion.


I know people who have pictures of a mountain lion in a neighboring town. DEC says "we don't have them". I don't know who they are trying to fool! They denied we had bears in the late 80's also. I saw my 1st bear on our land in 1990. I'll have to let my neighbor know who has young calves that that thing was spotted.

 

[Lynzi777]

well a good guess besides deer would be possum, raccoon, bears, Fishers, all types of owls, eagles, bobcats, and maybe even a mountain lion.


I know people who have pictures of a mountain lion in a neighboring town. DEC says "we don't have them". I don't know who they are trying to fool! They denied we had bears in the late 80's also. I saw my 1st bear on our land in 1990. I'll have to let my neighbor know who has young calves that that thing was spotted.

Oh I definitely know we have possum, raccoons, and owls. I was more curious about the bobcats and mountain lions! LOL We had black bears in my hometown in CT two summers ago and that shocked me. But being in between two mountains here in NY I can only imagine what's living up there.

 

[demp4]

a friend of mine just called. No one calls me at 10pm, he is a retired trooper, our son is out, so....I'm not thinking good things. He called to say his middle son just drove by our house with thier tiltbed and a MOUNTAIN LION jumped from white line to white line in front of him, onto my lawn! We have 500 feet of road frontage, so I don't know where exactly it was, but I'm not as excited as he was!
he has chickens too. And all of his live outdoors. But the reason he called is he thought I might want to see it. Ummm,no thanks! not without a loaded weapon!

Jumping from white line to white line, that is a BIG cat!

WOW! I think I would stay inside too!

 

[demp4]

Well we did it... All the roosters are gone. My yard is SO quiet now! I am sure in no time some our 6wk olds will be crowing and then we have to do it all over again. But at least we have a system and know what we need to make it go faster & smoother next time. Then again I will have to do it in late summer too...

The hens are sticking closer to home now also! Maybe we will get more eggs.

 

[Glasshen]

Lynzi, add to your list for sure, hawks, coyotes and fox. I've see them all right here. Possum, I've seen in the road. That's enough for me to worry about.

 

[Aria]

We have all sorts of animals around here in the country.
We have a heart trap and use canned cat food...it
gets the racoons every time.

Then my husband takes care of them.

We lost all our Call Ducks. Our friend who knows a
lot about animals and their habits says...it must have
been a racoon mother teaching her babies how to hunt.

EEK. We have lost one silkie to a hawk.

 

[Tab's chicken obsession]

I have the new to us incubator all washed up and drying. I hope to get it running today at some point. A week ago we bought a LG still air with turner off craigs list. DH plans on installing his own fan on it, but I wanted to run a hatch on it so I could compare to our other bators. Our hatch rates from the frigabator haven't been that great so DH drilled a hole in the back near the fan hoping that more oxygen will do the trick. All other factors look good and hold steady in it. Our hovabator we've been really happy with but it doesn't hold enough eggs in it when you have the hatching bug so we been using it as a hatcher this spring. We'll get a good routine down with enough practice.

Now I'm off to see what I can get accomplished outside before it rains. I'll have post pics when I finish.