NY chicken lover!!!!

[Sachasmom]

I think its the same fox family that has bothered me for the last three years. I think it breeds out there and then round about this time it comes up here and kills massive amounts of stock, last year it got a pen of meat chickens, year before, a pen of silkies. The SAME pen I have been telling my hubby for three years was not safe. Sigh. I just don't have the extra money to buy a roll or three of hardwire cloth, hot wire and a charger. Heck, I can't afford gas for the car. Financially last year was bad, this year has been just brutal. Every time I loose stuff I think about the lost sales and the stuff I will not be able to afford to buy, let alone having to keep replacing stuff. Then this month it just got too expensive to keep the stuff penned up to feed, not that anything stayed IN the darn pens, except for the silkies!


I may go online and buy, ummm, a special fox catching thing, nuff said?

I hear that the BEST bait is, well, something else I can't say, but CL currently has LOTS of it, for FREE.

Or at least the old timey farmers at the auction tell me thats the best bait.

I JUST finished chores and its 2am. Still hot and miserable out there.

 

[ChickenAl]

Sachasmom, you may want to look into these. http://www.niteguard.com/

Not sure how well they work, but it beats having to figure out if you have to take out more than one type of pred. If they know the food source is never ending they will hang around and breed close by until the easy pickins dry up. These might just make them move on to find another food source. At $20 a piece it may be cost prohibitive for you to cover the area you need to, but it may also be too expensive in lost poultry not to use them.

I would be curious myself to know if anyone has had any experience with these lights and what the results were.

 

[greymane]

Haven't seen those lights, but I have moved one of my game cams to the tree next to the coop. Gotta keep an eye on these girls. Got a third raccoon (in three nights) this morning. That should help.

Those of you looking for bunnies, drop me a PM. I have seven Mini Rex kits.

 

[sherpagirl]

What does a mini rex weigh when full grown? I would like to have bunny but it may have to wait until next year. I'm starting to investigate breeds, want something small, I hadn't heard of a "mini" rex.

 

[magsrags]

Wow, that is the cheepest price I have seen those lights. Now I can afford them. Thanks for the link!



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[greymane]

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They are about four pounds when fully grown.

 

[featherz]

How is everyone doing in the heat? All my chickens have made it through so far. Thank Goddess I am home - I'm a nervous nellie and run out there every two or three hours to throw out watermelon or change out the water. My frozen bottles all melted down pretty quickly! Temp is rapidly dropping, thankfully it's supposed to be a cooler night and not quite as hot tomorrow.

Oddly enough, the chickens most affected by the heat are my olive eggers - forgot how old they are, but started laying about a month ago so I'll just say 5 or 6 months. Not sure why, they are rather lean birds...

My morbidly obese brahma is panting but is waddling around without complaining and I just caught her in the nest box.. My oldest chickens (leghorns and production reds) don't even notice the heat, no panting at all. They are smart enough to sit in the cooler part of the forest, however.

My teen chickens all seem fine today, much less distressed.

19 eggs so far today out of 23 layers. Yowsa!

 

[stonykill]

no problems with any of my birds. I don't do anything different winter spring summer or fall. Just the basic stuff. Make sure they have plenty of food and water, and a place to hide.
My free range RIR's hide alot under the big pine trees to stay cool. My Free range Sumatra's don't care in the least about any weather. When it is hot, they do their thing. When it is Zero, they do their thing. Etc. All I have found that they don't like is hail. They do hide from that

 

[Cass]

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Is there an independant Diner close to you that might buy some eggs from you? It's track season, so they will go through a lot right now. Set the price really low and they might bite.

Or give them to a food pantry? Our food pantry is in the church. Call any church and they should be able to put you to the right place to donate them. Since you own your house, get a reciept and it is tax deductable.

 

[Cass]

My chickens did ok today. I have my fingers crossed, but so far none have died from the heat. Even the little bitty ones....

I think I hatched all roosters from the free eggs. Doesn't that just figure? Well, free food is free food.

I still have these 4 White Silkie roos....one is breeding my D'uccles. Given how small the hens are, I doubt he is doing any good....but he IS persistant.

Speaking of breeding...I used the word "mounting" in a CL ad and it got flagged and removed. Sheesh...it's not like I put PICTURES, I was just telling potential takers that they are almost mature.

These roos have to go. Any ideas anyone? I just can't get past the black skin to eat them...