NY chicken lover!!!!

[itsy]

Hey NY peeps - do you guys do anything for your chicken combs through the winter? This is the first winter for all of my girls (except for one) and I'm wondering if I need to put any vaseline or bag balm or anything on those that have big floppy combs, like my leghorn.

 

[featherz]

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I did vaseline on my white leghorn combs last year and lemme tell ya, I don't think it helped. they got a bit of frostbite anyways, which healed by itself (just on the tips) and OMG they looked like mudballs once they found some dirt in the run. They preened, etc, and then dustbathed. Ugh. I think I had brown leghorns until spring. I keep bag balm/vaseline handy but I am not sure I'll use it this year.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

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I'm in CT (close enough) and never do anything special for their combs. Never had a problem.

 

[Nambroth]

happyhensny, tragopans!! HOW EXCITING! If I am ever in Albany, I want to visit.

 

[greymane]

Awesome bird, Happyhensny!!

 

[happyhensny]

My 2 DD crack up hysterically when we watch the YTube videos of the male displaying. We watch it alot.

Hoping we get a female-babies! Awwww...

Itsy - I tried Vaseline on the combs last year, didn't seem to help me-just got DIRTY. Watch the moisture in the coop, that will do the most harm.

Nambroth - please stop by! Love visiting my chick-peeps! Anyone else too!

 

[rancher hicks]

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Didn't I see a male Tragopan displaying for a female on Nature last night? It was a show about the Himmylaias. (something like that

). Do you have a female?

 

[rancher hicks]

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Now i doubt DW would be up for that and I don't think she'd like it if I told her I traded for a BF.

Is he as cute as the one in the picture?

 

[itsy]

Rancher - not even slightly.

admhotel, I missed your photo in all the chatter! Beautiful kids. Are they quads??

Kind of annoying couple of days here. We recently moved to NY not even two months ago and realized that not only do we have mice up the wazooo here, but rats. The dbf was taking the garbage to the dump the other day, and a couple hitched a ride in the bed of his truck down to the end of the driveway. We've patched up a hole on the side of the house (that was actualy through the wood GRR) and are in the process of putting down traps. There are large holes in the dirt that look to be going under the foundation.

I'm happy we got these kittens. When can cats start going outside? I wish we had a feral colony living here!!

 

[Cass]

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Don't let the cats outside until they have had their shots. Then they can start earning their keep. Since they aren't "hunting" yet, you could put out a lot of poision to get them under control. Tractor Supply has some awesome poision. I think they even carry the kind that is INSIDE a black box so the cats can't get at it by mistake. Once the kittens are hunting you will not want to use poison, since the cats might eat a dieing mouse/rat and it will make them very very ill. (Or kill them, but so far it hasn't killed my cat, just made her sooooo ill she barely moved for 2 days. And no, it wasn't my poisoned mouse they ate, but the neighbor's)

Rats are the worst. They will eat through wood to get inside. Fill any holes in the house with steel wool, it's one of the few substances they can't chew through. I use corse steel wool, cuz it doesn't seem to rust away as fast, if the area gets any water at all.

I would suspect moles for subteranian tunneling. Or chipmunks. Poision will work on either of those too.

How "large" are the holes? Could be woodcucks. 22 does away with those quite nicely. Live catch trap will give you a better idea of what you are dealing with.