***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[Loriemarler]

I have a raccoon stalking my silkies. I found one with her head pulled through the wire this morning dead. We are going to set a trap and look at other reinforcing measures. I am very upset!!! Poor silkie.

 

[SharkmanDan]

I have a raccoon stalking my silkies. I found one with her head pulled through the wire this morning dead. We are going to set a trap and look at other reinforcing measures. I am very upset!!! Poor silkie.

I have found that for Raccoons (as cute as they may seem), opossums, skunks, and other small mammal predators, that the best solution is a steady hand, and a 35 grain, .22 caliber lead projectile, through the cranial cavity. They tend not to return, from that condition.
Sorry, Lorie, after losing so many hundreds of dollars of birds to predators, this past year, and a couple of serious injuries to my dogs from them, I have no desire to "catch and release" predatory mammals, anymore. Hawks, I'll try to shoo them away. I haven't seen owls yet, though I'm certain they're there, but my livestock spend the night in jail, with the exception of a few obstinate guineas now and then. I'm thinking about those red glowing night lights, that are supposed to scare off even owls and coyotes. But, my .22 stays close at hand, as does a 12 gauge for things a bit farther out, and an AR15, for coyotes, at the property's edge.

That said, aside from eating food, is there much danger from a mole, anyone?

 

[Loriemarler]

I have found that for Raccoons (as cute as they may seem), opossums, skunks, and other small mammal predators, that the best solution is a steady hand, and a 35 grain, .22 caliber lead projectile, through the cranial cavity. They tend not to return, from that condition.
Sorry, Lorie, after losing so many hundreds of dollars of birds to predators, this past year, and a couple of serious injuries to my dogs from them, I have no desire to "catch and release" predatory mammals, anymore. Hawks, I'll try to shoo them away. I haven't seen owls yet, though I'm certain they're there, but my livestock spend the night in jail, with the exception of a few obstinate guineas now and then. I'm thinking about those red glowing night lights, that are supposed to scare off even owls and coyotes. But, my .22 stays close at hand, as does a 12 gauge for things a bit farther out, and an AR15, for coyotes, at the property's edge.

That said, aside from eating food, is there much danger from a mole, anyone?

Don't get me wrong. We trap we just don't release My husband went out lastnight after our dogs started barking with his gun but I don't think he checked the silkie coop. Unfortunately it is behind the big coop away from the main line of sight. Tonight I will make sure we double check everything. Nothing cute about a chicken murdering thief! Oh and as far as stray dogs attacking, I employ the 3 S approach.

 

[NanaKat]

Quote:
Mole tunnels make lovely mouse tunnels so we step on any tunnel visible at ground level.
Voles are worse...they are more like rats and they are territorial.

 

[SharkmanDan]

Mole tunnels make lovely mouse tunnels so we  step on any tunnel visible at ground level. 
Voles are worse...they are more like rats and they are territorial. 

My big fat self steps all over those little tunnels, in hopes of collapsing one, right on top of that little bugger. That, and I have two nice sturdy, albeit fairly sharply pointed fiberglass chicken herding sticks, and I use them to stab into the tunnels too. When I can afford it, I found a seemingly good product, for eradication. I just can't afford it, right now. It's a sonic solar spike rodent repellent. Burgess sells it.

 

[SharkmanDan]

I have close to 30 (I will have >30 by tomorrow, I'm sure) fertilized EE eggs, and 7 (likely to be >8 tomorrow) fertilized Cuckoo Marans eggs. I've had an ad on Craig's List with no takers. But, since they have not been refrigerated for several days, (since being laid) in anticipation of going in someone's incubator, I don't want to just put them in with the fresh refrigerated eggs, to eat.
They need to go in an incubator, pretty soon, as they are approaching the one week mark, and I don't own one. Is anyone near to me that would like some eggs to incubate?
I also now have 19 Narragansett turkey eggs, that I really would like to sell, but don't want them to go to waste.

 

[ashtree]

So for Valentine's Arlo bought and cooked 3 dozen eggs for the chickens. His dad and I decided he has more than earned a rooster coop (not just because of valentines-he works hard for the chickens) so now we have to figure out where and how. @ksane how far away is your rooster set up from the girls? I think I've picked the spot and I believe it's far away enough to not have to worry about the boys seeing the girls but what other things should I be mindful of? Do they all need to be capons? Ideally I'd like to keep some of my backup roos there so it would be nice to not have all capons. And if we have say, 8 adult roos could we ever add more roos to that? Or is whatever we start with to be our final number? We're still about a month- 2 months away from being able to start this project but I do want to do it for Arlo. He truly loves his chickens and if I can keep more of the ones he gets attached to I want to. It became really clear we can NOT butcher our boys. He 100% can't handle it and no amount of meat was/is worth seeing him so heartbroken. We're crappy farmers!

 

[Ksane]

So for Valentine's Arlo bought and cooked 3 dozen eggs for the chickens. His dad and I decided he has more than earned a rooster coop (not just because of valentines-he works hard for the chickens) so now we have to figure out where and how. @ksane how far away is your rooster set up from the girls? I think I've picked the spot and I believe it's far away enough to not have to worry about the boys seeing the girls but what other things should I be mindful of? Do they all need to be capons? Ideally I'd like to keep some of my backup roos there so it would be nice to not have all capons. And if we have say, 8 adult roos could we ever add more roos to that? Or is whatever we start with to be our final number? We're still about a month- 2 months away from being able to start this project but I do want to do it for Arlo. He truly loves his chickens and if I can keep more of the ones he gets attached to I want to. It became really clear we can NOT butcher our boys. He 100% can't handle it and no amount of meat was/is worth seeing him so heartbroken. We're crappy farmers!

He's a boy after my own heart

I've introduced new roosters usually by pairs. I have 3 huge rooster areas now. I tried combining *all the boys (around 60? I'm not sure) into one 50x165 yard but they're all adults and some are just bullies and never let up on the weaker ones so I'm back to 3 Rooster yards plus my Silkie boy pen now. My capons are in with the hens and a tolerant rooster in 1 of the layer yards. It's been my experience that capons get picked on in a big group of intact roosters. The secret is a big enough area so it's more of a yard than a pen. I do have 10 Silkie boys in a 10x20 pen but they grew up together, they'd get stomped on in one of the rooster yards. They're little sissy's The boys who are my favorites &/or real gentle are in the back yard and they can see the girls in the layer yards and it's not a problem. It's like they know they're not *their girls so they don't seem to see them. If you had 8 I'd put them all together into at least a 30x30 yard all at the same time and add by pairs if you add more later. Even if you have to pull one of the gentle ones out and pair him up with the new boy for a few wks 1st. The 50x50 yard where my 11 yr old sheep lives is the yard with the hard core bullies @Kassaundra , that's the yard the Oreo twins are in

Fine with people but the older they got the more seniority they thought they had with other boys lol
There's more than enough thick-skinned people in the world, that's what the majority of people are. Some of us just have softer hearts and are born nurturers when it comes to animals and helpless things @artsyrobin ?). The world needs MORE Arlos and he should be made to feel proud of that IMO. You encourage him to be compassionate and I think that's wonderful.

 

[chewy352]

Does anyone know where to get organic feed in oklahoma? I'm mostly looking for starter grower and grower finisher but might be interested in layer as well if the price is right. I am in the Enid area but travel is not out of the question.

 

[ashtree]

Thanks @ksane for all the good info. It gives me a better idea of where to start. I think I have a good 1/2 an acre I can fence off and make work. And yes; he's a great kid with a giant heart. He works hard too. He's out there with me almost every morning and evening doing chicken chores. When he goes to friends houses now he says "I dont eat wheat or chicken" he won't touch it. Those are his babies. He's super excited about his soon to be rooster pen.