***OKIES in the BYC III ***

[dunnmom]

My 6 girls have gone to laying about every other day with the heat, but they seem to be managing it just fine with a lot less intervention this year. They've been eating a lot of duckweed from our pond.

 

[NanaKat]

Worked on weed whacking the garden paths this morning and going back out to mow now that lunch is finished.
Pickled some cucumbers and beets yesterday. And planted winter onions and garlic.

The field camera showed a coyote in the garden earlier in the week eating fallen pears.
Raccoon tracks around the barn pens yesterday morning.
BUT by this morning something took both a grown rooster and grown hen out of a breed pen with only a few feathers scattered....
A coon, skunk, possum or owl will eat on a bird and leave most of the carcass.
Nothing showed up on the camera last night, so I'm at a loss as to what took them.

 

[dunnmom]

Worked on weed whacking the garden paths this morning and going back out to mow now that lunch is finished.
Pickled some cucumbers and beets yesterday. And planted winter onions and garlic.

The field camera showed a coyote in the garden earlier in the week eating fallen pears.
Raccoon tracks around the barn pens yesterday morning.
BUT by this morning something took both a grown rooster and grown hen out of a breed pen with only a few feathers scattered....
A coon, skunk, possum or owl will eat on a bird and leave most of the carcass.
Nothing showed up on the camera last night, so I'm at a loss as to what took them.

That's crazy! Whatever it was, it had to be a professional sneak to not show up on camera dragging them off.

 

[NanaKat]

Finally yesterday I caught a photo series of a huge male ringtail raccoon climbing up into the 6 foot tall chain link pen. Somehow he got inside the small coop and killed the 3 Buckeye hens and their New Hampshire cock! He only ate on two of them but decimated the four.
He avoided the trap set with tuna last night, but he will soon be history.
On a sad note our forever kitty Murdock passed over the Rainbow Bridge last night. He will be missed, but not forgotten. He was the best one eyed mouser, the best purr kitty, and garden companion.

 

[CLSranch]

Sorry about Murdock Nana. Hope you get the coon.

We've been dealing with rat snakes eating the eggs under the hens that are setting. DW got one the other day. Last night she found one starting in then hauled tail out when she went to shut the coop. I loaded the 22 with rat shot and looked for it 45 min later. He came and left already taking 5 out from under a bantam hen. Her 2nd batch after the other snake.

 

[NanaKat]

Sorry about Murdock Nana. Hope you get the coon.

We've been dealing with rat snakes eating the eggs under the hens that are setting. DW got one the other day. Last night she found one starting in then hauled tail out when she went to shut the coop. I loaded the 22 with rat shot and looked for it 45 min later. He came and left already taking 5 out from under a bantam hen. Her 2nd batch after the other snake.

Do you have a minnow trap...one with a funnel entrance? you can bait that with eggs or golf balls. Once the snake goes in and swallows the golf ball, it cant escape the trap...easy to kill it then.
Most often, the snake is just stumbling onto the eggs or chicks while hunting for mice or young rats. But once it finds eggs, it returns.

 

[CLSranch]

No minnow trap. Tried that last year with a similar trap. Should again I forgot about it. I keep ceramic eggs in the roosts but there wasn't one in that box. I've found egg shells and a golf ball regurgitated in a different side of the pen before a couple of years ago, when I had a snake killing my bantams. One of those is my profile pic on a LF RIR hen. That's why I like light bulbs. Can't really find the right size any more so I got ceramic eggs.

 

[NanaKat]

Oh my goodness! That is why I keep a pair of limb loppers by the henhouse door!
The problem with ceramic eggs is when the snake leaves with them and dies somewhere where you can't retrieve the egg...they are pricey depending on where you purchase them.
I've been pretty lucky with the trap.

 

[CLSranch]

The ceramic egg and light bulb is more for when I don't catch the snake in action. And I'm gone a lot for work for days or weeks, that's why I like setters. Ceramic or dozens of eggs that would be chicks. I should invest in a minnow trap just for this annual event.

 

[dunnmom]

Finally yesterday I caught a photo series of a huge male ringtail raccoon climbing up into the 6 foot tall chain link pen. Somehow he got inside the small coop and killed the 3 Buckeye hens and their New Hampshire cock! He only ate on two of them but decimated the four.
He avoided the trap set with tuna last night, but he will soon be history.
On a sad note our forever kitty Murdock passed over the Rainbow Bridge last night. He will be missed, but not forgotten. He was the best one eyed mouser, the best purr kitty, and garden companion.
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Sorry to hear about your kitty. Sounds like he was a sweetie. We had cats until the last passed about 2 years ago. Now we have mice and rats to contend with. There's a big yellow long-haired cat that chooses to sleep on our property, and we feed him occasionally, but it seems he has no hunting instinct whatsoever, or he could have sight or hearing problems. We'd take him in permanently, but he doesn't like people to get too close and will not be touched. His prerogative, though. Glad you figured out what took your chickens. I almost suggested it could be a fox. Even in the middle of OKC, there are foxes, even though people say there aren't, we've seen them. That is what happened to our neighbors flock. Got picked off one by one until they were all gone.