Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

LOL! I know you are going to be awake at two in the morning, checking on them. It happens!
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Oh no! I'm so sorry
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I hope you get the creature
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So Rory, that's terrible. Do you have a replacement Roo in the works?


Oh no! That's terrible. Be careful to protect yourself too, in case the predetor is a really dangerous one.


Oh my gosh Martha, that's horrible. Foxes were one of the hardest things I ever battled here. They hardly ever leave a trace unless they have too. I didn't know what I was dealing with until I put a game camera out and got a few pictures of him stalking around at night while everything was closed up. Nothing worked! we tried live traps, leg traps. After he realized the birds were out of reach at night, he started to come in broad daylight. I ended up moving the bantam coop very close to the back door and one morning he was out there, circling it. Well, we left a gun by the door too and got him right there. I almost gave up on poultry right there, foxes are horrible. Raccoons are dull enough to step on leg traps or wander in live traps so we can dispatch them quickly or relocate them far away. But foxes are so smart...


Old Trappers saying:
Foxes are hard to catch but easy to hold.
Coons are easy to catch but hard to hold.
You probably won't catch them by just throwing steel in the ground.Check youtube for different fox sets.It can be done if done right!


So Sorry B, its an awful feeling.....


Thanks everyone for your kind words. It helps.



I did find feathers on Sunday morning, the good news is that they were outside of our property. The birds had taken to drifting East of our property onto the 200 acre farm next door scratching through the soy field. Bella (my dog) can not get to the field, which brings me lots of relief as I believe she was doing her job like a good girl. I've been keeping the pens by that property line closed up until I can figure out how to keep the birds ON our property.


Other good news is that Keekay the counter chick is doing well and her eye (which had been swollen shut for a few days) is open and seems to work, also, she's looking like a pullet so HOO RAY!
 
Yes, I need to know too!

Glad your little chick is doing better!

I usually search Amazon, eBay and Walmart.com to see who has the best deal. Zoho seems to sell on all of them, some of the other sellers might be only some places and offer better prices. If you need it fast, pay attention to how they are shipping it, sometimes it's cheaper because it's coming via the mule train or something.
 
173! Lots of happy costumers. I thought your bielefelders have the worst hatch rate, Welsummer seems even worse. I thought it's because of inbreeding, but many other breeders have good hatch rate even when inbreeding. So it's many depends on individual roos?

By the way, every chick is doing great. The Rhodebar, Rhodefelder, and sexlink girls will fly on my hand or arm themselves for cuddling. Molly the regular CCL will let me pet her. Dolly the Rees CCL and Penny the Welbar are more flighty and only come to get treats from my hand. Of course, I didn't handle Penny too much since she is so tiny and was not doing well.

I have some theories about the fertility. I had good hatches before, so maybe the incubating conditions favor certain breeds like Legbars. All those pens have multiple roos, so maybe some contention for mating rights? But the Legbars have 2 roos and they hatch well.

Seems less about fertility and more about hatchability, so maybe diet or other conditions of the parents. I started giving more treats recently (little more daylight after work and loitering in the pens is more enjoyable now than when it was 8 degrees!). Plus, I recently was gifted with some bags of treats (my chickens are delighted, BTW, thank you).

I want to focus on making some smaller chicken tractors suitable for small breeding groups. Once I can get those special birds out on grass, I think they will perk up a lot.
 
I have some theories about the fertility. I had good hatches before, so maybe the incubating conditions favor certain breeds like Legbars. All those pens have multiple roos, so maybe some contention for mating rights? But the Legbars have 2 roos and they hatch well.

Seems less about fertility and more about hatchability, so maybe diet or other conditions of the parents. I started giving more treats recently (little more daylight after work and loitering in the pens is more enjoyable now than when it was 8 degrees!). Plus, I recently was gifted with some bags of treats (my chickens are delighted, BTW, thank you).

I want to focus on making some smaller chicken tractors suitable for small breeding groups. Once I can get those special birds out on grass, I think they will perk up a lot.
I'm glad they like it.
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Hope they'll do better job to give you more healthy happy chicks. I don't know why Penny doesn't like mealworms when others are fighting for them. At least she likes scrambled eggs and fish and start to hang out with the other girls.
 

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