Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[BullChick]

That makes me want to seriously just cry And to think, none of this was ever even considered when we were in school as kids.

I know. Fire drills were the only thing, and not scary to most. In Ohio, we had tornado drills. They liked to do them as students were arriving or switching classes. You went to the nearest classroom, and hid in a doorway or under a desk. You knew when they were coming through. I tried to be near the special education room. Those poor kids were so terrified! I “adopted” one girl that just couldn’t cope. That was a case of “couldn’t be helped”, but it makes me think. The poor kids in special ed now! I was going to be a Special Education teacher. That would be so difficult now!

 

[User495506]

That's so upsetting! I hope she can get that ordinance changed! We'd be in trouble if they said that here. Or coop is MAYBE 20 feet from the property line but it's only an occasional neighbor who really could care less about them. My coop isn't movable but you better believe there would be a new one, exactly 100' from the line. Do you have the link to the Facebook page she started?

it's called Dickinson Township Community Members want Backyard Chickens! I believe the url is https://www.facebook.com/groups/393092157782314/

 

[chickachickayea]

Who wants to play 'identify that track'?

I checked our chicken cam while out of the house last night and noticed the girls looked a bit spooked. I thought maybe it was because of the wind, but I was on my way home so I didn't worry too much. I got home and went out with my flashlight and looked around and then under the shed, because I saw little tracks leading up to it. Now... I'll be honest, I have seen the same tracks before, and figured it's one of the neighboring farm cats because they look like cat tracks. We've been known to have a few hanging around but they've never caused a problem. I usually find the tracks after snowfall that go across our yard, around our house and all over. Anyways, last night I kneel down in front of the shed and look under, and see it's tail. It was cold and windy and what I think I saw was a coarse, bushy long tail - not something cat-like. At first I thought it was a skunk and panicked a little because we've had several of those around, our dog can attest to that... But the tail wasn't dark black, it was more dark grey. I ran around to the back but whatever it was was gone.

So disclaimer: when we put the shed in over the summer, we didn't secure the bottom very well, which is very apparent to me now considering I found the same animal tracks inside the run this morning. So I am keeping the shed door closed for today, not that they'd go out in this cold and leftover snow anyway!

So here's some photos I have to help... Some are not exactly the best, apologies!

These were taken at the beginning of the month, I found them unusual as I hadn't seen them before, but haven't seen similar tracks since:

TIA!

 

[BullChick]

Looks like raccoon to me.

 

[worldbiker]

Who wants to play 'identify that track'?

I checked our chicken cam while out of the house last night and noticed the girls looked a bit spooked. I thought maybe it was because of the wind, but I was on my way home so I didn't worry too much. I got home and went out with my flashlight and looked around and then under the shed, because I saw little tracks leading up to it. Now... I'll be honest, I have seen the same tracks before, and figured it's one of the neighboring farm cats because they look like cat tracks. We've been known to have a few hanging around but they've never caused a problem. I usually find the tracks after snowfall that go across our yard, around our house and all over. Anyways, last night I kneel down in front of the shed and look under, and see it's tail. It was cold and windy and what I think I saw was a coarse, bushy long tail - not something cat-like. At first I thought it was a skunk and panicked a little because we've had several of those around, our dog can attest to that... But the tail wasn't dark black, it was more dark grey. I ran around to the back but whatever it was was gone.

So disclaimer: when we put the shed in over the summer, we didn't secure the bottom very well, which is very apparent to me now considering I found the same animal tracks inside the run this morning. So I am keeping the shed door closed for today, not that they'd go out in this cold and leftover snow anyway!

So here's some photos I have to help... Some are not exactly the best, apologies!
View attachment 1251412

These were taken at the beginning of the month, I found them unusual as I hadn't seen them before, but haven't seen similar tracks since:

View attachment 1251416 View attachment 1251418 View attachment 1251420 View attachment 1251421

TIA!

raccoon

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

 

[FluffyButt789]

raccoon
View attachment 1251436

Actually looks like a mink to me when comparing the tracks to that chart.

 

[emorems0]

I think the bottom photo looks like a raccoon, but the others do not... depending on the size maybe mink or fox. Raccoon prints will look like flat little hands, they won't show separate/individual pads. I had raccoon prints all around my coops the other week, they were perfect little hands with claws.

 

[chickachickayea]

Looks like raccoon to me.

raccoon
View attachment 1251436

Actually looks like a mink to me when comparing the tracks to that chart.

I think the bottom photo looks like a raccoon, but the others do not... depending on the size maybe mink or fox. Raccoon prints will look like flat little hands, they won't show separate/individual pads. I had raccoon prints all around my coops the other week, they were perfect little hands with claws.

Thanks everyone for the responses. I am thinking due to the size and number of digits on the tracks it might be a weasel... Ugh. We also have a squirrel family, but they generally stick to our garage eaves. Hardware cloth stapled around the underneath should do the trick, right? I might set the camera up outside the coop for tonight, but it's not built for the outdoors, so I'm not sure yet...

I took another picture of the other tracks around our house, but I'm fairly certain they belong to a cat.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

There's nothing more frustrating than having the itch to throw together a new pen, having pretty much all the materials, getting bundled up and going out to get to work...and the drill dies I may have to go buy myself a new drill lol.