Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[stake]

Okay-------so what is to keep various mice and other rodents from just walking into the coop and self serve to the food bowls?

Are my gals in danger............if a rodent is in their coop............I kinda feel YES!

What do you do about this?

I have traps set outside the coop and run..............but................this may not be enough?

Lisa:

If its mice....they are chicken food....if rats or squirrels they'd eat the food...but they shouldn't be messing with the chooks....of course mice are night feeders and the chooks may be sleeping.....

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Annie, I am in Monroe county by Tannersville. I am 5 minutes from the Crossings Outlet stores.

Cool! I will be waving if we drive by!

My hubby just got a weird phone call. We have an ad on craigslist for 3 hens for sale. The person calls asking if we have roosters. Hubby said we do (we were going to process them this weekend but it rained). The guy says he wants an all black one and a black and brown one for eating. He wanted to know what they looked like and we send some pictures. He was really interested in what they looked like. If you are going to eat them why so interested in the color and pattern. Then he asked if we have Muscovy ducks for sale. Hubby said we have Muscovy ducks but they aren't for sale. No where in my ad did I say I had ducks for sale. We found that very odd. I hope he doesn't want to do anything horrible with the roosters. Does that phone conversation seem odd to anyone else?

I would love to buy one of your chooks if I vould convince the Hubs... But that does seem a bit fishy to me as well. Your gut instinct about situations is usually correct.

Barbiegirl, idk if it is related or not, but black and orange cats can't be adopted in October due to Halloween sacrifices.

Creepy!

Two babies this morning!

Congrats!

105 little yellow nuggets went into a brooder today..

I must be nuts, that means I will be processing in December,,,bbbrrrrrrrr...
Hope people want chicken for Christmas.

I will! First I have to pick up th current birds. Can you PM me your address so I can see if it's more sensible for us to stop pin the way back? (If you have them ready and don't mind. how much are they per lb? I forget what you said earlier...

Hey Auro:

Just checked my girl and one of the olive eggs has a 1/4" hole...tic,,,toc....saw the baby moving and he/she should be out and dry in a few hours...maybe then #2 willl make her move....

Whoop whoop!

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Speaking of creepy...

http://poconos.craigslist.org/grd/4672808445.html

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

@barbiegirl

Can you send me your CL ad please?

 

[emorems0]

Can I whine a little about being a renter? We rent a house on a 3/4 acre lot in a little development in a rural area...north west of Pittsburgh so still a pretty depressed area. The development was built in the 60s on terrible clay soils, and naturally, the septic systems are all failing... ours is failing especially hard since there are also wetlands in our back yard, just below the drain field. We've had issues since we moved in with water backing up into the basement; he came out and dug up the yard to check the pipes and had the septic tank pumped. That was 2 years ago... the tank is full to overflowing again. He knows about it and was here to see it leaking sewage water in the yard, but we haven't heard anything about it in weeks. Apparently the township keeps talking about plans to put in a central sewer (we already have public water) and so no one wants to spend the money to replace their septic systems if they're going to have to pay big bucks in a year to two to hook up to a sewer line. Personally, I don't see it happening any time soon for the simple fact that the people who live here don't have the money to tap in. Replacing the septic system probably wouldn't help much anyway considering our neighbor had to replace his last year to sell his house and the new owners are already having problems with their brand new septic system.

Why am I whining about this on a chicken group? Because I can't expand my chicken run until the septic issue is resolved... the tank is just on the other side of a big bush and weed area, the plan was to make the run go around the bush to let the chickens keep the weeds down. It wasn't until we were scouting out the run area that we saw the tank was overflowing. There is no way to get a fence through the bush to exclude the tank from the run and I can't let the chickens have access to it.

We've been tossing grass clippings in the run whenever DH mows but it doesn't last long and their run is back to bare dirt (mud lately with all this rain). I made a temporary little extension into the corn bed last week but they've already eaten that down and the extension also gives them access to our porch & steps which are super annoying to have covered in poop (apparently they like to hang out on the steps, and it shows!). They need more space, but I have nowhere else to go except around the bush & septic tank.

Their current run (without the corn bed) is about 80sq-ft with ~25sq-ft of that being under the coop. Technically, that should be enough for our birds (7 now since we lost two)... but it just doesn't feel like enough. Would it help to throw some sand down in there?

 

[dheltzel]

Can I whine a little about being a renter?

Consider the alternative - you could own that house and be under legal pressure to replace the septic system on your dime.
Being a homeowner means when stuff breaks, you get to pay for it immediately instead of in rent spread out over months or years.

Just a different viewpoint, the grass ain't necessarily greener over here -- in fact it's probably greenest over your septic tank right now

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Unfortunately, we lost the little yellow one somehow both chicks fell out of the nest box and the rear of the chickens style and killed it. I got out there in time to save the little black one. It's a bit heartbreaking. I was so excited for the little wheaten one I had to take the risk and move Cookie, even though her other two eggs haven't hatched yet. She's content in a small dog carrier right now, still covering her eggs and caring for her little baby. I'm quickly trying to throw together a small broody coop just big enough for 2 broody girls at a time with a divider down the middle. Hopefully I can get it done quickly since Cloud's brood is due on Thursday. In lighter news, one of Cookie's other eggs has pipped and the other is peeping

 

[chippysmom327]

My hubby just got a weird phone call. We have an ad on craigslist for 3 hens for sale. The person calls asking if we have roosters. Hubby said we do (we were going to process them this weekend but it rained). The guy says he wants an all black one and a black and brown one for eating. He wanted to know what they looked like and we send some pictures. He was really interested in what they looked like. If you are going to eat them why so interested in the color and pattern. Then he asked if we have Muscovy ducks for sale. Hubby said we have Muscovy ducks but they aren't for sale. No where in my ad did I say I had ducks for sale. We found that very odd. I hope he doesn't want to do anything horrible with the roosters. Does that phone conversation seem odd to anyone else?

I seem to remember someone telling me about a specific ethnic group that preferred dark feathered birds. Something to do with tradition? Nothing horrible.

That may have been me. One of my friends from school raises BAs. At the end of our local swaps tons of asian people come and buy everything except for light-legged birds. My friend told me they always have NO trouble selling the lorps because they have dark legs. Dark legs mean dark meat. They like that for some reason.

Two babies this morning!

Congrats! Sorry you lost the yellow one

 

[barbiegirl]

Unfortunately, we lost the little yellow one

somehow both chicks fell out of the nest box and the rear of the chickens style and killed it. I got out there in time to save the little black one. It's a bit heartbreaking. I was so excited for the little wheaten one

I had to take the risk and move Cookie, even though her other two eggs haven't hatched yet. She's content in a small dog carrier right now, still covering her eggs and caring for her little baby. I'm quickly trying to throw together a small broody coop just big enough for 2 broody girls at a time with a divider down the middle. Hopefully I can get it done quickly since Cloud's brood is due on Thursday. In lighter news, one of Cookie's other eggs has pipped and the other is peeping

Sorry for your loss I know how that feels. I had left my broody hen in with the general public and one of the chicks got out and killed by the older chickens. It's heart breaking.

I moved my 2 broodies this week so I wouldn't have that problem again and they stopped being broody and refused to sit on the eggs. I had to get the incubator up and going really quick. The eggs were cold and the incubator was cold (wasn't expecting them to go un-broody if that is a word) I hope that some hatch. Did candle and seen movement so I hope they will make it.

 

[stake]

Unfortunately, we lost the little yellow one

somehow both chicks fell out of the nest box and the rear of the chickens style and killed it. I got out there in time to save the little black one. It's a bit heartbreaking. I was so excited for the little wheaten one

I had to take the risk and move Cookie, even though her other two eggs haven't hatched yet. She's content in a small dog carrier right now, still covering her eggs and caring for her little baby. I'm quickly trying to throw together a small broody coop just big enough for 2 broody girls at a time with a divider down the middle. Hopefully I can get it done quickly since Cloud's brood is due on Thursday. In lighter news, one of Cookie's other eggs has pipped and the other is peeping

auro:

Sorry you lost one...have had similar experiences...this evening I went out to check on things and heard loud baby chirps...found #1 baby in the middle of the coop...placed her/him back under mom....a few minutes later the chirps quieted down...mom wouldn't have left the nest...imho pays to watch the hatches...