Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[stake]

The dog thing is something I am sort of torn about... it is awesome that the dogs can roam freely with the birds and I don't have to worry at all about them, and it is adorable to watch the interactions, and the dogs are even more protective of their 'friends' probably because of the amount of interaction they get.
But..... I worry that the birds will be inclined to not flee from canines as quickly as they should since they view ours as 'protectors'...will they know to be afraid if a stray roams through or will it be too late when they realize not every dog is like Mindy or Dillon? The rare times a stray dog has come near our place Mindy or Dillon have been there and taken care of the threat immediately, so the birds have yet to be exposed to the risks, but I realize that it will almost be an inevitable occurrence and we can only hope and pray that some deep instinct will kick in for the birds. We love letting them range in the woods behind us and the yard areas but the risks are certainly scary.

Fisher:

For my two cents....the alternate to having your birds trust your duo, would be a major PIA for Mindy and Dillon and have your birds startled....trust your guards, they can smell anything 50yds away and will investigate...the barking my dog does alerts the chooks(whether real or not) but always alerts...whether you duo would go toe to toe with an intruder is another question,,,,mine wouldn't

 

[Chaos18]

Does anyone nearby need a starter incubator? I have an old little giant incubator for sale for $20. It's far from the perfect incubator but worked great as a hatcher for me all spring. I just picked up a new hova bator 1602n to replace it as my hatcher next spring. Hubby doesn't know and most likely won't know the difference if I get rid of the old one lol.

If you still have this available in the spring (or after Christmas) I'll probably take it off your hands.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

If you still have this available in the spring (or after Christmas) I'll probably take it off your hands.

Sounds good

Wow, the wind is really howling here today :/ hope all my babies don't blow away!

We had a hunter stop by our house last night to warn us that they've seen a lot of bears right around our place over the past few days and to be careful and keep the kids and dogs close. They've seen at least 3 different ones, one being a mother with cubs. We've never actualy seen a bear here but I know they're here. A neighbor showed us a picture of a big one in his back yard while we were out at a baseball game one day. It's a bit scarey! I may have to start carrying my gun on me when I go outside, just to be careful.

 

[troyer]

Sounds good

Wow, the wind is really howling here today

hope all my babies don't blow away!

We had a hunter stop by our house last night to warn us that they've seen a lot of bears right around our place over the past few days and to be careful and keep the kids and dogs close. They've seen at least 3 different ones, one being a mother with cubs. We've never actualy seen a bear here but I know they're here. A neighbor showed us a picture of a big one in his back yard while we were out at a baseball game one day. It's a bit scarey! I may have to start carrying my gun on me when I go outside, just to be careful.

Take a dog with you as a warning scout if you can.

 

[stake]

Sounds good

Wow, the wind is really howling here today

hope all my babies don't blow away!

We had a hunter stop by our house last night to warn us that they've seen a lot of bears right around our place over the past few days and to be careful and keep the kids and dogs close. They've seen at least 3 different ones, one being a mother with cubs. We've never actualy seen a bear here but I know they're here. A neighbor showed us a picture of a big one in his back yard while we were out at a baseball game one day. It's a bit scarey! I may have to start carrying my gun on me when I go outside, just to be careful.

Auro:

There's only a few hand guns that have the nut to knock down an adult bear....please don't go out under armed.....be noisy,,,and anything short of a .45 240grain is too light...(even that load is marginal)...my two cents,,,(sorry if I come off preachy)

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Auro:

There's only a few hand guns that have the nut to knock down an adult  bear....please don't go out under armed.....be noisy,,,and anything short of a .45 240grain is too light...(even that load is marginal)...my two cents,,,(sorry if I come off preachy)

Lol, mostly for my own peace of mind. I have a 9 mm canik. Doubt it would be enough to take down a bear but it would hurt and maybe give me a chance to get away. Honestly, I doubt they'd come into our yard. They never have. Most likely because of the smell of the dogs.

   Take a dog with you as a warning scout if you can.

My dogs are all idiots lol. The one who actualy would stay with me and warn me is partially blind and mostly deaf. The only thing that works well on her is her nose (maybe that would be enough). The other two are old farts that I have to tie when I bring them out or they take off and do their own thing.

 

[dheltzel]

 

[Chaos18]

Lol, mostly for my own peace of mind. I have a 9 mm canik. Doubt it would be enough to take down a bear but it would hurt and maybe give me a chance to get away. Honestly, I doubt they'd come into our yard. They never have. Most likely because of the smell of the dogs.
My dogs are all idiots lol. The one who actualy would stay with me and warn me is partially blind and mostly deaf. The only thing that works well on her is her nose (maybe that would be enough). The other two are old farts that I have to tie when I bring them out or they take off and do their own thing.

A 9mm would just make it madder. If your going to take something out with you take BEAR SPRAY rather than going with something under powered. Also would work wonders on any two legged attackers (be they poultry or humanoid). Either that or just carry a chicken with you where ever you go and if a bear charges throw the chicken at it (to distract it) and run like heck.

 

[TillyPeeps]

A 9mm would just make it madder. If your going to take something out with you take BEAR SPRAY rather than going with something under powered. Also would work wonders on any two legged attackers (be they poultry or humanoid). Either that or just carry a chicken with you where ever you go and if a bear charges throw the chicken at it (to distract it) and run like heck.

I have a bear spray, but never tried to see if it works. I guess I should start to carry it with me, since my neighborhood is similar as Aurora's. Even when I lived in the old house surrounded by thousands of houses, a bear still came and destroyed my bird feeders. It's hard to believe that a bear could just wonder on city streets for months. Yes, it kept coming back for about 2 months. I never saw it myself, but my neighbor said it's there almost everyday.

 

[TillyPeeps]

I have a question: are all the green egg layers having blue and brown egg genes? There is a PURE breed Green-egg-layer chicken (Yes, that's their Chinese name.) that exists thousands of years and all of them lay green eggs. If they have both blue and brown egg genes, then at least 25% of them should lay brown eggs, right? Here is how they look like:

http://www.wanwan.com.tw/viewthread.php?tid=3201&extra=page=1

(Their eggs are the very uniform green color. If you scroll down see the pile of brown-green eggs, that's from British EEs for comparison.)

By the way, does any one know if I can find those chickens in USA? It would be fun to have one.