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debandchicks said:
SE PA (Sinking Spring). Looking to connect with others who share local interest in all things chicken/duck! Particularly would like to find another Mottled Java hen - heritage, - not from feed mills, et cetera.
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Welcome! Several of us are quite close to you.

I don't know of anyone locally that is breeding mottled javas. If you are really set on them, I am considering buying some chicks from Ideal Hatchery in TX and you could get a few chicks included with my order. Given their scarcity, I think you could consider a Java from a hatchery to be "heritage", these aren't like Rhode Island Reds or Barred Rocks, where the hatcheries have mass produced them into colored clones of a leghorn to improve productivity. Very few hatcheries bother with Java's.
 
Advice needed from the experienced. In the little town of Kennett Square, I transformed my son's old playset into a cute little henhouse with a large fenced in run. I have a privacy fence all around my back yard. After close to 3 years, I finally had a predator attack (other than my dog) and lost a little lavender orp pullet. I honestly thought it was a cat. Then I noticed digging around the edge of the henhouse. Raccoon! I thought and called up some wildlife people and looked for a Hav-a-hart trap. My next guess was opossum ....but now I am 99% sure I have RATS tunnelling under the henhouse. I put out poison (where the dogs and chickens and squirrels can't get it)--any other ideas? There are serious tunnels going under my hen house--thank goodness it has a wood floor--I wish now that I poured concrete!
 
To prevent tunneling, you can: lay chicken wire around the perimeter, or call a landscaping supplier for gravel to pour along the perimeter.
When the weather is nice, dig down six inches, and bury fencing along the run and coop. Meaning put the fencing straight down. Not burying it in a laying position.
You can buy metal flashing to put down under the coop. Make sure it’s covered to prevent slipping.
 
Rats are there to eat the chicken feed. I have never had them kill a healthy bird, though they will eat one that is already dead (or perhaps at death's door). If you remove their access to feed, they might go away, or they might become more predatory. I am planning to build a rat trap out of a large plastic trash can. There are you tube videos about how to build them, look for things like "best rat trap" or "mouse trap" to get some ideas.
 
:lol: Speaking of mice, I accidentally left a bag of hamster treats on top of the cage last night. Around 3:30, I heard a bag rustling, and a bunch of metallic banging. I thought maybe a mouse had gotten into the metal trashcan by the hamster cage. Instead, Teddy was hanging upside down from the top of the cage, and had chewed through the bag. There were treats everywhere!!
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