post your chicken coop pictures here!

[perchie.girl]

going to try again on a different video.

deb

 

[Chicken Egg 17]

Um, would you like to come explain that to my dominant hens? The Anconas try, and succeed, to mount pretty much every other hen. They generally fail with the little Cubalayas, they are too fast. A couple of others do too. Many of my girls backs have messed up feathers though not to the extent of a roo overdoing. I also have a hen that crows, just the first 2 notes. She also whistles, bugles, squeals, etc. Sometimes she sounds like a chicken. Used to be a great layer but after the winter shutdown has only laid shell-less eggs   But since she still acts like herself I don't think she is in any discomfort. 


My food is suspended in the coop. The woodchucks love it   The water is in the coop as well, nipples in a pipe along one wall with a trough under to catch drips. It is usually full of shavings (chickens scratch don't you know) so never any water on the floor.

BTW, mice can jump quite a distance, a feeder hung low enough any chicken can get to it is no obstacle for a mouse.

Who said anything about combs, and do you mean your dominant hens mount the others isn't that like a dominance thing like turkeys do.

 

[Gundawg]

going to try again on a different video.

deb

I built 2 of those bucket traps and never caught a mouse with them my mice either are too smart or too dumb but either way I have a barn with plenty of mice and it did not work for me.

 

[NanaNeen]

Expansion day. Our prefab coop is getting a run expansion, 32"x16'. I think my 6 white leghorns will then be comfy. Yes I know about chicken math, but for now comfy

 

[bruceha2000]

Who said anything about combs, and do you mean your dominant hens mount the others isn't that like a dominance thing like turkeys do.

I'm confused! Combs?? I didn't say anything about combs.

And yes it is a dominance thing. For some reason they seem to think the lower ranked girls need frequent reminders of their status even though they never challenge it. And no it is not a true "mount" since they aren't trying to have sex with them but they are on their backs, the lower girl pancaked out in a squat and their back feathers get pulled up by the dominant girl's claws.

I made a bucket trap for mice in the house (the humane kind, no drowning in the water). Paper covering the top with a small hole. Some BOSS in the bottom. Worked great for a few mice (or maybe the same mouse a few times since I released them on the far side of the barn) then they stopped falling (no pun intended) for it. If it was the same mouse returning from its vacation it learned. If not, maybe the other mice learned that the white bucket, food or no food, was a "not coming back" event not worth the food.

 

[Sylvester017]

Um, would you like to come explain that to my dominant hens? The Anconas try, and succeed, to mount pretty much every other hen. They generally fail with the little Cubalayas, they are too fast. A couple of others do too. Many of my girls backs have messed up feathers though not to the extent of a roo overdoing. I also have a hen that crows, just the first 2 notes. She also whistles, bugles, squeals, etc. Sometimes she sounds like a chicken. Used to be a great layer but after the winter shutdown has only laid shell-less eggs

But since she still acts like herself I don't think she is in any discomfort.


My food is suspended in the coop. The woodchucks love it

The water is in the coop as well, nipples in a pipe along one wall with a trough under to catch drips. It is usually full of shavings (chickens scratch don't you know) so never any water on the floor.

BTW, mice can jump quite a distance, a feeder hung low enough any chicken can get to it is no obstacle for a mouse.

4 x their length nose to tail

Best mouse trap is a bucket with about three inches of water in the bottom

wont let me post another video so here is the link to Youtube

the water at the bottom floats them a bit so they cant get a good spring.

I have had one old timer suggest you dont need the can with peanut butter... just fill the bucket higher and sprinkle feed on the top...

deb

going to try again on a different video.

deb

I built 2 of those bucket traps and never caught a mouse with them my mice either are too smart or too dumb but either way I have a barn with plenty of mice and it did not work for me.

HAS ANYONE EVER TRIED THIS COMMERCIALLY SOLD "BEST MOUSETRAP EVER" SEEN ON THIS VIDEO - THERE IS ALSO A "BEST MOUSETRAP EVER" WEBSITE TO BUY IT AT ABOUT $20 - THINK I'LL EXPERIMENT WITH ONE TO SAVE ME TIME AND MONEY BUILDING MY OWN:

 

[cabinchicky]

going to try again on a different video. deb

I built 2 of those bucket traps and never caught a mouse with them my mice either are too smart or too dumb but either way I have a barn with plenty of mice and it did not work for me.

We like the bucket trap very much! We used a dowel rod for the bottle to spin on and put a small amount of peanut butter in a single line around it. Caught so many mice during harvest time last year. Keep sticky traps and electronic traps inside Stumpys coop as well. Cannot place traps in Fester's coop since it is all open for them.

 

[Sylvester017]

We like the bucket trap very much! We used a dowel rod for the bottle to spin on and put a small amount of peanut butter in a single line around it. Caught so many mice during harvest time last year. Keep sticky traps and electronic traps inside Stumpys coop as well. Cannot place traps in Fester's coop since it is all open for them.

We had a lot of luck with large sticky traps (we didn't like the Tom's brand). The larger sticky traps catch both rats and mice very well and almost instantly overnight. We forgot about a sticky trap in the garage and later DH found a dried up mouse in it. Large raised garden beds attract rodents and a sticky trap at each corner along the raised bed wall seems to do the trick in catching rodents almost immediately. Unfortunately we caught a sparrow in the early morning when we didn't go out early enough to remove the traps. We put out the sticky traps after the chickens go to roost and pick them up before letting the chickens out at dawn. What I don't like about sticky traps is that an awful lot of insects muck up the trap and we can't save the traps for more than a day or two use. That's why I'm very interested in the commercially sold "Best Mousetrap Ever" brand for $20. I can put the bucket trap in a pail of water after capturing the rodents rather than releasing them back into the wild. It probably catches rats too since someone caught a chipmunk in one of these.

http://www.bestmousetrapever.com/index.cfm

 

[cabinchicky]

We like the bucket trap very much! We used a dowel rod for the bottle to spin on and put a small amount of peanut butter in a single line around it. Caught so many mice during harvest time last year. Keep sticky traps and electronic traps inside Stumpys coop as well. Cannot place traps in Fester's coop since it is all open for them.

We had a lot of luck with large sticky traps (we didn't like the Tom's brand).  The larger sticky traps catch both rats and mice very well and almost instantly overnight. We forgot about a sticky trap in the garage and later DH found a dried up mouse in it.  Large raised garden beds attract rodents and a sticky trap at each corner along the raised bed wall seems to do the trick in catching rodents almost immediately.  Unfortunately we caught a sparrow in the early morning when we didn't go out early enough to remove the traps.  We put out the sticky traps after the chickens go to roost and pick them up before letting the chickens out at dawn.  What I don't like about sticky traps is that an awful lot of insects muck up the trap and we can't save the traps for more than a day or two use.  That's why I'm very interested in the commercially sold "Best Mousetrap Ever" brand for $20.  I can put the bucket trap in a pail of water after capturing the rodents rather than releasing them back into the wild.  It probably catches rats too since someone caught a chipmunk in one of these.

http://www.bestmousetrapever.com/index.cfm

We have had only 1 rat, thankfully! It was male and not full grown yet. We seen it one night putting the kids to bed. Then set traps even a leg hold one. Hubby finally got it with a pellet gun after sitting out there for almost 2 hours. I do see my birds catch mice too, talk about mayhem when that happens! Brahmas catch them most the time of see it.

 

[Sylvester017]

We have had only 1 rat, thankfully! It was male and not full grown yet. We seen it one night putting the kids to bed. Then set traps even a leg hold one. Hubby finally got it with a pellet gun after sitting out there for almost 2 hours. I do see my birds catch mice too, talk about mayhem when that happens! Brahmas catch them most the time of see it.

Only time we witnessed chickens catching mice in the yard far from the coop was a Leghorn who found a nest of 3 pink babies and tore them apart, and our littlest Silkie who caught a small mouse and had all the other chickens chasing after her - she was NOT going to give up her catch! I hope this means our chickens are always catching other rodents when we're not there to watch! I was thinking about getting a cat but with chickens doing the job I won't need a feline LOL!