Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[Crickett]

Some questions please : 1. Are ducks harder to process than chickens?
2. If so, how much harder?
3. Are they cooked the same way?
4. What about eggs? I've heard they have a stronger flavor, and can be rubbery, is that true?
5. Would singeing be best to remove all the pin feathers and down?

 

[jajeanpierre]

I seem to have a fox problem and could do with some advice.

About two weeks ago something took a little Silkie hen not thirty feet from my back porch. It took the hen through a 6 inch x 6.5 inch opening in the fence (ordinary farm fence, feathers top and bottom of the opening and feathers on the other side of the fence).

The bantam flock--now 5 Silkie hens, a Silkie rooster, a Cochin rooster and a LF Polish free range in my back yard. Behind is brush. My neighbor behind/beside me told me she lost 20 chickens to a fox last year--maybe this spring. She has no dog; I have many.

While I was away for a week in the ten days after the Silkie hen was taken, two LF (and quite big birds) 7-month-old Ameraucana cockerels were taken.

I have a free range flock of large fowl, mostly Ameraucanas,in my front yard. The property is pretty much pie shaped. The "danger" area of bush runs along the south and east side of my back yard. The front yard chickens' coop/feeding area is near the east fence line with the meadow/bush behind.

I finally found the poof of feathers from the two LFcockerels. It seems one was cornered along the back fence where there were a lot of feathers, then a few feathers high up on the fence (I have about 36" of chicken wire along that part of the fence). There were three other poofs of that bird's feathers in three more places on the other side of the fence. I found one poof of feathers for the second cockerel in the same place as the other cockerel left his poofs of feathers.

Does that sound like a fox? What does a racoon kill look like? I found no blood and nothing other than feathers.

My neighbor told me she has seen a fox trotting up her driveway at noon. I got the impression that her sighting was associated with a kill.

How do you catch a fox? I plan to buy an extra large trap. My neighbor has not had any luck trapping this fox. I might try to train it to go into the trap with cat food. At least when I am training him to go near the trap, he will be getting fed and not be so inclined to go after my chickens.

I've been a basket case worrying about my chickens. The fox or whatever it is knows it can get an easy meal at my house and they aren't very well protected. I've been outside a lot, especially at dusk, and have had the dogs out a lot.

I intend to get a new coop and put a fenced yard around it so that I can put the chickens in a safe yard before they want to go to roost, but that might take a few months. That won't protect the backyard flock of mostly Silkies, who do not have the evasion skills of a large fowl with wings.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. A gun is not an option. If I actually catch the fox, I'm quite sure my neighbor will dispose of it.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Where are you posting from?

Any chicken with a crest on its head, feathers obscuring its vision, or having trouble running or flying is fox food for sure if a hungry fox comes around.

An electric fence about 4 foot high and with wires about 3 inches apart, alternating from top to bottom between a hot wire and a ground wire should convince any pesky foxes or maybe even stray neighbors to give your property a wide berth.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Where are you posting from?

Any chicken with a crest on its head, feathers obscuring its vision, or having trouble running or flying is fox food for sure if a hungry fox comes around.

An electric fence about 4 foot high and with wires about 3 inches apart, alternating from top to bottom between a hot wire and a ground wire should convince any pesky foxes or maybe even stray neighbors to give your property a wide berth.

I'm in Central Texas.

The Silkies are hatchery Silkies, so their top knot is almost non existent. The Polish have their top knots cut at the sides and front or tied up. The Silkies don't stand a chance with a predator because they basically have no wings. A winged Ameraucana can run faster and use its wings to jump/fly.

The Ameraicamas also try to roost 15 or 20 feet up in my trees at night and one night my son didn't get them down in time so they spent the night in the trees. I don't know if that was when they were killed. I count my chickens every night when I put them to bed, but no one else does. I was away for the week the two cockerels went missing so I don't know when they were killed. I had surgery on my hands around when the Silkie went missing and didn't take a head count one day. She was missing the next night.

I'm not sure how to make an electric fence work with my deer problem. My neighbor feeds the local starving deer, so I have up to 10 spending the night on my property. There are probably about 40 or 50 who make the corner of my property and my neighbor's home base. Everything on my property that is edible (including the "deer-proof" plants) have a fence around them which the deer regularly crash into and demolish. I don't think the electric netting will last even one night. The boundary between my property and my neighbors is where the fox or whatever is crossing into my property. It is also the fence the deer use to get in and out of my neighbor's property.

I'm thinking of tying 40 inch chicken wire to the fence and running a live strand or two just over top of that, but I have to worry about the deer getting hung up on it. I've cut a few deer down from my fence before I took down the top strand. Maybe an electric fence right next to the farm fence, but if I use chicken wire, the fox will just climb up the farm fence side and jump clear of the hot netting. It might get stung on the return trip, but that is a little late for my chickens. The hot fence will have to be really close to the farm fence or the deer will destroy it.

In the mean time, I'm outside a lot especially near dusk. Now that it is cool at night, I leave them in longer in the morning. Unfortunately, they don't go to bed early. I'm going to get some scratch and try to train them to go to bed early.

My neighbor says she hasn't had any luck trapping the fox. I'm going to try with a really big trap and bait the trap, first outside the trap to get the fox (or whatever it is) desensitized to the trap and then slowly moving the bait into the trap. I'll put the trap just outside my fence so my dogs/cat won't get into it. What kind of bait would you use for a fox or raccoon? I was thinking cat food or maybe sardines. I'll start leaving bowls of dry cat food out by the trap as a start. A well fed predator is not as likely to go to the trouble and risk hunting where there is a fence and dogs, one being a pit bull.

I think another attack on my chickens is imminent since I know I haven't lost a chicken since I came home Sunday evening. Unless it caught something else, it must be getting hungry and nothing can be easier to catch than a little Silkie hen. The two cockerels it took were very big birds and it took those in the last 11 or 12 days.

Thanks for any advice and suggestions.

 

[Phoenixxx]

I've had both foxes and raccoons. The foxes take the birds away leaving only feathers behind; raccoons eat them on the spot and leave a carcass behind.

 

[jajeanpierre]

I've had both foxes and raccoons. The foxes take the birds away leaving only feathers behind; raccoons eat them on the spot and leave a carcass behind.

I only found feathers--tail feathers and body feathers, no wing feathers. No blood, but maybe ants ate that. My thought was that the predator took the chickens away.

Any suggestions on how to trap a fox?

 

[Tomtommom]

I only found feathers--tail feathers and body feathers, no wing feathers. No blood, but maybe ants ate that. My thought was that the predator took the chickens away.

Any suggestions on how to trap a fox?

I've had that happen before.. No blood, just an explosion of feathers... found the bird cowering under the shed. A hawk attacked it. Against my expectation, I actually patched her back up. Had the same happen to another bird, patched her up too. Amazing what chickens can survive.








Several months later:




On the trapping subject, try repelling it with predator urine? You can buy bear, bobcat, wolf or just have a guy pee around the property. Foxes are usually cautious animals (unlike coyotes).

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Fur trappers use predictor urine to attract furbearing animals like foxes, and coyotes. I don't think for a New York minute that it will repel a fox, he will only be curious to see if the predator that left its urine scent behind also didn't leave a scrap or to of prey behind for brer fox to snack on. l

 

[jajeanpierre]

I've had that happen before.. No blood, just an explosion of feathers... found the bird cowering under the shed. A hawk attacked it. Against my expectation, I actually patched her back up. Had the same happen to another bird, patched her up too. Amazing what chickens can survive.

Are you sure that is a hawk wound? I think most hawks grab on the back nd squeeze with their talons, piercing the air sacs until the animal finally succumbs. (Falcons have a special notch in their beak so t hey can sever the spinal cord behind the head.) Until they start tearing the bird apart, the wounds tend to be puncture wounds, not gashes. At least that is my understanding. Also, they pluck out the feathers before they start eating (and the poor animal may still be alive). That looks more like a bite wound, having seen a few from my *!@&#$# Dachshunds. Did you see the attack?

 

[Crickett]

If you have men or pubescent males in your life, have them urinate at the place where the fox took the birds. Also get some hair from the local barber shop and sprinkle it there and various other places around your property. The urine will keep the fox away, the hair will keep the deer away.