Red Laced Cornish X and project talk (pics p. 8)

[SteveH]

Quote:
I had to look up it, because it's much smaller than the Red Tailed Hawks I usually see working the open fields where I used to live but simillar in color. I do think it's a Cooper's, but they've been here all summer. I usually just see them crossing the openings to fly into the timber.......................... seen one avoiding crossing over the open ground, where my chickens are at, all year...................... but this one is coming in very low from the brushy timber on a straight line for the pens and coop.

 

[kfacres]

Steve, I'm sure you know this... You really need to put a top on that pen... I'd hate to see you lose any of the precious LF Cornish birds...

Heck Steve, you buy the supplies, and buy me a pair of those pullets we've been talking about from up north... and I'll come up to put the top on for you as payment, and build whatever else breeding pens you might need... I like building fence, and bird breeding pens..

Actually, I just finished my pen for the pair of turkeys and the guineas. Hopefully it won't get too cold with just the two pairs in there this winter. I'd really like to be able to free range these birds, or atleast some of them; but with as much as I have invested in them- as little time as I'm hope; and as close as we live to the road... I simpily cannot take the chance.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
That's good news, and I hope you share the experience with us.

I can't even seem to keep mine safe. Its turned out it wasn't an owl that got my favorite Aseel. I've lost two CX pullets; one while I was at the weight pull Sunday and the latest yesterday while I was feeding others in a pen on the other side of the place. I heard the others screaming, and got there just in time to see it start feeding on a fresh kill. This morning it was back, sitting on the fence waiting for the chickens to come back out of hiding in the coop.

I hate losing birds to a predator.

It did not take me long to learn that bantams and half-grown large fowl have to be kept fully protected at my place. If a pen wasn't covered over the top a hawk would get one sure as the sun would come up.

When I built my fixed yard years ago I was determined not to lose any more birds like that so I put up my "circus tent".

It's just a tall center pole with electric fence wire (not energized) radiating from the center out to the perimeter fence. The gap between the wires is 12-14 inches at the fence. Now even the crows won't come into the yard.

That mulberry tree has grown considerably since that photo was taken so I need to take down some of the wires, trim a few branches and rerun them. There's a hot wire around the top of the perimeter fence to keep climbing predators out such as old Brer Coon.

I heard that DC cockerel trying to crow again this morning. They make me chuckle when they first start trying. I think the toms in the pen with him were laughing at him too.

 

[SteveH]

A.T. Hagan :

Quote:
That's good news, and I hope you share the experience with us.

I can't even seem to keep mine safe. Its turned out it wasn't an owl that got my favorite Aseel. I've lost two CX pullets; one while I was at the weight pull Sunday and the latest yesterday while I was feeding others in a pen on the other side of the place. I heard the others screaming, and got there just in time to see it start feeding on a fresh kill. This morning it was back, sitting on the fence waiting for the chickens to come back out of hiding in the coop.

I hate losing birds to a predator.

It did not take me long to learn that bantams and half-grown large fowl have to be kept fully protected at my place. If a pen wasn't covered over the top a hawk would get one sure as the sun would come up.

When I built my fixed yard years ago I was determined not to lose any more birds like that so I put up my "circus tent".

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-...ed%2520hen%2520yard%25202006%2520-%252003.jpg

It's just a tall center pole with electric fence wire (not energized) radiating from the center out to the perimeter fence. The gap between the wires is 12-14 inches at the fence. Now even the crows won't come into the yard.

That mulberry tree has grown considerably since that photo was taken so I need to take down some of the wires, trim a few branches and rerun them. There's a hot wire around the top of the perimeter fence to keep climbing predators out such as old Brer Coon.

I heard that DC cockerel trying to crow again this morning. They make me chuckle when they first start trying. I think the toms in the pen with him were laughing at him too.​

That's a better set up than mine, but this bird is sitting on the fence and dropping through an opening, and even tore through some nylon bird netting to get in the coop and kill the Aseel...................... making me think it was an owl. It was in the coop Sunday when I got home, repeatedly trying to fly through the netting to escape. It finally escaped though a small opening. The fence has 4 hot wires, two at the bottom and two more towards the top, that have so far kept ground predators out.

ETA: The aseel wasn't big, but the CX it's killed are several times its size.

 

[Tracydr]

Speaking of predators, I seem to be missing two of my Easter Eggers, about 16-18 weeks old. Ive had a lot of feral cats in the yard lately. Can a cat actually carry off a 4 pound chicken, over a 6 foot wall fence? There is no sign of a struggle, the birds are just gone. I think it must be happening shortly after roosting on the few nights that I've been a little late closing the coop because some of the chickens have taken to roosying in the trees with the bantams.

 

[Minniechickmama]

sounds like an owl

 

[SteveH]

Quote:
If the EE are flying out of the pen, I think it more likely they were killed outside of the pen than carried over the wall.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
That's why I elected to use wire. They can't break it and the spacing even at its widest point is too small for them to be able to get out again because their wing spread is too wide. Put a stop to raptors killing birds and the crows stealing eggs out of the nest boxes. Plus the wire lasts a lot longer than any sort of plastic does in the Florida sun.

For my rooster pen I'm seriously thinking of using six foot chainlink then running 2x4 welded wire over a ridgepole to cover the top to create a pen that no predators can get into without having to use electric fencing.

 

[SteveH]

A.T. Hagan :

Quote:
That's why I elected to use wire. They can't break it and the spacing even at its widest point is too small for them to be able to get out again because their wing spread is too wide. Put a stop to raptors killing birds and the crows stealing eggs out of the nest boxes. Plus the wire lasts a lot longer than any sort of plastic does in the Florida sun.

For my rooster pen I'm seriously thinking of using six foot chainlink then running 2x4 welded wire over a ridgepole to cover the top to create a pen that no predators can get into without having to use electric fencing.

My pens were all set up with the knowledge this place was only temporary; I know now I have to move by January instead of another few years. Hopefully I can find another home and get a better set-up by winter; in the mean while I have fully covered tractors to use. Evidently, at least for now, the culprit has decided the difficult experiences it's had in escaping are deterring another attack.​

 

[kfacres]

Quote:
That's why I elected to use wire. They can't break it and the spacing even at its widest point is too small for them to be able to get out again because their wing spread is too wide. Put a stop to raptors killing birds and the crows stealing eggs out of the nest boxes. Plus the wire lasts a lot longer than any sort of plastic does in the Florida sun.

For my rooster pen I'm seriously thinking of using six foot chainlink then running 2x4 welded wire over a ridgepole to cover the top to create a pen that no predators can get into without having to use electric fencing.

My pens were all set up with the knowledge this place was only temporary; I know now I have to move by January instead of another few years. Hopefully I can find another home and get a better set-up by winter; in the mean while I have fully covered tractors to use. Evidently, at least for now, the culprit has decided the difficult experiences it's had in escaping are deterring another attack.

I know of a place just down the road where you could put the Cornish and the Aseel away for storage for the winter... As long as you pay the feed bill, and I keep the eggs...