Surviving Minnesota!

[BantyChooks]

That emoji is a new favorite Banty. LOL

...Naw he might get stinky.

It's winter. Unless you moved to the banana belt, he won't stink for months.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

That's true. This winter he might even get freeze dried.

Jeesh.

 

[BantyChooks]

That's true. This winter he might even get freeze dried.

Jeesh.

I was tempted to nail the dead mink above my coop door last year, but I figured that was a tad too psychopathic despite my justifying hate for the wretched beast.

 

[Bogtown Chick]

DH is skinning and tanning this thing even though it has 6 holes in it. (Foxes dont go down too easily) They are so pretty.

I really think he's been working on my mouse population all winter, mostly. Which seems to be down a ton. No mouse poop in the feed. Just that besides the mice he likes my chickens as well....dangit. Why can't we work together here?!

 

[Bogtown Chick]

View attachment 1298414



Holy crap! And this is a junvenile! Winner Winner!

 

[Elise Ferguson]

So if a person with a fairly large coop and only 4 Brahmas wanted to maybe pick up some random chicks this spring would any of these breeds be a big hell no:

Polish White Crested
Spitzhauben
Lavender Orp
Barnevelder
Silver Laced Wyan

Ahh crap as I'm looking at the schedule I'm seeing that only the polish and the silver laced are marked as pullet and the rest are straight run and I do not need more than the one rooster I have. Dangit and I kinda wanted a runner duck, the husband says "what are you gonna do with a duck?"

 

[BantyChooks]

"what are you gonna do with a duck?"

Hug it!

 

[BantyChooks]

So if a person with a fairly large coop and only 4 Brahmas wanted to maybe pick up some random chicks this spring would any of these breeds be a big hell no:

Polish White Crested
Spitzhauben
Lavender Orp
Barnevelder
Silver Laced Wyan

Ahh crap as I'm looking at the schedule I'm seeing that only the polish and the silver laced are marked as pullet and the rest are straight run and I do not need more than the one rooster I have. Dangit and I kinda wanted a runner duck, the husband says "what are you gonna do with a duck?"

Polish are dummies, but if you like that kind of thing, then go for it... I don't like hatchery SLWs, they're mean in my experience and in that of several others. Still, birds are birds, not cookies from a cookie cutter.

 

[bobbi-j]

I was tempted to nail the dead mink above my coop door last year, but I figured that was a tad too psychopathic despite my justifying hate for the wretched beast.

I had trouble with mink last year, too. Caught one in the live trap that we set inside the coop, right at the pop door opening. (DH said there was "NO WAY it was going to work...") Later in the summer, another one got into the coop. Driving down the road one day, I saw a mink headed right to our grove. I ran over it yelling, "I GOT YOU, YOU CHICKEN KILLING VARMINT!!!!" DH calmly reached over and feld my forehead. (I usually try to avoid running animals over.)

The runs attached to my coop have 2x4" welded wire. They are 12'x16'. Hardware cloth is too expensive to cover them, so I'm going to try a couple of layers of chicken wire over the welded wire this year. I also have to figure out how the mink got into my locked coop one night. Pop door and people door were both shut. No holes that I know of. The only thing I can think of is, it maybe was able to pull the people door out far enough to squeeze in. There have been no chickens on our place since Nov. so hopefully the varmints have completely forgotten that they were ever here.

 

[BantyChooks]

DH calmly reached over and feld my forehead. (I usually try to avoid running animals over.)

I would do the exact same thing.