Swedish Flower Hen Thread

[RedRidge]

I am wondering if anyone would be interested in a dozen egg swap with me? I seem to only be hatching the Black/Choc. chicks I have only gotten other colors a couple of times and if I lose any its always them. I would really like to have more nd different colors.

Oh wow... I just noticed you aren't too far from me.
I have no idea what I have... but I have 7 gunnar babies.
Looks like some mille fleur, some red, some blue...
Won't have eggs til next spring, but keep me in mind... a swap would be great!

 

[ki4got]

Relocating most wildlife is illegal here, and honestly, it's not a great idea anywhere. Many wild animals will travel back "home" unless you move them many, many miles. They carry diseases as well. Coons are the top rabies carrier in my state. They carry fleas and ticks.

I think drowning is awful, particularly with my veterinary training...but...obviously I can't wait until morning to have DNR come take it. Once caught, this coon has to be promptly removed since he knows how to escape traps and is already known to kill poultry. That pretty much leaves that as my only option. we have a 150 gallon trough or a 90 gallon trash can. Creek is too shallow and at the bottom of a hill I don't fancy carrying a heavy trap with an enraged wild animal in down through the trees. I thought about dry ice or vinegar/baking soda, but the volume needed is quite large to fill a trash bag large enough to fit the trap, if its claws don't tear the plastic. And I don't have a way to store dry ice for several nights until I catch it again.

I am vaccinated for rabies, so I'm relatively safe for that, and I have handled many wild animals in my career

I am not fussed about handling the trap with a critter inside. I'm more fussed about the monster escaping again! Bought a new trap with a different system, and I am looking into having the trap I have repaired; it has a lwarranty, apparently. It did something to the trap pan, so you can't set it again, when it managed to escape.

I don't like drowning either, but shotting it inside the trap is likely to damage the trap, which in this case, is more valuable to me than a coon's suffering after all he did to the birds...

the drowning's fairly quick too, so you can reset the trap sooner than later... I had one possum 'come back' after 5 minutes in the bucket, so the next time he spent an hour in there. didn't come back from that one.

 

[ChickNmamma]

Jerk ESCAPED the trap last night. He didn't damage the trap, like the door isn't bent or anything. I'll see if the kids can figure out how he did it. I sure can't.

I was going to call DNR in my state and basically tell a lie, "I was trying to trap a stray cat that has been tearing up the trash (which is true; I have seen one in the trash) and I caught this coon. I have small kids and poultry and I don't want coon poop on my deck because it's sooo dangerous. Please come get it. Pretty please."

If I get him again (not likely, as now he is smart to traps), he is dead as soon as I find him. It won't be pretty.

I'll bait the trap tonight with fish and marshmallows.

ETA: thanks for all the offers of birds! I still have 6-7 SFH pullets outside, three of whom should begin laying soon, and I still have 5 roosters (one committed suicide by choosing to sleep outside, 3 others were killed in the recent attacks); inside, I have a small flock of chicks, tentatively sexed as 2 roosters and one pullet with one undetermined. So while this is a setback, it wasn't a complete disaster like some terrible stories I have read. But if you know of anyone with buff or buff barred bantam Cochins, I am looking for eggs (I have some broody hens) or pullets to replace the Cochins. The surviving roos are buff barred; the double barred and mottled were the ones that were killed.

Relocating most wildlife is illegal here, and honestly, it's not a great idea anywhere. Many wild animals will travel back "home" unless you move them many, many miles. They carry diseases as well. Coons are the top rabies carrier in my state. They carry fleas and ticks.

I think drowning is awful, particularly with my veterinary training...but...obviously I can't wait until morning to have DNR come take it. Once caught, this coon has to be promptly removed since he knows how to escape traps and is already known to kill poultry. That pretty much leaves that as my only option. we have a 150 gallon trough or a 90 gallon trash can. Creek is too shallow and at the bottom of a hill I don't fancy carrying a heavy trap with an enraged wild animal in down through the trees. I thought about dry ice or vinegar/baking soda, but the volume needed is quite large to fill a trash bag large enough to fit the trap, if its claws don't tear the plastic. And I don't have a way to store dry ice for several nights until I catch it again.

I am vaccinated for rabies, so I'm relatively safe for that, and I have handled many wild animals in my career

I am not fussed about handling the trap with a critter inside. I'm more fussed about the monster escaping again! Bought a new trap with a different system, and I am looking into having the trap I have repaired; it has a lwarranty, apparently. It did something to the trap pan, so you can't set it again, when it managed to escape.

The smart coon can get out of a trap by charging the have-a-heart door until it pushes back open. I caught one in the middle of the night - watched it charge the door a couple of times and almost re-open the door so I put a wire holding the door closed (at the outer edge) - that dang coon BENT the trap door trying to open it (It didn't work and he was "re-clocated" 25 miles away over by the big river in the forestry area). He also bent the trip wire so I couldn't reset the trap, I had to fix that.

Drowning is not awful. I almost died by drowning when I was a youngster and it is very peaceful near the end, like going to sleep. The panicky feeling doesn't last long and if you don't understand what is going on you don't panic. There was no pain that I can recall. I have drowned skunks that were going after my chickens/eggs, better than me being sprayed - and they never even got upset enough to release the oils. I have always used the trash cans. That way I can clean them out from the oils off the skunk's fur. Just make sure the trap fits into the trash can almost completely submerged and to put the end with the animal to the bottom so they can't get above the water - and leave them in there for an hour or so. I put a skunk in one time, thought he was gone - took him out and he came back to life. The neighbor cut his head off with the shovel before I could figure if I wanted to grab him and try it again...

It's hard to kill something, but if it is killing your animals you need to protect them. You are right - once they get the taste for domestic animals you need to get rid of them. Too bad you don't have anybody there that wants to eat THEM!

 

[ki4got]

It's hard to kill something, but if it is killing your animals you need to protect them. You are right - once they get the taste for domestic animals you need to get rid of them. Too bad you don't have anybody there that wants to eat THEM!

with all the diseases they carry, I wouldn't WANT to eat them. I won't even let the dog nibble. they go down the road for the buzzards to play with. (off the side of a local bridge, onto a wide creek bank.)

 

[HaplessRunner]

Relocating most wildlife is illegal here, and honestly, it's not a great idea anywhere. Many wild animals will travel back "home" unless you move them many, many miles. They carry diseases as well. Coons are the top rabies carrier in my state. They carry fleas and ticks.

As I said before, SunnySkies, I am sorry for your loss. With respect to Maryland, the government is always in your business. Common sense solutions to things are always few and far between. Your best bet is to just kill the raccoon, dispose of the remains, and move forward.

 

[Raven1]

Oh wow... I just noticed you aren't too far from me.
I have no idea what I have... but I have 7 gunnar babies.
Looks like some mille fleur, some red, some blue...
Won't have eggs til next spring, but keep me in mind... a swap would be great!

I live in Carthage but work in Sparta so probably closer than you thought! I will for sure keep you in mind for next Spring. Hope to find a trade for now also.
You have a very nice website, are your Dexters beef bred or milk bred?

 

[RedRidge]

Oh wow... I just noticed you aren't too far from me.
I have no idea what I have... but I have 7 gunnar babies.
Looks like some mille fleur, some red, some blue...
Won't have eggs til next spring, but keep me in mind... a swap would be great!

I live in Carthage but work in Sparta so probably closer than you thought! I will for sure keep you in mind for next Spring. Hope to find a trade for now also.
You have a very nice website, are your Dexters beef bred or milk bred?

Both. I milk a couple but all of my girls are homozygous A2. As are all my bulls except one who is heterozygous

 

[SunnySkies]

I don't own a gun and hubby won't allow one. Too many kids, too much opportunity for an accident. If you think it would be easy to have gun safety in my house....well....you haven't met my kids. They cause trouble in their sleep sometimes!

AVMA does have guidelines I have to follow because of the standards I am held to in my profession. I know not everyone in my profession follows them, or cares about them, but I do.

I'll kill it, once I catch it again. I won't like it, but....

 

[minihorse927]

How old was everyones SFH when they started to lay?

 

[Bernie56]

I think it depends on the time of year. My pullets that were hatched in the spring started laying between 20 and 23 weeks. The ones hatched in the fall were bout 28 weeks. Spring hatches are better for a lot of reasons!