The EE braggers thread!!!

[Nelson-90]

What a wonderful surprise for you!!!

yesssssssssssssssss my girlfriend almost had a heart attack when i showed her

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

yesssssssssssssssss my girlfriend almost had a heart attack when i showed her

I was just coming here to post about this, but see Nelson beat me to it! He showed me a big light green egg the other day and I about fell over thinking it was from one of the EEs, but it was from the duck!

Tonight's EE egg is small and looks more green than blue, but I'll have to take a better look in natural light before I declare it either. And either way,

Brace yourselves for photos.

 

[Bleenie]

Beautiful dog! My Rottweiler was always wonderful with my birds and did an excellent job keeping the critters away, she even moused! Since she's been gone I just have my little Chi girl who's smaller than most the birds so basically useless at keeping animals away. She does play with the chicks though so shes good entertainment for them. I threw her toy today and watched her run for it with the ENTIRE flock of chickens going for it as well, then following her until she finally dropped it, lol.

We're out in the country here but thankfully haven't had too much trouble with predators this year. Last one we had was an injured Coyote next to the coop mid-day. He never came back after i chased him off. My sister next door has a Heeler that will try to chase down anything she doesn't approve of so I am hoping we won't have too many visitors this winter with her running around.

The possums around here are fairly brazen... I remember, several years ago, letting my two shelties out one night to go potty. Ajax did his normal potty squat close to the door, Logan instantly rushed out to what I later made out to be a possum... But Logan was never a vocal dog (odd for a sheltie actually... I miss him so much) The possum didn't run, or play dead... it just stood there and greeted Logan... Surprised and confused that it did not run away at the sight of his swift approach... Logan was left no other alternative but to sniff it's butt like it was a small dog and then go elsewhere to take care of his potty business like everything was normal. I was so scared that Logan was going to get bit or otherwise injured during the 30 second encounter... So as soon as I could tell that Logan was done, I called both dogs in before anymore was made of it.

I know we have raccoons, possums, skunks, fox and coyotes in the woods behind my house as well as wild turkeys, pheasants, mice, snakes and all manner of woodland fauna... but I haven't seen any sign of the worrisome ones around my coop so far. The only thing I've seen in the coop itself is a mole... and I flooded his little tunnel on him... haven't seen him back since then either.

Incidentally, here's a shot of Ajax being tested out around the chickens today. Such a good dog. You can see one of my easter eggers there, Yolanda in fact, investigating... What you can't see, is Zoe, my Brown Leghorn... she's standing on the other side of Ajax picking bits of grass out of the fur on his butt.

 

[Wishing4Wings]

I was just coming here to post about this, but see Nelson beat me to it! He showed me a big light green egg the other day and I about fell over thinking it was from one of the EEs, but it was from the duck!

Tonight's EE egg is small and looks more green than blue, but I'll have to take a better look in natural light before I declare it either. And either way,

Brace yourselves for photos.

You must have thought you had Super Pullet in your coop!!

When (if?) you crack it open, compare the inner shell (minus the membrane) with the outer color. Makes it easier to see if a brown coating has been added.

 

[Flowerbh]

Speaking of preditors; we had a bear get in our run because we kept the door open while the chickens were free ranging in case they needed their nest boxes. I went out to put the chickens up and saw a big black shadow in their. Shoed him off. Next day we built a small chicken door into the larger door.....like those pet doors only this one can be closed and locked at night. No way a bear can get in now. And about possum's ....at least they don't carry rabies.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Really? I thought they did...I know skunks are bad about carrying it. A few weeks ago we were having a problem with some getting under the house and one night hubby saw one walking around in the yard. Before I could say anything, he had the shotgun out and blasted it. Folks, if there's one piece of advice I could give those of you new to country living, it would be to NEVER shoot a skunk

Invest in a live trap for goodness sake lol!

 

[SistaChick]

Folks, if there's one piece of advice I could give those of you new to country living, it would be to NEVER shoot a skunk

Invest in a live trap for goodness sake lol!

LOL, since you brought this up, it's a good time to ask a question that has been on my mind. If I was to catch a skunk or fox or anything for that matter, then what would I do with it? Actually if a skunk was caught in a trap would it not spray anyway when a person got near the trap to move it?

I would think in dealing with a skunk it would be hard to find a winning way.

 

[Twizzlebee]

Trapping a skunk is a terrible idea

Not to be offensive, I'm laughing with you, I promise We had a skunk in our building we were clearing out to put our new horse in the other day. Threw moth balls in there(there was also rats) and shut my dog in the pen over night. Skunk hasn't been back. But man, since we're on predators, we had a terrible raccoon problem for almost a month. One night I turned the porch lights on and there was a mom with 3 babies, and 2 other adults on my porch!!! At the time I had 9 older chickens, and they managed to kill every single one in one night. And then after that, went to the rabbit hutch I had 20 chicks in and ate their toes off from underneath the wires! That was a lesson learned.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Well, I'll be honest and say I've never trapped one myself, but my grandparents catch them occasionally when they're trying to trap raccoons and they have never been sprayed. You remember that show Mythbusters? I haven't seen it on tv in a while, but they did a show on what makes skunk stink go away. To do that, they were actually going to get sprayed on purpose by a skunk so they figured the easiest way to do that would be to catch one in a live trap. Turns out they ended up having to use artificial skunk stink because no matter how much they pestered it in that live trap, it wouldn't spray! I totally would have figured the trap would be the wrong way to go though lol but seriously I agree with sistachick, it's hard to win with a skunk

Has anyone been sprayed before?

 

[Wishing4Wings]

No, but plenty of dogs have over the years. The most recent was night before last!

Maybe the dummy dog has finally learned how to get out of the way because only a little stink seems to have gotten on her, but boy the yard was sure perfumed! Dog still had to sleep in the garage for the rest of the night!!!
I live in a small rural neighborhood, and it seems like the predators aren't very big or just lazy. They haven't bothered the chickens yet. I even forgot to close the coop up one night!

I think this time of year the critters come around for the fruit trees and lots of neighbors feed their cats outside, so attractive easy pickins there.