The Natural Chicken Keeping thread - OTs welcome!

[Leahs Mom]

A Story About a Different Kind of Weasel I will Never Forget

I read this story over a year ago. I had never heard of something like this before. After I read this, it made me want to be very careful with openings in the coop. Don't know if I have them in my area, but forewarned is forearmed.

, I have found electronet almost foolproof for protecting the flock from predators. One August, however, when the ground was extremely dry, I found a dead hen inside my electronet fence three mornings in a row. Though I ensured both fence and charger were in good working order, the kills were all inside the fence, and each hen showed the chewed neck characteristic of weasel attack. I could only assume that a Least Weasel had come in under the lowest charged wire of the net. It would have made contact with the wire, but the insulating effect of the pelt together with the dryness of the soil provided no ground for the current in the fence, and the weasel received no shock. For two weeks thereafter, I shut the chickens inside their pasture shelter at night—that is, I put into place a physical barrier to the weasel. At the same time, I increased the robustness of the ground in the fence system: I purchased three ½-inch thick, eight-foot ground rods, which I drove full length into the ground under the eaves of the poultry house and near the water hydrant, where the soil was certain to be moist any time of year, and connected all three with heavy gauge wire. With the enhanced ground in the system, I’ve never had a subsequent problem with grounding (or with weasels), even in times of drought.

 

[texasmomma]

Welcome back.
It's good you were able to give your chickens to a good home! =)
Life is "never" normal at my house.  "Normal" is what we call the current craziness. lol
My DH thinks my coop is "unsightly" too. lol  It's functional and the chickens like it, so that's all that really matters (even to him).  I hope you're able to get things situated the way you want them.
=)

Yes, I was very lucky with the chickens. Normal is here is just like you with just a more routine level of craziness.

Missing heads sounds like a weasel, mink, or raccoon attack.

Or possum.

 

[Shan30]

What kind of trap did you use? 

We used a raccoon sized live trap. With the bird pushed to the back the mink had to pull it across the trigger.

 

[Shan30]

We used a raccoon sized live trap. With the bird pushed to the back the mink had to pull it across the trigger.

Sorry, I should have said it was a live trap!

 

[aoxa]

My rooster, when he was young but pretty much full size, started acting just like you describe. It was summertime. I did the same thing - felt his legs, looked at feet, etc. Nothing I could feel or see.

I never did do a soak on him but strangest thing - since he was the "man of the house" he still felt it was necessary to guard the ladies. The first couple of weeks he was mostly hlaying on the ground but He would stand on 1 foot whenever he wanted to get up. He finally learned to hop on 1 foot very fast at a running pace. I kept wondering if I should do him in but he looked healthy otherwise and acted quite normal except for not wanting to put a lot of weight on that leg. So...he went on like that for almost 6 weeks if I recall. Was the funniest thing I ever saw to see him hopping on 1 leg as fast as everyone else was moving on 2.

Over the weeks he'd put more weight on the other leg until it healed and he is completely normal now. You wouldn't know there was an issue.

I think it was a sprained knee or ankle joint - probably from jumping down from the roosts. At night he insisted on getting on the roost. I tried to isolate him the first night or so but it drove him absolutely crazy so I gave up. I'd go out early in the morning for the first 2 weeks and put him on the floor just before full light so he wouldn't jump down. But after that I missed a day and he was down and got down on his own after that. I would have preferred he not use the roost at all but it's a guy thing (or chicken thing I guess)...

I have had this happen as well with young males. Cletus limped, and so did Gatsby. I'm wondering if it is from them establishing the pecking order and spraining...

 

[lalaland]

After a couple of days of warm weather in the 20's and even 30's, had a blizzard yesterday. Dug out the coop, and the snow had drifted over the trash cans I store feed in (standard size). I'm guessing about 14" of new snow on top of the 3 feet that was already there. The people door to the coop was frozen shut, which took some cussing to loosen up, and I was amazed at how much snow was inside the coop. There were actually drifts in there! Just a few inches deep, but still.

The; wind even blew snow, maybe 3-4 inches deep all the way under the coop! Never had that happen before.

I haven't dug out to the chicken door yet, so no one is going out anyway. At least they have food and water. Me, I'm ready for bed. that was totally exhausting. I have 3-4 inches of snow covering everything inside my screened porch, too, so got to shovel and dust that - even the bed is covered in snow.

If anyone mentions the "S" word (s*p*r*i*n*g) today, I'm liable to spit.

just saying.

 

[armorfirelady]

Leah's mom great article. I'm itching for warmer weather so I can put that hardware cloth I scored cheap around the coop. I've been lucky so far & I know it. I will feel much better after it's up.

Lala only a few more weeks.........Mother Nature has to run out of that white stuff sooner or later........

 

[Leahs Mom]

Wow, lala. I thought I had it bad last night when I was trying to get electrical wires out of 3" of water that had shorted out everything to the hen house. In the dark. In the rain. Almost 2 hours.

Besides

how did you get that door unfrozen?

 

[armorfirelady]

Wow, lala.  I thought I had it bad last night when I was trying to get electrical wires out of 3" of water that had shorted out everything to the hen house.  In the dark.  In the rain.  Almost 2 hours.

Besides   how did you get that door unfrozen?

Your extension cords shorted out? That's not good. I bought the heavy duty weather ones (their blue) then zip tied them to the fence to keep them out of the water. They are plugged into a gfci outlet in the garage so a short or water will trip the gfci letting me know something somewhere is wet.

 

[Leahs Mom]

Amazing how small this guy is. (The same kind as the story above.)