The Old Folks Home

[subhanalah]

How do you tell ant queens from regular ants? Bee queens only leave the nest once to mate. And I have never been able to locate my queen in any of my hives (and I at least have a finite number of places to look for her). I'm content enough with noting eggs and larva, so I know she's been alive within the past 21 days.

the young queens will go looking for a new place to build a nest, they have wings and their abdomen is very large, since they carry the full reproductive organs for the whole colony.

ETA: young queen wasps are also really neat to observe in captivity for a spring/summer. They are incredibly intelligent and not nearly as scary as they've been made out to be!

 

[Hangtown Farms]

I'm in the midst of a couple of really bad days. I don't need sympathy because I apparently didn't safeguard things well enough. Two nights ago raccoons pried a siding board off of one of the breeder houses and killed all but one hen. I'm trying to nurse her back to health.
Yesterday, I made sure everything was secure but when I went out at dusk, there was a dead cockerel in one of the open coops when I was closing it up. I don't know if the raccoons squeezed through the 2" space between the door and concrete floor or if they were hiding in the building when I closed up but this morning, every other cockerel was dead and all but 3 pullets.
When I checked the other flocks, I found all of another flock dead. Again, they pried siding boards off of the building. This is a new well built building.
In 2 nights I lost 13 mature or breeding age hens and pullets as well as 8 cockerels and cocks.
I had set 2 traps last night and they were ignored.
I guarantee I will be going over each coop with a fine tooth comb and securing anything that isn't raccoon proof.
I'm down to 19 layers from 32 and 2 roosters from 10. Only 7 of the layers are mature hens and 3 are broody. The rest just started laying so the eggs are too small to incubate.
I do have some chicks and a couple eggs in the incubator but this is my worst 2 night loss in my life.
Last year the raccoons broke into my cellar and killed 10 baby chicks.

I have my work cut out for me today to close off every tiny hole.
I guarantee the raccoons will make a good grill to provide protein to the remaining chickens.

ETA

I understand predation but I don't really get killing 21 adult birds in 2 nights and only take the head, neck and crop. None of the rest of the bird was eaten. Perhaps they were teaching cubs to kill. What a waste. This is one of the worst days of my chicken keeping life.

That's horrible Guy I only have. 2 hens laying ( black penedesenca) but I can send you some eggs. Do you have any traps? Trap kill and hang them in A tree to keep others away

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Really not a bad idea but again, you'd need to see the space. I've considered it. I've had motion sensor lights surrounding my house since we've lived here and last spring raccoons broke into my basement on 2 occasions and killed 10 chicks - ignoring the lights.

Bottom line is, buildings need to be Fort Knox at night.

Deer deterant sprinklers may work to

 

[subhanalah]

Deer deterant sprinklers may work to

I think I've seen a raccoon playing the harp on a sprinkler

 

[sourland]

Raccoons think that sprinklers are great toys.

 

[Wisher1000]

Guess where I am.

 

[Bunnylady]

Wisher, what's the matter with those folks - blue umbrellas?

Here you go - a raccoon playing with a sprinkler (and a pleasant Owl City tune to go with it):

 

[chickisoup]

Quote: Check out the Chicken Whisperer FB page for info but Andy is also the national spokesperson for USDA-APHIS Biosecurity for Birds program, has a nice book out for newbies, all his web radio shows are archived which makes it really easy peasy (including the shows with Dr. Meridith McCrey). Andy has shortened his show to an hour and moved the time to 2 pm eastern. He has a cool new magazine that Doc Brown has a regular column in. The online mag is free thru Acreage life but I like getting the hardcopy paid subscription so I have a handy reference just like my Backyard Poultry mags.

 

[chickisoup]

Quote:

Peter Brown is the Chicken Doctor.

http://www.askthechickendoctor.com/

great link, didn;t know about this one.I just emailed him.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Guess where I am.

NOT Maine.