The Old Folks Home

[ronott1]

The queen will usually be on a frame with eggs and uncapped larvae. When she pauses, a circle of attendants will form around her.
I like marked queens for the reason you mention.

I stuck every egg I had in the incubator over the last couple of days.

It's gotten worse. I have a hav-a-hart and a duke dog proof leg trap. I caught a large coon in each the last few days. I know some of the attacks were raccoons since the siding was pulled off but worse yet, I now have a new nemesis. I was amazed something could get under the door of the brooder house since it is only about an inch to the concrete floor but I've seen raccoons squeeze through small spaces. Well, I battened down all the openings on the building that had only 4 birds left, a rooster and 3 hens. Yesterday morning I went to let them out and they were all dead. I couldn't figure out how anything got in there. It turns out I have weasels. Yesterday they killed all the baby chicks that were out foraging with the broodies in the middle of the day. They're very hard to trap. I'm going to have to get a bunch of leg traps and keep the remaining birds locked up till they're gone.
I'm devastated at the number of losses. In just 4 days I went from 40 hens, 10 cocks and 16 chicks to 14 hens, 1 cock and 8 chicks.
Never had a weasel here in 20 years, till now.

Weasels can be terrible!

I hope the slow down soon. The crazy winter must have really brought out the predators in your area.

Someone posted a weasel trap. It had something to do with burying a pickle jar?

 

[chickadoodles]

My turkeys will abandon the nest if I touch it. However, my flock tends to kill chicks (and adolescents) even with an angry mom as a protector. I would move after hatching, if possible.

Thanks SCG I have the date marked on my calendar for I will keep a close eye on them and move them to a separate pen after they hatch.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I found this information on trapping them.
http://icwdm.org/handbook/carnivor/Weasels.asp

I'm heading to Cabela's for some leg traps and then to the pet store for some mice to use as bait. I'll put them in a small cage in the center of the box.

 

[chickadoodles]

CC do you know anyone with a dog that has hunter instincts? Our dogs will get anything.


Little Bit is a mixed terrier and she loves the chicks. From the day I brought her home I had her go with me to tend the brooders and showed her the babies. So they are not scared of her and she thinks they are hers and they play together.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It all makes sense now. I couldn't figure out the wanton slaughter when there's so much natural raccoon food around. A huge garden, fruit all over the ground and in trees not to mention a bucket of fermented feed next to the coops free for the taking, it didn't make sense that raccoons would kill so many birds and not eat any meat.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

I found this information on trapping them.
http://icwdm.org/handbook/carnivor/Weasels.asp

I'm heading to Cabela's for some leg traps and then to the pet store for some mice to use as bait. I'll put them in a small cage in the center of the box.

We built two of those - pretty easy to build. Be careful using "new" wood - they don't like the smell. Found some old boards under the chicken coop and used those (after building one with new wood), although we still didn't catch it. Instead of a leg trap inside we used a rat trap.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have a new rat trap that has been sitting around here for about 5 months that my wife said was scary. She can't remember what she did with it.
I'm also building a few PVC pipe traps using live mice.
I can't fail in this endeavor or 5 years of breeding will be in vain.

On a couple positive notes, I had a chick hatch today from my best original hen (rest in peace).
I have a lot of empty buildings now so I can redesign/refurbish/rebuild them to be weasel proof.
Luckily my best rooster (conformation and color wise) is the one that's still alive. My oldest rooster is the one on the lamb. I've been tracking him every morning and evening and have yet to find where he's roosting. I hope to find him tonight.

There are 2 groves of trees across the field that he's hanging out in. One is a row of pines with some brush, the other is nearly impenetrable by humans. I've cut a couple paths through there. I hope he's sleeping in the pines.

 

[subhanalah]

It sounds like the fan is connected to the thermostat. It should be connected to always on power. There will be temperature spikes with a set up like that.

is it a case of wiring them into the circuit backwards? How would one remedy this exactly? I've not built one so I've never come across this. The farthest I've worked with putting thermostats on, there was no fan involved because it was for flex watt heat tape.

 

[ronott1]

is it a case of wiring them into the circuit backwards? How would one remedy this exactly? I've not built one so I've never come across this. The farthest I've worked with putting thermostats on, there was no fan involved because it was for flex watt heat tape.

The fan needs to be connected to the hot wire before it gets to the thermostat.

Also, make sure that the fan is blowing into the incubator. Blowing out will make the bottom too cold and kill the eggs.

 

[subhanalah]

The fan needs to be connected to the hot wire before it gets to the thermostat.

Also, make sure that the fan is blowing into the incubator. Blowing out will make the bottom too cold and kill the eggs.

That is what I thought but didn't want to say the wrong thing and someone do it based off a ping on a Google search without reading the entirety of the thread...Thank you for putting the right information out there.