The Old Folks Home

[ChickenCanoe]

I love the sound of nearby coyotes....it means they're contemplating accessing a nice rabbit dinner from our lawn. The only time their song was disconcerting was when they were by the back wall (probably about 12-foot from bedroom window on the other side). The calamity they made was SO loud it sounded like sirens.

Saw a large coyote in the orchard at dusk day before last, good size, weight and healthy pelt. Nice that they're circling back through as they had been gone for a bit (and the rabbits flourished). They and the crows seem to come back to the neighborhood about the same time.

We have lots of coyotes and foxes. I'm in the suburbs. Across the road are a few small subdivisions with smaller lots. Past them is a huge golf course and a nature park along Coldwater Creek. Past that is the new walmart store that sent the mink to my house when they cut down 80 acres if old forest along the creek. My side of the road are all minimum of one acre lots. I'm on an acre with a vacant 4 acre field on one side of me, a house on 3 acres of woods on the other side and a road on 2 sides of me going back to a big house on 24 acres of almost all woods behind me. On the other side of the 4 acre field is another 25 acre property and a couple houses. Our side of the road has huge parcels of forest.
I used to see coyotes walking down the road at night but in the last few years, they are afoot at all hours of the day. Last summer, my wife was taking the dog out about 8 in the morning and just before she opened the door a pair of coyote was trotting through the front yard just 20 feet from the house. A couple months before, 2 walked through the back yard about 4 in the afternoon.
3 weeks ago coyotes killed a rooster and a chick.

I trapped, drown, skinned and grilled a raccoon a couple days ago. I fed it back to the chickens.

Likely so, When you bring a new chicken to your place, hold them by the feet, turn them upside down and dust them.

Quarantine for two weeks after that and check for lice before adding them to the flock. You are also making sure that the new one does not have viral and bacterial illnesses too.

I hope you got them!

I rarely bring new birds in any more. If I do, they're kept in a separate building a couple weeks, checked regularly for parasites and then I put one of my birds (sacrificial lamb) with them for a few more days to see if my bird comes down with anything. After that, they can go in any building/pen.

Thanks for the laugh. As it is with multiple roosters, talking toms and the Amazing Screaming Goat I haven't had many complaints from neighbors, surprisingly. Except the lactating neighbor.

I can barely hear them in the house, too.

We also started playing Ozzy's Boneyard outside on outdoor speakers from sunup to sundown (edited to add not to be jerks but to deter foxes). Can't really hear it at the neighbors too much. The chickens really seem to like Megadeth.

Right now I have 16 roosters and cockerels. At least 10 are crowing now. Currently we have all the windows open and there can't be any sounds in the house like a TV or radio to be able to hear them crowing. Summer and winter when the windows are closed, I can't hear them at all.

 

[Latestarter]

Hey CC: Grats on capturing a swarm!

that's great. Kinda surprised as it's 2 months past prime swarm season (April-July here).

They must have been very stressed to swarm this time of year! There isn't much time for them to get established before really cold weather hits. You might consider leaving them in the smaller nuc over winter as it will be easier for them to keep it warm (less space to heat), and you can feed them there then move them in the spring after the thaw when they'll have become an established hive. Just pull all 5 frames and put in a 8 or 10 frame box. Will prob work best if you place the nuc where you'll eventually place the full sized hive. That way they won't get lost when you re-hive them.

Glad the phone thing worked out in the end. Don't you hate it when that happens? I mean; "I JUST HAD IT!" (whatever IT was), and now I can't find it?!?!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I even looked through bedding in a couple of the coops I walked into that night in case it fell out of my pocket. I tore my house and the car apart. Walked around with my son's phone calling it but to no avail. I had not set up 'gadget guardian' on that phone but I did on this one. You can go to their website and using GPS it will find your phone. It isn't very accurate though. I put my phone on the back patio to test it out. It said my phone was at an address on the street across from me. That's about 400' from where it actually was. I guess it would be helpful if you had left it at a restaurant or something and couldn't remember where. I thought it would be more accurate. Like telling me which coop it was in

It will also turn on a siren if your phone still has battery. It's very loud so that is helpful.

Thanks for the bee tips.
They didn't go into the nuc though, they went into the shallow super. I was planning on putting that on top of a deep or medium and feeding them well so they can build up stores and hopefully the queen will start laying soon.

It's great to catch your own swarm. I did it once before a few years ago. I heard a humming and looked up. They were on a small branch about 25' up above a chicken run. There was no way I could have gotten a ladder up there. Fortunately, at the time I owned a bucket truck. I took a box and a pair of loppers up there. Cut the branch and dropped the swarm into the box. Took it down and installed in another hive body.

I saw a youtube video once of a guy that captured a swarm with a shotgun. He placed a box under the swarm that was up about 30'. He hit the branch near the swarm and it dropped right in the box. I wish I could find that video again.

I'm going to put up a couple swarm traps in the spring from now on. Maybe I won't have to buy packages or nucs again.

 

[drumstick diva]

sounds like mighty fine shooting

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It was spectacular.

 

[Bunnylady]

This lady isn't quite that accurate, but she got 'er done!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks for posting bunny. I really wish I hadn't lost track of the other.

 

[chickadoodles]

Cool video thanks Bunnylady for sharing.

Congrats CC on getting your bees back.
Sorry about your phone.

 

[Cynthia12]

deb, love that video too..going to find it and share it too.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

WHY IS SHE WEARING SHORTS??