The Old Folks Home

[bamadude]

Oz put him in a golf bag and brought him to california

 

[chickisoup]

Hi everyone

weasels and cats, wow. No weasel attacks here, thank you Lord, but my neighbor lost several hens a couple years ago. As for cats, we had a new family move in down the road last summer that thought it was just fine to let their animals roam. The second time I chased the cat out of my garden run (after intentionally totally terrifying the poor thing) I took a drive down the road and informed the neighbor that the next time kitty was going to take a ride to the pound in town (35+ miles away) and they would receive a bill for any damages as well as whatever the pound would charge them for licensing and vaccinating and would probably get a visit about their dogs too. My friend (same one that lost the hens to a weasel) had been chasing the cat off too and I informed the owner that her hubby was planning to shoot it if caught harming their hens. Her eyes got big on that one and no one has seen the cat roaming since. I hadn't planned on being so harsh but as soon as I said "hi" she copped an attitude which let me know I was not dealing with anyone who was interested in being a good neighbor.
I don't believe in destroying pets because of their owner's stupidity, but I also won't tolerate them causing trouble around my place either.

I had the benefit of being able to build my coop from scratch with full fore knowledge of what predators we had roaming about so my coop is literally a fortress once the girls are locked inside. It's double wall construction with the exterior covered with steel siding making it impossible for anything to be able to climb to windows that are 5+ feet off the ground, double paned, side sliding with internal locks, screened, and with added heavy gauge hardware cloth secured over the entire unit. The door is solid wood but I plan to cover it this summer with steel as well to further deter any bear. The floor is double sheathed as well and covered on top with vinyl flooring. The coop itself is sitting 2 feet off the ground with more steel sheeting extending several inches into the ground. Both the pophole and the main door are locked at night with the kind of shed latch where the flap goes over another piece that turns to secure it and has a hole you can put a padlock thru to lock it. Just to be sure I outsmart any industrious raccoons, instead of using padlocks and have to worry about losing keys, I clip carabeiners thru the latch and just have a ring nearby that I clip them onto in the daytime. I must admit the run needs to be made more secure but that will get done very soon. Right now hubby is putting up new, more secure fencing around the girls "play yard".
We literally have every major northern predator either passing through, or living on, our property except the grizzly and the northern lynx (we have the black bear and bobcat instead). That's the price we pay for living where we do. Our 65 acres back up to literally thousands of acres of state, federal and national forest land.

Bamadude- yep. Copper is super valuable again and the logging camps and farmers are having the same looting problems up here. Another copper mine is in the permitting process right now further to the north. They tried to resurrect the one near us but the administration at the time, along with help from environmental groups and the EPA, did everything they could to block it by bogging it down in paperwork and regulations to the point they just gave up,. Now they are regretting the lost jobs and revenue as they look at what the mine further north is going to mean to that seriously depressed area. It's just another one of those NIMBY (not in my back yard) things. The new state administration sees the value of the new northern mine, but just making sure it is done the right way. In the new economy, the opposition is pretty weak.

 

[Cynthia12]

Cynthia, how did the cat get into your coop?

I actually leave the gate open, and, the door open at night. Haven't had a problem here in yrs. A couple of years ago had a neighborhood cat get one of my birds..in mid day. A ferral cat no one was taking care of. Probably from a litter then let go outside to fend for itself..it was hungry. Found it eating the pullet behind our shed. :/ I live in a neighborhood..no woods here.
That one I found in my live trap as soon as I put it out, with a full can of tuna.

 

[apteryx]

what happened to bernie? that's a huge loss.

Bamadude asked for a M. Night Shyamalan twist to Oz's story and days later it happened.....

 

[ozexpat]

what happened to bernie? that's a huge loss.

Oz put him in a golf bag and brought him to california

Bernies wife went back to school in their home town. He is now working as a truck driver's assisant, ironically delivering eggs.

We have Dominic now. He actually gets things done a lot faster than Bernie but I cant communicate with him so I have to have Mrs Oz relay stuff. He is sharp and knows poultry. I need to find a college kid doing agriculture to work as a "sponsored student" as Dominic's assistant

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Bernies wife went back to school in their home town. He is now working as a truck driver's assisant, ironically delivering eggs.

We have Dominic now. He actually gets things done a lot faster than Bernie but I cant communicate with him so I have to have Mrs Oz relay stuff. He is sharp and knows poultry. I need to find a college kid doing agriculture to work as a "sponsored student" as Dominic's assistant

Glad that family is 'moving up' a bit. I bet you could play a mean game of charades. You don't often have to speak the same language to get stuff communicated.

Got my weasel traps baited. Here, weasel weasel. BF thinks it's a fisher cat. If so I am going to have it stuffed and mail it to my dad.

 

[ronott1]

Hi everyone

weasels and cats, wow. No weasel attacks here, thank you Lord, but my neighbor lost several hens a couple years ago. As for cats, we had a new family move in down the road last summer that thought it was just fine to let their animals roam. The second time I chased the cat out of my garden run (after intentionally totally terrifying the poor thing) I took a drive down the road and informed the neighbor that the next time kitty was going to take a ride to the pound in town (35+ miles away) and they would receive a bill for any damages as well as whatever the pound would charge them for licensing and vaccinating and would probably get a visit about their dogs too. My friend (same one that lost the hens to a weasel) had been chasing the cat off too and I informed the owner that her hubby was planning to shoot it if caught harming their hens. Her eyes got big on that one and no one has seen the cat roaming since. I hadn't planned on being so harsh but as soon as I said "hi" she copped an attitude which let me know I was not dealing with anyone who was interested in being a good neighbor.
I don't believe in destroying pets because of their owner's stupidity, but I also won't tolerate them causing trouble around my place either.

I had the benefit of being able to build my coop from scratch with full fore knowledge of what predators we had roaming about so my coop is literally a fortress once the girls are locked inside. It's double wall construction with the exterior covered with steel siding making it impossible for anything to be able to climb to windows that are 5+ feet off the ground, double paned, side sliding with internal locks, screened, and with added heavy gauge hardware cloth secured over the entire unit. The door is solid wood but I plan to cover it this summer with steel as well to further deter any bear. The floor is double sheathed as well and covered on top with vinyl flooring. The coop itself is sitting 2 feet off the ground with more steel sheeting extending several inches into the ground. Both the pophole and the main door are locked at night with the kind of shed latch where the flap goes over another piece that turns to secure it and has a hole you can put a padlock thru to lock it. Just to be sure I outsmart any industrious raccoons, instead of using padlocks and have to worry about losing keys, I clip carabeiners thru the latch and just have a ring nearby that I clip them onto in the daytime. I must admit the run needs to be made more secure but that will get done very soon. Right now hubby is putting up new, more secure fencing around the girls "play yard".
We literally have every major northern predator either passing through, or living on, our property except the grizzly and the northern lynx (we have the black bear and bobcat instead). That's the price we pay for living where we do. Our 65 acres back up to literally thousands of acres of state, federal and national forest land.

Bamadude- yep. Copper is super valuable again and the logging camps and farmers are having the same looting problems up here. Another copper mine is in the permitting process right now further to the north. They tried to resurrect the one near us but the administration at the time, along with help from environmental groups and the EPA, did everything they could to block it by bogging it down in paperwork and regulations to the point they just gave up,. Now they are regretting the lost jobs and revenue as they look at what the mine further north is going to mean to that seriously depressed area. It's just another one of those NIMBY (not in my back yard) things. The new state administration sees the value of the new northern mine, but just making sure it is done the right way. In the new economy, the opposition is pretty weak.

You must be a fast typist too!

Thanks for the Story. My coop is very predator proof--but I have no predators! Better safe then sorry though.

 

[bamadude]

Caffeine

 

[ozexpat]

Glad that family is 'moving up' a bit. I bet you could play a mean game of charades. You don't often have to speak the same language to get stuff communicated.

Got my weasel traps baited. Here, weasel weasel. BF thinks it's a fisher cat. If so I am going to have it stuffed and mail it to my dad.

I had to look up a fisher cat.

Good God, the munber of animals that eat poultry in the country seems endless.

You can stuff it and send it to me if you like.

I always wanted a furry pet i could cuddle at night when my less-furry wife is out of country

 

[ozexpat]

maybe you guys should get one of these for each corner of your coop



the SGR-1 is basically an armed guard robot that can either be column-mounted or attached to a set of tank tracks. It's currently being used to patrol the border between North and South Korea. It comes equipped with a 5.56mm belt-fed machine gun and CCTV / thermal imaging cameras in two independently pivoting groups (secondary camera is used to seek out additional targets)
Read more at http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/samsung-sgr-1-the-autonomous-self-aiming-turret-robot#DSZsJhDRKmslWQA5.99

its only $300,000 each so $1.2 mil and no fisher cats