The Old Folks Home

[Bunnylady]

Quote:
Amen!!!
While I understand how irritating it is having people imposing rules and getting on your case about what can seem like harmless fun, I think we need to remember where we are. This is, in effect, Rob's house. We are here, more or less by his invitation, like guests at his party. As such, we should behave with a certain amount of of civility and decorum. With so many guests, Nifty can't possibly see to all of us; the mods are unpaid volunteers that he has asked to help him keep order. We all want to have a good time, but "the life of the party" can't go smashing up the furniture!

Insanity, what happened to your chicks was unspeakable. I hope Ron is right, and there wasn't a mind with evil intent behind it. I haven't had live birds or eggs come here very often, but when I have, there is one person at my local post office that makes sure I know, as soon as they come in, that they are there waiting for me.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

ChickenCanoe, any mink update?

Anyone have experience hatching goose eggs? Is there something different about hatching them compared to chicken and duck eggs?

Love the straightjacket pics, highly entertaining

I hatched Canada goose eggs once but they had been incubated by the mother till the last 3 days so I can't take much credit. Wow, what a mess they made of the hatcher. There was a layer of fuzz on the whole thing.


There is a mink update, I just haven't felt like talking about it.

I've been trapping every night but except for 2 raccoons and 3 opossum - nothing.
I'm now setting 5 traps a night; a hav-a-hart, a duke leg trap and three 110 conibears. The havahart was tripped two nights in a row with nothing in it. I think it was either a huge raccoon that was able to keep the door open and back out or the mink was able to squeeze out under the closed door.

Most of my remaining birds are in one tight building and I screw the doors closed every night. I have a breeder complex with 2 units in one building and 3 units in another. The one with 2 units was one of the buildings that had all the birds killed.
The one with the 3 units is very tight and had padlocks on all the doors. I had my oldest rooster (the one that had gone on the lam) and a leghorn pullet for company in the end unit.
3 nights ago, I went out at midnight with a flashlight to just check on things. I walked up to the breeder house and saw the padlocks on the doors. When I shone the flashlight into the window, the only animal looking back at me from the roost was a mink. He figured out how to get in but couldn't figure out how to get out. I got my .22 revolver and every time I saw him I took a shot. It was so fast and could squeeze through such tiny gaps it was unbelievable. The 3 unit building only has 2 big windows, one on each end unit. no windows on the middle unit with plywood and 1X2 welded wire between units. I'd shine the flashlight in one window and take a shot through the hardware cloth as it would slither through to the other side. I want back and forth from one window to the other till I finally hit it. Every time I saw those beady yellow devil eyes reflecting in the light, I took a shot. I ended up hitting it in the neck and once in the chest. I apparently need target practice but in the dark with such a tiny fleeting target it wasn't easy. I have a lot of .22 caliber holes in the coop and hardware cloth now.

The mink and the two birds it killed that night.


I'm not naïve enough to think that there was only one mink. I'm still trapping and screwing boards across doors at night.
I took a long walk a couple days ago past where the construction is going on where the woods were cut down upstream from me. It turns out there is a Walmart going in there - yet another good reason for me to hate Walmart, now sending mink my way.
I walked all the streets that border the creek and man, there is a ton of good mink/weasel habitat all along the way.
Now I'm down to 1 rooster.



The 2 raccoons I trapped.









Since I found the chickens right when they were killed (their bodies were still limp), I was able to salvage the legs, breast meat and livers.

I had one chick hatch out this morning around 8. I have about 30 more eggs in the hatcher that were all due about 4 hours ago with no other pips.
They were all the eggs I had on hand when I lost most of the birds. Some were over a week old, some were cut out of dead hens. Then I screwed up and didn't realize the turner wasn't turned on for about 5 days. That's all I needed. Icing on the cake so to speak. I feel like I keep shooting myself in the proverbial foot.

Speaking of shooting, since I'm such a bad shot in the middle of the night with the revolver (I missed a coon with 3 shots too) I brought the old Mossberg .22 semiautomatic rifle out of mothballs. I bet I haven't used that in 40 years.

While I understand how irritating it is having people imposing rules and getting on your case about what can seem like harmless fun, I think we need to remember where we are. This is, in effect, Rob's house. We are here, more or less by his invitation, like guests at his party. As such, we should behave with a certain amount of of civility and decorum. With so many guests, Nifty can't possibly see to all of us; the mods are unpaid volunteers that he has asked to help him keep order. We all want to have a good time, but "the life of the party" can't go smashing up the furniture!

Insanity, what happened to your chicks was unspeakable. I hope Ron is right, and there wasn't a mind with evil intent behind it. I haven't had live birds or eggs come here very often, but when I have, there is one person at my local post office that makes sure I know, as soon as they come in, that they are there waiting for me.

Well said on the Rob's house thing.

It's horrible to have something like that happen to a box of chicks. I haven't had anything that bad happen before though I did have an overnight box of 3 day old chicks lost for an extra day and the chicks still arrived alive.
I don't necessarily blame the PO though. If they're coming by express or even priority mail, they rarely handle them from the time they leave the point of origin to the destination city, farming out the shipping to other vendors. That said, I don't mark boxes of eggs as having eggs in them, I just put fragile on the box. With budget cuts, we're lucky we can still get animals shipped. UPS and FedEx won't do it. I can no longer get bees shipped to St. Louis.

 

[dsqard]

Thank you to everyone for the congratulations. They are truly appreciated. Insanity so sorry to hear about those chicks. The thought of a box of live chicks getting mangled is horrifying. I am also very glad this. Thread did not get shut down for a time. I agree with everyone mentioning using FB to connect with family. It is how I have reconnected with most of my far flung family.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

For the recent graduates and birthday girls, congratulations and happy birthday.

I just installed a baby monitor in one of the coops and it's working quite well. When I'm in the house, I can't even hear roosters crow so I certainly can't hear a predator attack.
I thought of doing this over a year ago and never got around to it. Shame on me.

 

[Bunnylady]

Good shooting, ChickenCanoe!

 

[ronott1]

I hatched Canada goose eggs once but they had been incubated by the mother till the last 3 days so I can't take much credit. Wow, what a mess they made of the hatcher. There was a layer of fuzz on the whole thing.


There is a mink update, I just haven't felt like talking about it.

I've been trapping every night but except for 2 raccoons and 3 opossum - nothing.
I'm now setting 5 traps a night; a hav-a-hart, a duke leg trap and three 110 conibears. The havahart was tripped two nights in a row with nothing in it. I think it was either a huge raccoon that was able to keep the door open and back out or the mink was able to squeeze out under the closed door.

Most of my remaining birds are in one tight building and I screw the doors closed every night. I have a breeder complex with 2 units in one building and 3 units in another. The one with 2 units was one of the buildings that had all the birds killed.
The one with the 3 units is very tight and had padlocks on all the doors. I had my oldest rooster (the one that had gone on the lam) and a leghorn pullet for company in the end unit.
3 nights ago, I went out at midnight with a flashlight to just check on things. I walked up to the breeder house and saw the padlocks on the doors. When I shone the flashlight into the window, the only animal looking back at me from the roost was a mink. He figured out how to get in but couldn't figure out how to get out. I got my .22 revolver and every time I saw him I took a shot. It was so fast and could squeeze through such tiny gaps it was unbelievable. The 3 unit building only has 2 big windows, one on each end unit. no windows on the middle unit with plywood and 1X2 welded wire between units. I'd shine the flashlight in one window and take a shot through the hardware cloth as it would slither through to the other side. I want back and forth from one window to the other till I finally hit it. Every time I saw those beady yellow devil eyes reflecting in the light, I took a shot. I ended up hitting it in the neck and once in the chest. I apparently need target practice but in the dark with such a tiny fleeting target it wasn't easy. I have a lot of .22 caliber holes in the coop and hardware cloth now.

The mink and the two birds it killed that night.


I'm not naïve enough to think that there was only one mink. I'm still trapping and screwing boards across doors at night.
I took a long walk a couple days ago past where the construction is going on where the woods were cut down upstream from me. It turns out there is a Walmart going in there - yet another good reason for me to hate Walmart, now sending mink my way.
I walked all the streets that border the creek and man, there is a ton of good mink/weasel habitat all along the way.
Now I'm down to 1 rooster.



The 2 raccoons I trapped.









Since I found the chickens right when they were killed (their bodies were still limp), I was able to salvage the legs, breast meat and livers.

I had one chick hatch out this morning around 8. I have about 30 more eggs in the hatcher that were all due about 4 hours ago with no other pips.
They were all the eggs I had on hand when I lost most of the birds. Some were over a week old, some were cut out of dead hens. Then I screwed up and didn't realize the turner wasn't turned on for about 5 days. That's all I needed. Icing on the cake so to speak.


Well said on the Rob's house thing.

It's horrible to have something like that happen to a box of chicks. I haven't had anything that bad happen before though I did have an overnight box of 3 day old chicks lost for an extra day and the chicks still arrived alive.
I don't necessarily blame the PO though. If they're coming by express or even priority mail, they rarely handle them from the time they leave the point of origin to the destination city, farming out the shipping to other vendors. That said, I don't mark boxes of eggs as having eggs in them, I just put fragile on the box. With budget cuts, we're lucky we can still get animals shipped. UPS and FedEx won't do it. I can no longer get bees shipped to St. Louis.

That sounds like the shoot out at the OK Corral!

Got that Varmit!

For the recent graduates and birthday girls, congratulations and happy birthday.

I just installed a baby monitor in one of the coops and it's working quite well. When I'm in the house, I can't even hear roosters crow so I certainly can't hear a predator attack.
I thought of doing this over a year ago and never got around to it. Shame on me.

That is a great idea!

I would likely sleep through it all though.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

That sounds like the shoot out at the OK Corral!

Got that Varmit!

That is a great idea!

I would likely sleep through it all though.

I have the parent unit across the room and I just gave the birds some treats (pizza crust and wing bones) and I can hear every cluck.
At night I put it right next to my head.
I even knew I didn't catch a raccoon in the leg trap which is set outside that run since I didn't hear anything overnight.

 

[ronott1]

I have the parent unit across the room and I just gave the birds some treats (pizza crust and wing bones) and I can hear every cluck.
At night I put it right next to my head.

Do you need more Black Penedesencas. Jason has my Boy from Florida.

 

[LindaB220]

I had a Cousin of mine show up at work last year. I did not know who he was since the last time I had seen him was 1995!

It was not a good thing since he was off his Meds and was hearing voices.....

Oh man, I bet that was a little startling. I have a Gson (whom I live with) that has that problem. We keep him in a bubble and make sure of meds and he is happy as a clam. 20 yr old and already on SSI

 

[Cynthia12]

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