The Trap Nesting Thread

[MANOZ]

possums and coons are like a nightmare. i do however notice that my eggs dont stay outdoors as long as they used too. with the eggs being collected several times a day this lessens the chance of snakes and predators getting them. i never traped anything else in my boxes yet but who knows what the future holds.

 

[MANOZ]

galanie--- you still got important information going on and it will continue. if i may point out: the two that you do have laying are laying well ahead of the rest of the girls. this is important because as one looks around the board one finds many posts that confirm the slow egg production that happens around this time of the year. you have two that are still going which validates their genetics as being layers that lay during this time of the year. that is a plus in and of itself. those two will stand out in the flock simply because you know who they are. your best and your second best are now known because of cold hard facts produced by the birds themselves. they are something you wanna keep around for future breeding if you choose too.

which brings me to another subject,

i just realized that a pullet does not molt in their first year.you learn something new everyday! the trap nesters of the past used this to their advantage by hatching eggs around april-may. they did this to have a pullet laying through the winter. i guess once they started they continued through to spring. i'll get back to you on that because i have three australorps that should start laying any day now. i bred them earlier this year.

they only bred from older hens,pullets were not bred at all. this idea would improve production because we know the older hens will molt and eventually slow down, as where pullets are entered into the equation at this precise time to offset the slowed production rate.if you have an older hen laying this time of year you just got a good bird period. no guesswork involved anywhere!!

so you see, as long as you dont have a blank log then you got something going on. since you are just starting it should be really easy to keep your log book in order. all the hard work has been done already. enjoy your journey

 

[galanie]

cjwaldon - I had a rat eating eggs. I didn't catch it in the trap but because I checked the trap so often I figured out why I suddenly had no eggs. The dang thing was waiting till they laid then ran in and got the eggs! It even tried to eat the fake egg lol. I thought that thing was plaster but it's plastic. That rat really tried to eat that thing too.

Manoz - the interesting thing is, the one that laid regularly all summer during the horrific drought and unusually hot 109 degree weather is not laying now. Yet one that layed only sporadically during that weather is laying regularly now. I was thinking the one that laid all summer was molting but it must be a light molt. I don't hold it against her, I'm sure her body needs a rest after doing that during such a stressful season.

I'm getting one every day from my dark cornish but as she was hatched in April I expect that. And they're only medium eggs so she won't be a valuable layer anyway. She does love my rooster and gives him an outlet for his teenage energy, if you know what I mean. So she is serving the an important role in keeping the flock more peaceful. They all seem to lay really well their first year. The rest of the layers hatched the year before so now we're seeing what they do once they're no longer pullets.

It's really funny, the one that I almost culled last year saved herself by proving to be an Excellent broody and momma. Now she's proving herself to be a great layer, she's one of the ones that are laying now and she laid some during the heat too. So the one I almost culled for being a butt pain is really one of my best birds. Go figure. She's no longer a butt pain either. She has a really interesting and funny personality. She does things none of the rest will do, like jump high to grab a treat and fly up to perch on high things outside the coop. She's one of the first to alert me that there is a problem out there and the first to run off a stray cat. I guess that butt pain-ness was just her teenage oddness and now she's grown into a great chicken LOL.

I've been seeing, in the last couple of days, a lot of big changes in the dynamics of the flock. The rooster appears to be starting to dominate some that formerly kicked his butt. And the roosters hatchmate pullet is 'moving on up' too I think. So maybe part of the lack of eggs is just plain stress from the severe changes in dynamics happening. For instance, my (formerly, I suppose) lead hen is running from the rooster whereas before she pecked the CRAP out of him if he came close. And she seems to be hanging around the youngest, some four month olds. Even roosted with them last night. She hasn't laid in two weeks and I've been wondering why. She molted in Aug-Sept so that wasn't it. The "butt pain" one I mentioned above is holding her own, as is the roosters "wife" I call her. And those two are laying. Maybe for the others it's just stress?

 

[MANOZ]

yeah i know what you mean about stress. my best layer is mad at me i guess.....lol..... i tried to breed her so i put her with my younger rooster for a week, finally he got lucky poor fella needs a coach or something.then she would be put in the pen with him every third day for an hour or so. once i let her back out with the rest of the girls she started laying again but still will not give me any fertilized eggs. i guess the stess of A MAN AND A ROOSTER really ticked her off. and about the rooster well this is my third time trying to breed from him and still no fertilized eggs yet. he is about to be labeled a sissy. i only got him for one purpose and he is not holding up to his end of the bargain........lol....i dont wanna outcross so i'll be looking for another barred rock roo soon.

the hot weather layers and the cold weather layers can be used to offset each other's slow period as well. our trap nest logs will give us a complete documented year, but most importantly it will provide accurate seasonal data. i had no idea who layed what in my flock! so i'm completely lost to that summer time period right now. my knowledge of trap nesting had not taken place yet. i can give a guess as to who did what based on egg colors but that is not how i like to do things. once i put the nests up the veil just disappeared and the whole flock became known to me and my family. i got some reds that were almost culled for their attitude but the trap nests saved them due to their egg laying records.i would have been completely wrong on all of my future breeding decisions had it not been for the mighty "trap nest system" . i feel like i'm smarter than a fifth grader now .....lol

 

[galanie]

One thing I learned.. be sure his bottom and hers are clean of feathers lol. It helps. I only hope some day I'll be smarter than a fifth grader! So far, I've got the experience and the practical know how but the book learnin and current media and such, wow am I even out there haha.

 

[MANOZ]

you are a lady with power tools, i would say yeah you're out there

 

[MANOZ]

it has been posted alot i know, and i mean no disrespect when i say; "a southern belle with power tools" or "a lady with power tools". the simple fact of the matter is even a female can build a trap nest. you galanie have proven that very easily. my hat goes off to you and i have a great deal of respect for your courage and bravery. we should feel honored to pick up where our forefathers left off. women were very involved with trap nesting in the past.
in " high egg production by individual hens,pens, and flocks"
a mr. richardson writes that when he was away at work mrs. richardson--who took the same interest in the work those days that her husband did, and who after he began to devote all his time to poultry still kept informed on what the birds were doing-----looked after the trap nests. page 108

the husband giving all his time to his birds and his wife still had to tell him what was what!! that says a great deal about women trap nesting.......lol

 

[galanie]

LOL. I never thought you were being disrespectful at all. In fact, I take it all as a compliment.

It's true though, many, many times in the past women have learned to do the things men normally do. Think of the cattle drives in the old west where the women were left to take care of the place alone. During the civil war when most of the men were fighting. In old England it was pretty common even longer ago than that. The men would have to leave the farm up to the wives to run for days at a time for different reasons, and they just carried on the same as the menfolk. Also, "women's work" can be darn hard to do. There's a series by BBS that starts with, I think it's called "Tales from the Green Valley" and goes into "Victorian Farm" and more that illustrate that very well.

All this do it yourself stuff got started by my mom who's dad died when she was young in the 30's. So her mother had her learn and do most of the repair and such around the house. She pretty much passed a bunch of know how on to me, even taught me how to fix cars back in the days when you actually could do that yourself lol.

 

[MANOZ]

a photo from the same book

 

[MANOZ]

this next photo is also from this book, this is what i was waiting for chris09 to post. something similar to this setup which is basically the same thing lollipop described. a pen setup for each individual hen. this was called "the single test system"

since no one came forward with this setup i thought i'd post it now!!