Thistlewick Smallholding - Chickens & Sheep (for now)

[WingItRanch]

Rat(s) are back

Filled up their feed, the very next day (we leave it in hanging feeders but apparently that didn't matter one bit) it was down to 1/4

Nooo hell naw that's expensive feed you MFers!!

So started putting up the feed at night. What a pain in the ass chicken keeping is


We are going to have to pave the run so they cannot get in under it.

Good thing these guys are free range all day.

Honestly though -- they are all out foraging right now, it's greening up here -- and when I go out to feed them just now, they just scramble as if they're STARVING.

I'm going to start just putting out some feed in the afternoon/evenings. They can forage all day lol

I just got this rat trap called the Ratinator. It's kinda pricey but everyone says it's worth it. It can trap up to 12 rats in one go. It's a live trap so you'll have to dispose of them however way you feel like.

The reason I finally invested in it is because someone on a goat forum had a newborn healthy baby goat disembowled (poor thing died) and another one severely injured by rats. They swarmed the poor mom and babies. It was devastating! The rat droppings I've seen are in my goat maternity ward....

 

[StinkyAcres]

I just got this rat trap called the Ratinator. It's kinda pricey but everyone says it's worth it. It can trap up to 12 rats in one go. It's a live trap so you'll have to dispose of them however way you feel like.

12 rats at once is nice, but disposing of them isn't great. I dunno, for that price I feel like you might as well buy one of those rat electrocution traps.

 

[Shadrach]

I feel like you might as well buy one of those rat electrocution traps.

Do they work?

 

[StinkyAcres]

Do they work?

I haven't tried them. Too pricey for me. Exclusion, snaps traps, and dogs got rid of my rat problem.

 

[thistlewick]

I will have to check into that - I don't mind feeding them, they forage more, which is what they should be doing lol

In some random news; our dog got out yesterday and we were terrified she chased/got chickens --- now to be fair, the chickens come around her a LOT and she just watches them but she's on a run so I have witnessed her chasing them (lightly, just kinda like wheee fun) but more often than not she is just watching them and they come within 10 feet of her.

I called for her -- surprisingly she never ventures far when she gets off the run and she comes when called but she came from the direction of the chicken coop.

We got her re-secured (it's a freakin carabiner with a SCREW tight fastener but she's a Border Collie so for all we know she has hidden thumbs somewhere and loosens it lolol) and I went to check the chickens.

They were calmly foraging in the lawn between the garage and the pasture, not a care in the world.

That freakin doggo is the BEST 8) She must view them as just part of her territory and they are friends. In March it will be a year since we adopted her

I am selling 13 dozen eggs a week at the Farm store, what in the hell is Spring going to be like :O

In the rat arena, I have 3 different cats that trawl the area and I'm keen to let them have their chance. I don't know, I just don't like the idea of trapping them, they are just living their lives. *I* was the dumbass who put the feed out 24/7, I put the shed there that makes a nice dry place to have a burrow under.

Things will sort out lol I have to go out and fetch eggs a couple times a day anyway, bringing a trolley of food with me once isn't a big deal. Annnnnnd, we will likely pave the run area.

I really wish I had dug and buried hardware cloth (we just did an apron and they found the edge of the apron lol) -- but the thing is, those bastards are smart, I am not entirely sure they wouldn't just have gone down below and then up. It is what it is! haha

 

[Chixnbacn]

Lovely set up. I'm surprised that you were able to get chicks, everyone has been posting that they are selling out!

I got them before they were released to the public all you gotta do is ask.

 

[thistlewick]

Oh yeah wanted to show y'all

I finally got an egg with an egg

And I popped that, a yolk and an egg came out:

Pretty blue color hahaha

It was funny because I did not notice who did it, but they laid it AT MY FEET

I was standing there watching them eat after feeding them all and it just appeared there. On the ground in front of me lol

So so cool though.