Washingtonians Come Together! Washington Peeps

[Hinotori]

 

 

My arms hurt from moving stuff, but we got another rat. Female in the middle of having her litter. The more aggressive and older ninja silkies in that pen were attacking the thing while Athena had it in her mouth.


I will say that Athena is a wonderful dog. She didn't hardly blink at the featherballs launching at her face. Nor did she retaliate when one got her on accident. She knew they were trying to help.

If you can freeze the dead babies they might be okay to give to a wildlife rescue or someone with a snake for feed. We just put poison out to deal with any rats that wander in our yard but you have fresh killed meat by hunting them. The wildlife center where I am volunteering has to buy frozen rats to feed and they can get expensive. I am sure the raptors would eat wild rats, lol.

The ravens know where I toss dead rats and old eggs. It's already gone.


The large fowl hens got the babies since silkies are never interested in them. The big girls all out fight over them.

that does not surprise me at all the one of my girls found a garter snake today
should have seen that race

Oh man. I've rescued a lot of baby garters from both chickens and cats. Th dogs think they smell interesting but don't attack them

 

[pennyJo1960]

Quote:
The ravens know where I toss dead rats and old eggs. It's already gone.


The large fowl hens got the babies since silkies are never interested in them. The big girls all out fight over them.
that does not surprise me at all the one of my girls found a garter snake today
should have seen that race

Oh man. I've rescued a lot of baby garters from both chickens and cats. Th dogs think they smell interesting but don't attack them
by the time I did step in the snake was in pieces the girls tore it up

 

[Hinotori]

Chickens naturally eat vegetarian. Yeah right egg marketing people.

If they can catch it, and tear it up small enough, they eat it. Everything already small enough goes down whole. Nothing like seeing a hen with a mouse tail dangling out of her beak.

 

[Duck Drover]

The ravens know where I toss dead rats and old eggs. It's already gone.

The large fowl hens got the babies since silkies are never interested in them. The big girls all out fight over them.

Well it is good that they don't go to waste.

 

[Duck Drover]

Chickens naturally eat vegetarian. Yeah right egg marketing people.

If they can catch it, and tear it up small enough, they eat it. Everything already small enough goes down whole. Nothing like seeing a hen with a mouse tail dangling out of her beak.

Maybe that is why in all my years of raising chickens I have never had a problem with mice, only rats! This is the only place I have lived where rats were an issue, though. There are cats all over but they must not mess with rats because they wander in from somewhere.

The fleas and mites and worms are also more of an issue in this area of the country because there is no frozen winter cycle. I don't mind the warm rain at all but it takes more effort to combat pests.

 

[Duck Drover]

Oh man. I've rescued a lot of baby garters from both chickens and cats. Th dogs think they smell interesting but don't attack them

I have not seen any snakes here but I saw them everywhere when we lived in Issaquah. I was afraid they would get the baby bunnies because they were always near the rabbit cages in large numbers.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Quote: We have moles and a few mice no rats the dogs or cats have brought up... I pray we had enough freeze this
year to kill some life cycle of fleas you can imagine our cost for advantage with our herds

 

[Duck Drover]

 We have moles and a few mice no rats the dogs or cats have brought up... I pray we had enough freeze this
year to kill some life cycle of fleas you can imagine our cost for advantage with our herds

We have had moles here but not as bad as other places. I nearly killed myself by accidently snorting the blue powder on the mole bait years ago. If my ex had not come home early that day and questioned me about being in bed I would have died. I was feeling sick after putting it down the holes but did not realize I had poisoned myself with strichnine. I was getting stiff before I even knew it was killing me.

 

[Hinotori]

It seems to come in batches. Dogs will eventually kill off the rats and we'll be free of them for 3-12 months. Then some move in.

There is a huge variety of rodents out here when we get rid of the rats. Voles, moles (I've seen 2 species), shrews, mice (at least 3 species).

The Pacific Jumping Mouse was probably the oddest ones. I've never managed to save them from the cats or dogs.


Cats aren't good at rat control. Rats are too big. Dogs have historically always been used. And ferrets. Whole reason ferrets were domesticated centuries ago.

There are so many ratter breeds of dog. It's been tempting to get one to help Athena. I think schipperkes may be the only non-terrier ratter.

 

[Hinotori]

 We have moles and a few mice no rats the dogs or cats have brought up... I pray we had enough freeze this
year to kill some life cycle of fleas you can imagine our cost for advantage with our herds

We have had moles here but not as bad as other places. I nearly killed myself by accidently snorting the blue powder on the mole bait years ago. If my ex had not come home early that day and questioned me about being in bed I would have died. I was feeling sick after putting it down the holes but did not realize I had poisoned myself with strichnine. I was getting stiff before I even knew it was killing me.

Dang! Be careful with that!