Why are they being so loud???

[Triple Willow]

We get "Squatch" stories from the locals out here all the time.  At first we thought they were just trying to scare us off - we moved here into the country from a larger city and everyone knew it.  Now, I've found out there's actually quite a large group of menfolk that take off on full moons to try and catch a Sasquatch.  I'd totally dismiss them as crazy, except the knocking I hear on full moons off these ridges and mountains around me are NOT woodpeckers.  LOL

I haven't heard of anybody around where I live out hunting for ol' Sasquatch, but it wouldn't surprise me. lol Yeah in my younger days snakes never concerned me. As kids we were out in the bushes and everywhere else playing "hide and seek" and anything else we could come up with in the pitch dark. I would be at my cousins' house playing many times until dark then walk home through the woods, past the pond and down a woodsy grown up lane, many times barefoot and not think twice about it. Now as an adult, it would take a LARGE, LARGE amount of money to get me to walk that same walk - and I would run! LOL Now I know too much about the habits of snakes to be out too much after dark, especially when it gets hot.

I hope the bunny made it too. If so be better find himself a new place to hang out or he will be a snack for some big ol' snake. About the only thing I like about winter is not having to deal with those creatures!

 

[MontanaDolphin]

Had my babies out yesterday and one of my roos ate a snake!!! It was just a small worm snake, looks like this one but smaller:



I couldn't believe it! My babies are only 6 weeks old...this snake he ate was as long as he was! He caught it in his beak and kept flinging his head so the snake would smash on the ground...like he was trying to stun the snake. Then after smacking it a few times on the ground, he swallowed the whole thing!

 

[Triple Willow]

Had my babies out yesterday and one of my roos ate a snake!!! It was just a small worm snake, looks like this one but smaller: I couldn't believe it! My babies are only 6 weeks old...this snake he ate was as long as he was! He caught it in his beak and kept flinging his head so the snake would smash on the ground...like he was trying to stun the snake. Then after smacking it a few times on the ground, he swallowed the whole thing!

I have a love/hate relationship with snakes. LOL I love the good ones when they do what I want them to: stay out of my way, keep all the mice ate up, don't eat the rabbits or birds, *keep all the venomous snakes away, don't try to come in the house or cars!, etc. But they just don't cooperate a lot of times! lol I even have a couple pet snakes in aquariums. But the venomous ones freak me out! And the big hog sized chicken snakes are going to try to mess with my chickens, I already know. I am looking forward to the chickens putting a dent in the snake population by eating the small ones. I can hanldle loosing some eggs. Shoot I'd even have extra hens just so the snakes would have eggs to eat too. I just hope they don't try to eat all the chickens! A guy was telling me the other day about his chickens ganging up on a 5' long chicken snake and killing it. Worm Snakes are cute. I have only seen three of them in my life. They stay hid in leave litter, loose dirt, etc. They only grow to be about one foot to 18 inches long and are harmless. Too bad your roo didn't kill a copperhead, but good for him anyway.

 

[kynewbchickie]

NICE kill for the roo!

I'm the arachnaphobe in the family...the husband doesn't do snakes...so he takes the spider-in-the-house killing duty and I take on the snakes if we have any. I had to kill my first snake, a copperhead, on a field trip to White Hall State Shrine when I was in 3rd grade. We were playing baseball in the field and another kid started screaming when he saw it. I was up to bat, so I ran over with the bat and disposed of him, grabbed it by the tail, and tossed it over the fence. From that time on, I've not been afraid of them.

After we fence the pasture this weekend, we're going to walk through it very carefully and look for snake holes, and fill them with gravel and dirt, and hope for the best. I've already seen three cowsuckers and two garters this past week, up by our koi pond, sunning on the rocks. We do, however, have a den of blacksnakes down by the garden area and that puts me at ease for venomous snakes...they'll either run them off or kill them. The only snake I'm uneasy about is a water moccasin - we like to go to the local creeks with the kids in the summer, and every time we've seen one, we're out of the creek and leaving pretty quickly. They're too fast in water. :/

 

[nursebecky99]

My new babies are so loud also! 4.5 weeks old, and were super happy in the enclosed compost pen for several hours, but raising heck when I put them back in the much smaller brooder box. I have been weaning the light a lot, its gotten to 80s several days this week and they were piled as far from light as they could last night. They will need tonight i bet, back to 40s at night.

 

[Triple Willow]

NICE kill for the roo!

I'm the arachnaphobe in the family...the husband doesn't do snakes...so he takes the spider-in-the-house killing duty and I take on the snakes if we have any.  I had to kill my first snake, a copperhead, on a field trip to White Hall State Shrine when I was in 3rd grade.  We were playing baseball in the field and another kid started screaming when he saw it.  I was up to bat, so I ran over with the bat and disposed of him, grabbed it by the tail, and tossed it over the fence.  From that time on, I've not been afraid of them.

After we fence the pasture this weekend, we're going to walk through it very carefully and look for snake holes, and fill them with gravel and dirt, and hope for the best.  I've already seen three cowsuckers and two garters this past week, up by our koi pond, sunning on the rocks.  We do, however, have a den of blacksnakes down by the garden area and that puts me at ease for venomous snakes...they'll either run them off or kill them.  The only snake I'm uneasy about is a water moccasin - we like to go to the local creeks with the kids in the summer, and every time we've seen one, we're out of the creek and leaving pretty quickly.  They're too fast in water.  :/

I hate spiders too! I have a bunch of black as well as gray chicken snakes (rat snakes actually) but those silly things will den up and live with a copperhead. I killed a copperhead that I saw coming and going from their den a couple years ago! Now a king snake is the one to have. Which ever kind anybody has in their area will kill and eat other snakes, even venomous ones. I'm not sure how many different kinds of king snakes there are across the country but several. I love king snakes. I am thinking about putting a small one in the hen house to keep the other snakes ran off or killed.

 

[kynewbchickie]

My new babies are so loud also! 4.5 weeks old, and were super happy in the enclosed compost pen for several hours, but raising heck when I put them back in the much smaller brooder box. I have been weaning the light a lot, its gotten to 80s several days this week and they were piled as far from light as they could last night. They will need tonight i bet, back to 40s at night.

We'll be going back down into the 40s tonight, too. Found two of my babies with bleeding injuries (pecking and pulling feathers out) from everyone getting cramped in the brooder, now that they're really putting on the size. I had to make seclusion cages out of poultry fencing and bend the top edges inward to prevent the "patients" from escaping to their continued bullying at nearly 1 a.m. this morning. They're healing up well. I'm keeping a close watch on the whole lot of them to make sure we don't have anymore bullying going on. I can't WAIT to get their pasture fenced on Saturday so they can have the room they need desperately. TSC is out of blue kote (?) but will have another shipment in tomorrow so I'm going to get some for their injuries, even if they're already scabbed up - just to prevent the others from reopening the wounds when they're all turned out this weekend.

Last night's squawking at 11:30 p.m. wasn't normal - I'm glad I went to look, as the EE with the worst injury is now missing 75% of her tail feathers and was bleeding pretty badly - enough for it to stain both her wings and her entire backside. :/

 

[nursebecky99]

We'll be going back down into the 40s tonight, too.  Found two of my babies with bleeding injuries (pecking and pulling feathers out) from everyone getting cramped in the brooder, now that they're really putting on the size.  I had to make seclusion cages out of poultry fencing and bend the top edges inward to prevent the "patients" from escaping to their continued bullying at nearly 1 a.m. this morning.  They're healing up well.  I'm keeping a close watch on the whole lot of them to make sure we don't have anymore bullying going on.  I can't WAIT to get their pasture fenced on Saturday so they can have the room they need desperately.  TSC is out of blue kote (?) but will have another shipment in tomorrow so I'm going to get some for their injuries, even if they're already scabbed up - just to prevent the others from reopening the wounds when they're all turned out this weekend.

Last night's squawking at 11:30 p.m. wasn't normal - I'm glad I went to look, as the EE with the worst injury is now missing 75% of her tail feathers and was bleeding pretty badly - enough for it to stain both her wings and her entire backside.  :

Oh no!
mine haven't gotten mean with each other, yet, and we will have the run fenced in hopefully in another week. They have discovered their wings and flight! I had to chase one escapee for about 10minutes yesterday.

 

[kynewbchickie]

Oh no!
mine haven't gotten mean with each other, yet, and we will have the run fenced in hopefully in another week. They have discovered their wings and flight! I had to chase one escapee for about 10minutes yesterday.

Isn't that always fun? lol!!

 

[mommy of two]

I have about 4 out of 10 chicks that are very loud. Two of them are barred Plymouth Rock and red sex link. They almost seem to be communicating with one another because when one does it they all come running.