Without a trace

[jjthink]

V&E is vitamins and electrolytes. A typical brand carried by feed stores is Durvet (for poultry). You mix with their drinking water. A teaspoon per gallon is probably fine. A small bag will last a long time - can be given in periods of high stress, periods of extreme heat or even just once a month as a boost.

You can also give a drop of Rescue Remedy (Bach flower remedy available at health food stores and many good pharmacies) in water as an aid after a stressful incident.

You can also order Avia Charge 2000 on line, a good all round poultry supplement that you add to their water. (don't do at the same time you use Durvet). The company says it's fine for daily use. I do this but at a lesser concentration than prescribed because the water is too coffee colored with it and they don't much like it. I mix in enough to make a light iced tea color and they will drink that.

JJ

 

[Ms. Lewis Rich]

You better get him strong again with 21 young thangs (Latin Lovelys) and him the only Roo!

 

[dixygirl]

Quote:
Here is the hutch Hoss sleeps in, he jumps in and out and once in for the night we shut the door that swings downward.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o138/IloveJoe_photo/chickens/DSC_0037.jpg

When I got home last night at 10:30 it was empty.

He isn't in the coop yet, I am still predator proofing and trying to figure out where to put the little doors and ramps for the girls.

I see. So he wasn't in that lovely pen, he was in a fenced in yard with no net on it.

Maybe you can go on and put him in the pen during the daytime and herd him back into his enclosed hutch at night. That's what i would do.

PS Sorry to intrude, but I would also change the chicken wire on his hutch with any left over welded wire laying around. or maybe just add it on top of it. Good luck.

 

[ILoveJoe]

Quote:
I think he did, I think once it got dark and Hoss was in his hutch and the door was still open since I wasn't home to close it, Mr. Sneaky Possum tried to get Hoss and thankfully Hoss got away. But not before getting his comb all scratched up.

When I saw the possum it was in the area behind the coop (red buildings) by the bush, I had 2 flashlights in my hands and somehow managed to grab long pieces of bark and strap that possum. I went to grab a big rock and he vanished.

I can't wait to get electricity out there, fighting varmints with flashlight in hand is tough.

 

[ILoveJoe]

Quote:
Thank you, I do have a bag I got at Tractor supply and it clearly says Vitamins and Electrolytes on it. I will serve him his doctored water and his egg on the side.

 

[ILoveJoe]

Ms. Lewis Rich :

You better get him strong again with 21 young thangs (Latin Lovelys) and him the only Roo!

The girls were not impressed this morning when I held Hoss over their brooder. They are getting really cram packed in this carboard melon box. I am afraid to put them outside, there is alot of danger out there!

Need more room!!​

 

[Ms. Lewis Rich]

Boy they are really getting big. They look great. Yes its hard to put them outside with so many dangers, last year late Summer there was a hole in coop wire and a few of our birds dead my Grandson patched up hole next morning all of our chickens dead.
The possom was sleeping in hen house and we closed him in.
We can only learn by our mistakes!!!

 

[ILoveJoe]

So he got in through the patched hole or did it make a new one?

I am really not liking that possum last night lurking behind the soon-to-be-coop. I think he was checking out the defenses so he could rally forces for a later attack.

I suppose I need a hav-a-heart trap and I just have to start trapping everything.

I had to move my cats out of the barn because a raccoon was eating all their food and washing it off in the automatic waterer AND pooping in their litter box. Rude rude rude. So cats get locked in the shed at night.

 

[ILoveJoe]

I have been hesitant to let Hoss out since the attack but I have let him out twice. Both times he has put himself back in that corner of the fence with his head in the red cedar tree!!

Here he is last night. I have to pick him off the fence and carry him back to his hutch. Hubby will NOT do that on the evenings I work late.

What can I do to encourage him to go back in his hutch at night? Should I just leave him locked up for his own safety on night I work? The coop should be chicken safe by the weekend and then I will have to get him to adjust to that environment.

I am using unused metal roofing sections to predator proof the floor and walls. The previous owners had already done 2 of the walls, I just need to do the back wall and front.