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Post by genebo on Aug 18, 2015 0:15:21 GMT
The local Ruritan Club makes and sells bluebird houses. They put them up everywhere. They are the ones that introduced me to snake mesh.
It is the same as bird mesh, that oyu drape over cherry trees to keep the birds out. The difference is that you fold the bird mesh double or triple, loosely. This makes a barrier that a snake cannot pass through. It gets caught in the different layers and can't move.
For a bluebird house, you wrap the support pole loosely with snake mesh. Any snake so bold as to try to eat your baby bluebirds will die. The bluebirds will survive. There is a sort of justice there.
I use it around the bottom of my chicken brooder pen. Chicken wire is no protection. Neither is hardware cloth. This soft plastic mesh is almost perfect protection for my chicks and keets and ducklings.
Every year it traps at least 3 snakes bent on eating my chicks. Twice the snakes have been copperheads. Once I got there before the copperhead died. I cut his head off so I would be safe to pull him out of the mesh. His head kept trying to bite me. Yuk!
Someone once told me not to worry about blacksnakes, because they aren't poisonous. I told him it didn't matter, because if one of them bit me I'd die anyway.
The news: The last surviving duckling is still there for another day. It's two duck mamas are really guarding it closely. It spent the day today in the shadow of its mamas.Here's a picture of the duckling with its mamas. The black wad of stuff around the base of the chicken house walls is snake mesh.
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Post by otf on Aug 18, 2015 0:21:40 GMT
Gene, wow, you really do "wad" that stuff up, don't you? For some reason I thought one would spread it out strategically or something. Well, another couple of months and we won't have to worry about the slithering creatures, unless it's weirdly warm out or something.
Yes, I've seen that mesh around blue bird houses at a state park!!! Didn't know what it was or what its purpose was. Now I do, thank you!
I think that little duckling is going to be quite safe with those two mamas watching out for him. Ain't nothin' like a good mama who pays attention!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2015 18:33:48 GMT
I had Muscovys as a kid. We let the hens raise the ducklings but did pen them up together with the hen until they got old enough to fend for them selves. I don't know if it was necessary or not. They are not very cold hardy and we did have a few whose legs and feet froze solid in the winter. Had to put a heater in an insulated house for the night. My Dominic chickens are very cold tolerant I let them out every day all winter long. There have been a few days where highs were well below zero that I left them in. They also do very well at raising protecting there chicks. It is very rare that I loose a baby chick. When they do get bigger and off on there own but still young. I do loose some I think they venture off to far.
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Post by genebo on Aug 23, 2015 1:30:43 GMT
I was surprised day before yesterday to hear a duckling peeping in the corral. It wasn't the last one of the earlier bunch. It was a new hatch from a nest in top of the barn. The mama duck remained loyal to the nest of eggs. This little fellow was alone in the world.
Soooo, into the brooder he went with the other ducklings and chicks.
Later that afternoon I found 3 more duckling orphans and put them in the brooder, too. Still no sign of the mama duck.
This morning one of the ducklings was dead. It looked to have been stepped on before I put it in the brooder. Up at the barn I found 3 more orphans. One had fallen out of the loft into a deep bucket. Babe heard it moving in the bucket. I put the other two ducklings if the deep bucket and stuck them in the back of the Mule while we fed the goats and released all the poultry, then filled the water tubs and tidied up a bit. I could still hear ducklings, so I climbed up into the loft. There was Mama duck with her last two ducklings. A careful search revealed no more ducklings, so I crawled closer to mama. She flew out of the barn, so I caught her two ducklings and took them down. As soon as I released them she headed straight across the pasture with them, heading for the pond.
That's not good. We have two types of Muscovies: barn ducks and pond ducks. We don't like the pond ducks because they poop on the deck over the pond. Besides, this is the same mama duck that started with 12 ducklings last time and ended with a single survivor. The turtles are an added danger at the pond.
We lucked out, though. At dark, she showed back up at the barn with both ducklings. It only took a few minutes to herd them into the henhouse, where they will be safe from predators.
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Post by otf on Aug 23, 2015 12:00:16 GMT
Whew, baby poultry can sure tire you out and/or drive you crazy! Way to go, Gene!
Gale
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Post by genebo on Sept 6, 2015 20:40:51 GMT
The last of the ducklings from 3 weeks ago is going strong. He has two mama ducks that hover over him.
The mama that hatched a nest full in the barn still has the two I let her keep. They live at the pond and sleep somewhere well hidden. I can't find it.
Last night I put the rest of her ducklings in the hen house, along with 7 older ducklings I hatched in the incubater. Plus 5 chicks. All survived the night except for one chick that got mashed. I needed to move them to the henhouse to make room in the brooder for the chicks that are hatching today and tomorrow.
It's a constant job, keeping the number of birds stabile.
Next week guineas will be hatching, but my numbers are OK already, so they will all be sold. Then another small batch of chicks.
The snake mesh caught one copperhead. It had a mouse in its belly.
I wouldn't usually wad up the snake mesh like in the picture. I was just being lazy. There are no good fastening points for the mesh to go around the henhouse, so I just left it in the loose roll and pushed it up against the wall. Later I laid a board on it to keep it in place. Not fancy, but it does the job.
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Post by otf on Sept 6, 2015 22:24:47 GMT
Genebo, I think cows are far less maintenance than poultry, don't you? LOL! Yesterday, around 5 PM or so, I saw something moving in the big pasture behind the house (no cows there presently). It was a canine, much too big to be a fox, tan in color, heavy coat, probably a coyote?  It was moving through the very tall weeds with effort, turned its head to the left to watch the wild turkeys (which I encourage to live here) and then kept on moving toward the back of the pasture, away from the barn and house. I am merely guessing that it was a coyote for I have never actually seen a live one here, but I know our chickens and guineas are tantalizing to some of those wild things and that makes me uneasy for I like to let our chickens out in the afternoon to "go shopping" and eat real bugs, etc. If it ever manages to rain again, I will bush hog that pasture and then be able to more clearly see things that are roaming about back there. I know that I couldn't bring myself to kill it because I believe all those wild things are just trying to make a living, but I hope and pray it will not find a meal here. I know how foolish that sounds but presently, the only thing here I could consider killing would be the damned rooster that attacks me on a daily basis. Gale |
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Post by genebo on Sept 7, 2015 2:11:36 GMT
I wouldn't doubt that it was a coyote. I never see them here, but the tracks and spoor tell us they are there. They are awfully shy and smart. Every time I lose a larger bird, like a muscovy duck, I blame it on a coyote. Especially if there are no feathers left. They carry the whole bird away and eat it elsewhere. The hunters tell me about seeing coyotes in the cutover behind me. One told me that he was in a tree stand and so many coyotes came by under him that he was afraid to come down. He wouldn't shoot for fear of stirring them up.
I think I spend as much or more feeding poultry as I do feeding the cows and goats. I shouldn't have to, but a long time ago we established a pattern of feeding the birds in the morning so they would come back in the evening. Then we started feeding them in the evening to entice them into the henhouse. I raise some plump birds. The coyotes around here eat well!
I'm sorry to hear about your feisty rooster. I know how it is. I gave a beautiful Olde English Game bantam rooster to a neighbor, to keep her hens company. They loved him, naming him Sir Charles. All was peaceful until he got down to only one hen left. He got to be overprotective and would attack anyone who went near his hen. When a hawk took the last hen, the rooster went berserk. He would try to fight with anything that came near him. One day he attacked the riding lawn mower and got badly chewed up. I went over there and practiced vet medicine without a license. I trimmed off everything that was badly shredded and bandaged him. He ended up with no toes on one foot and one toe on the other. He still acted the same. He was crazy! I offered to trade them another beautiful rooster that was friendly, but they turned me down. The story ended when a hawk ended it. They gathered the pile of feathers and held a funeral.
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Post by otf on Sept 7, 2015 12:31:00 GMT
Hmmmm, it sounds like they need a new rooster!!! I'll make them a super deal!
It is true! Chicken feed is no longer "chicken feed"....a 50# bag of it is about $3 more than a bag of grain for the cattle!
Gale
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Post by Blessings Farms on Sept 7, 2015 16:43:52 GMT
Good job Gene. A campground we once visited had old rooster that would try to
chase you into the phone booth and then strut around outside of it. Everyone
talked about that rooster at other campgrounds too. We heard it chased a young
person one day and the father had enough and killed it.
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Post by genebo on Sept 7, 2015 23:23:43 GMT
I set a large live trap last night, since I had so many new birds at the barn. I caught a cat! I have no idea whether it had been eating the little birds or not, but I took it to the animal shelter, about 9 miles away. I hope they find it a home away from my home.
Hopefully most of these young birds will survive.
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Post by otf on Sept 8, 2015 1:04:22 GMT
I caught our own cat once -- only once. She's a fast learner. I have to psych out the raccoons and play games to catch them (hint: cheap sardines work pretty well). I have caught numerous skunks that I carefully release right here to avoid any accidental sudden moves with the cage and I don't think there have been any repeat skunk vandals.
I hope your birds will grow to adulthood, Gene!
Gale
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Post by genebo on Sept 8, 2015 14:24:38 GMT
They have a better chance after this morning! The snake mesh caught another copperhead and the live trap caught a raccoon. The raccoon went to the national park and the snake went to wherever snakes go when they die.  It was a very foggy morning and the spider webs all glistened with dew. It looked magical.   |
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Post by Blessings Farms on Sept 8, 2015 22:53:27 GMT
Just how big is that snake?
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Post by genebo on Sept 8, 2015 23:47:06 GMT
It was about 20" long. Pretty big for a copperhead, I think. It was caught coming OUT of the chicken pen. Tonight the tiniest little chick you've ever seen was found dead in the pen. It crossed my mind that the snake might have bitten it before getting caught in the mesh. It's a shame about the little chick. It was the last of 4 that were mostly Antwerp Belgium, but had a little Serama blood in the line. This one was notable smaller than the others. The Serama blood coming out, I guess.
Maybe better luck next time. Any time I get too fond of a bird, it's bad news for the bird. Bad luck follows.
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Post by otf on Sept 9, 2015 11:28:20 GMT
Wow, you seem to have a lot of copperheads around there. Wouldn't the snake have eaten the chick before going to the mesh -- or do they wait for the venom to take effect? Do you shoot them or use a shovel? I'll be glad when all the slitherers go underground for the winter.
Like your fog photos! It's foggy here this morning and VERY humid, like 90% humidity or something. Come on, fall!
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Post by lakeportfarms on Sept 9, 2015 13:52:46 GMT
Every time I see a post with a venomous snake I eagerly await the first blast of snow and sub zero temperatures of a Michigan winter that helps keep those things down South, even in our summers.  |
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Post by genebo on Sept 9, 2015 15:05:39 GMT
This is the 6th copperhead we've seen in the last 15 years, so I don't think it's normal to see them. My guess is that a family of them was bron here this year. Hopefully, they will all find their way into the snake mesh.
Gale, I used long handled lopping shears to remove the head. Then I felt comfortable using my hands to try to untangle it from the mesh. Then I dig a deep hole in the garden and recycle it.
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Post by Blessings Farms on Sept 9, 2015 15:34:56 GMT
Ant snake like that is not good. When I take our church youth group to Apillatia to
work we have been worned to watch for a cucumber smell when in close quarters because
that means there could be a cooperhead close by is that true?
That snake looks fat.
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It was moving through the very tall weeds with effort, turned its head to the left to watch the wild turkeys (which I encourage to live here) and then kept on moving toward the back of the pasture, away from the barn and house. I am merely guessing that it was a coyote for I have never actually seen a live one here, but I know our chickens and guineas are tantalizing to some of those wild things and that makes me uneasy for I like to let our chickens out in the afternoon to "go shopping" and eat real bugs, etc. 
