A Duck Tail of Woe

This is both a tail of woe and a tale of woe.

M.O.M. (Mother of Muscovies) and Big Duck

We keep one breeding pair of Muscovy ducks (because Muscovies are very prolific and one pair produces more than enough ducks!) In April Mama Duck hatched out a dozen eggs. Once the ducklings were grown she decided to set again. I don't know if that's typical for Muscovies, but she hid her nest so well there was no way to discourage her. For her nesting spot, she chose a place in the thick hedge of Beauty Bushes on the side of our front yard. Once or twice a day she would show up for water, something to eat, and a bath.

One day she didn't appear at her one of her usual times. She didn't show up the next day either, nor the day after that. We began to fear something had happened to her. Then the neighbor two doors down came by to say they had found a duck which apparently a dog had gotten. It appeared to be injured, but was alive. Could it possibly be M.O.M.?

We went to go see and sure enough, it was M.O.M.! She seemed to be okay but was missing most of her tail and couldn't fly very well. But would she let us catch her? No way! After chasing her all over their yard we finally went home in hopes she'd return on her own. Two days later she did.

Half of her tail feathers had been pulled out.

We can only assume that she walked! Big Duck was ecstatic!

After she got food, water, and a bath she waddled up the driveway to check on her nest, but she wasn't gone long. It had been too many days and assuming the eggs were still there, they were cold with the ducklings lost.

About a week later another neighbor came over to warn us that he thought he'd heard coyotes the night before. He said it sounded like someone was getting killed, although he didn't see anything. We have coyotes on occasion, but so far they've never been a problem. Could that have been what tried to get M.O.M?

The next day we heard a ruckus somewhere beyond the back of our woods. It sounded like - coyotes! The sound sent all of our cats scrambling for hiding spots. All four of them had been choosing to sleep indoors lately, which we thought odd, but obviously they knew something we didn't?

Able to fly again and pretty much back to normal.

That night Dan made rounds several times to keep an eye on things. When he shined the flashlight up the driveway he saw what he thought at first was a dog, but realized it was indeed a coyote!

Coyotes normally don't bother us, but their diet does include small animals. A few folks around here keep chickens, but we have the most animals in the area.  Folks with goats, like me, worry about them, of course, especially when the kids are small. Mostly coyotes don't attack adult deer or goats, but apparently it depends on the pack. Some packs are more aggressive, so a wise stewards will take measures to protect their herds and flocks.

All of this "comes with the territory," as Dan likes to say. We do our best to protect our critters from predators, but the reality is that predators do get some of our poultry on occasion. Hopefully the coyotes will pass on through like the others we've seen before them.

A Duck Tail of Woe © September 2017 by 

Leigh  at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Problems With Paypal: A Cautionary Tale

How many of you keep tabs on what's going on with your bank account? Do you trust the companies you do online business with to take out only what you authorize? If you don't regularly monitor the activity on your accounts, well, of course you should.

Last month I noticed a Paypal deduction for about $36, but I couldn't recall what it was for. I have to say that the ability to pay after delivery has muddied the waters a bit here, because a Paypal deduction on my bank statement doesn't tell me to whom the money was sent, only that Paypal deducted it. I have to keep my own records, which I do. But I couldn't find neither order receipt nor order confirmation for any such amount.

There was nothing on my Paypal activity webpage, so I became concerned. I filed a suspicious activity case in the Paypal resolution center, received an auto-email reply with a case number, and was told I'd hear back within a certain amount of time.

Two months passed, I'd heard nothing, and there was no record of either open or closed cases on my resolution page. Eventually I found a phone number, punched in my case #, and got a recorded message informing me that in July 2016 I'd made a claim for so many pounds sterling but the case was decided in favor of the seller. HUH????? I looked back through my July 2016 activity, found one purchase I'd made from Great Britain, but for a different amount. However, I'd received the product, was happy with it, and in checking my bank account, they were indeed paid. If I was trying to get my money back I think I would have remembered that and pressed the issue long before a year had passed!

The only way I could protest was to open another case file, but that one has been dismissed as well. I was told I would find more information on my resolution page, but that says I have zero open cases and zero closed cases, so there is no record of any of it. Of course these email notifications come from no-reply email addresses, so there is no way to ask questions.

In browsing complaints on the Paypal community forum, I see increasing complaints of folks feeling scammed. I realize some of these will be sour grapes, but I don't think it's sour grapes to have a legitimate concern about why Paypal helped themselves to money from my account and isn't being forthcoming with enough details to convince me that it was a legitimate deduction. Fortunately I'm only out $36. But it could have been $136 or $336 and there would have been nothing I could do about it, especially since Paypal doesn't need my authorization to do this.

Do you remember when price scanners first hit the stores? People were suspicious of them so stores would give you the item for free if it scanned differently than the price on the shelf. Now I find items regularly scan for higher than the price on the shelf. Sometimes they'll correct it at the cash register for you, sometimes they won't. But that's assuming you catch it.

Another thing that bothers me are those introductory gimmick prices. So many months for one price and then the regular price. Except that the fine print rarely discloses what the regular price is. Charter got us on that one, but with a different twist. If you pay attention to Charter adverts, then you know they offer 12 months discount and then the regular price. With us, the price with up again after our second 12 months at the "regular price." When I called to find out what was going on, I was told that was our agreement, i.e. a second price hike after 24 months. But no where have they ever advertised that, and of course it was all done over the phone so we have no documentation. I think I would have remembered something like that!

And here's one more. Do you keep track of those "authorization holds" placed on your account any time you use a debit or credit card? Usually these are for the exact amount of purchase, but some restaurants, hotels, motels, and gas stations  add on anywhere from $25 to $100 or more above the purchase price. We learned about these several years ago when our bank statement showed we'd been overcharged for a motel room. Usually these holds "fall off" when the bank processes them, but sometimes they don't, as in our case. Fortunately Dan was able to get a live person to tend to the problem and we got a refund, but it was a hassle nonetheless.

Folks, are you paying attention? It's so easy to shrug off a little here and a little there, because it's such a battle to correct a problem. No, I'm not hollering "conspiracy," but the larger any system gets, the easier it is for mistakes, glitches, sloppiness, lack of caring, or downright dishonesty to cause problems. And the larger the system, the more layers of bureaucracy get piled on to increase it's ineffectiveness at solving problems. With our entire economic system being reduced to digital numbers on a screen, it's a disaster just waiting to happen.

This is two rants from me within four weeks! I must be getting ornery in my old age. 😁

Problems With Paypal: A Cautionary Tale © Aug 2017 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Milling the Big Ones

Some of you have asked if upgrading the goat shed was going to take the place of building the new barn. The answer to that is no, because we've always planned to build a proper workshop with storage someday. The goat shed will become that once the barn is done. So once Dan finished putting the new roof on the old goat shed, he thought he'd better finish milling the girders and posts for the new barn.

The logs were already down and sitting in the driveway, but a problem had developed which needed tending to. Plus, it was beginning to look like it's going to be awhile before building can begin, and Dan wanted all the lumber to have approximately the same curing time.

What was that problem? Pine bark beetle. Bark beetles infest the inner bark of trees and can be very destructive. They kill trees by disrupting the sap flow to the leaves. Removing infested trees is part of the management protocol, so cutting and milling our own lumber is hopefully helpful in that regard. At a certain point in the beetles' life cycle they make a curious clicking sound from under the bark of the tree, and the remainder of Dan's cut logs were clicking.

Once the new roof was secure Dan put on his lumberjack hat once again and recruited some help.

This is "Sister," the last of our Speckled Sussex
and one of our two oldest hens. She knew what to do.

Dan peeled sections of the bark off.

This exposed pine bark beetle larva.

Sister cleaned them up including the ones that fell to the ground

That was the easy part. Getting the logs onto the sawmill track was a bit trickier. How did he manage that by himself?

He made ramps of a sort with angle iron and pushed the logs up with the drawbar on the back of the tractor.

Then the milling could begin.

This presented another set of challenges because the logs are really too big for our little sawmill. Cutting down with the ripping chain was necessary.

Wedges helped.

Sister remained on duty, just in case,

but the snoopervisors kept their distance
because the whole business was too noisy.

That particular log gave Dan one 6x6, two 2x6s, and three 2x10s. He would have gotten more if the trunk hadn't been curved. From the other huge logs I showed you in the first photo, he got five 15-foot 6x12s, plus some 1- and 2-inch boards to be cut to size as he needs them.

So there it is, the bones of the new barn, all properly stacked, stickered, and covered. Summer staycation is almost over, so these will have to sit for awhile. Happily everything will be cured and ready to go when it's time to build.

Milling the Big Ones © July 2016 by Leigh 

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

No Hope for Ducklings?

When the Muscovies started laying eggs, they did so in the goat shed. I was always amazed that their eggs didn't get stepped on, considering how close they laid them to the much-visited hay feeder. After seeing the chickens lay their eggs in the hay feeder, the ducks started laying there too. They didn't mind pushing the chickens out of the way and my poor broody hen was forever losing her chosen setting spot. No matter, I didn't think the goat shed was a good place for either of them to raise babies - too many goat feet around.

About a week or so ago I could only count four ducks. There should have been five. We began to suspect that, like our first drake, one of the ducks had been taken by an owl. In some ways that didn't seem all that likely because the ducks are actually pretty heavy; they barely can fly to the top of the goat shed to roost at night. It would have taken a pretty stout owl to carry one off. But there were no body remains and no other explanation as to what might have happened.

Last Sunday we found half of a duck eggshell in front of the cattle panel hay hut. There was a little blood inside the shell but no trace of the rest of it. The ducks have never laid outside the goat shed or chicken coop, so it was another puzzle.

The next day Dan said he heard one of the ducks putting up a terrible fuss. He went to see what it was and saw her on the ground near the hay hut, wrestling a huge rat snake! He dispatched the snake immediately and watched the duck head back under the hay house platform. He peered underneath and could see her settling down in the farthest back corner.

A quick head count told us that was our missing duck! She has been hiding under there for a week at least, maybe more! That can mean only one thing - she's sitting on eggs.

With the snake gone we thought all was well until dusk when I went to close up the chicken coop and shut the gates. I found another duck eggshell in about the same spot; this one had a hole bitten out in order for something to get to the contents. Considering all the trouble we had with rats several years ago, Dan set the rat trap and placed it under the hay hut to one side. It was empty the next morning.

Two days later Dan found another rat snake in one of the compost bins. We're hoping that there was only two of them and that's an end of the problem.

I read that Muscovy eggs take an average of 33-37 days to hatch. I don't really recollect exactly when our duck "disappeared," so my best guess is that if she has any eggs left and something doesn't get them, we just might see ducklings somewhere toward the end of the month.

No Hope for Ducklings? © June 2016 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Skunks Again

The other night about 2 a.m. Dan and I were awakened by the strong smell of a skunk. Dan went out to check but didn't see it. My concern is for my lone, remaining beehive.

Daylily Hive with skunk guard

Apparently skunks think honeybees are quite a delicacy. Skunks are nocturnal and so work at night, but are still able to bother a hive by scratching at the entrance. Guard bees come out to investigate and the skunk finishes them off. It's a problem that can decimate a colony and even drive them off to find new quarters.

A popular skunk deterrent is a "bed of nails" placed in front of the hive. Nails can be driven through a thin piece of plywood or carpet scrap and placed with nail points upward so that a skunk would have to walk on them to get to the hive entrance. I didn't want to do that because of our cats, but I liked the fence idea given to me by fellow beek RonC. Apparently striped skunks (the kind we have here) aren't climbers and won't attempt to get over the fence.

It took a ten-foot length of welded wire to completely circle the concrete base on which the hive sits (repurposed brick pillar tops saved from our front porch demolition). I cut the four-foot wide fencing down a bit so I can still remove the top of the hive. It's held together in a circle by carabiners.

So far so good. Let's just hope it stays that way.

Skunks Again © May 2016 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Around The Homestead

So what have you all been up to while I've been on blog break? Besides working on Critter Tales, here's my news.

Weather

We've been getting a lot of rain lately: 2 inches during the last week of September, 2.75 inches during the first week of October, and over an inch yesterday. One thing it's done is to give me a chance to evaluate the improvements I did earlier this year to our natural swales.

There's still some runoff down the hill, but not as much as there used to be. The worst of all this rain has been what it's done to our corn.

Unwelcome Guest

One morning, as I went into the goat shed to feed the goats and do the milking, something scampered out of the feed room. Must be one of the cats, I thought. I called, but no cat came forward, so I took a look and saw a raccoon tail. I knew they were around, but so far we'd never seen them. Very cute, but unfortunately they will kill chickens. In fact, the next morning Dan heard a panic in the chicken yard and found the raccoon there. A chicken head count revealed one missing, but without a chicken body it's impossible to guess what happened. Needless to say, I'm going to try out a new recipe or two and Dan would like to try his hand at hide tanning.

Cheese Making

I've just gotten started on this year's hard cheeses. More on that in an upcoming post.

Nuts

Happily, the squirrels didn't get all the pecans after all. We'll have pecans for us and also acorns for the goats and pigs. I'm happy about that because the last two years were poor in the pecan production department.

Winter Numbers

We've been working on getting our livestock numbers down to what we call "winter level." This is our minimum number of each critter type, to make sure we can feed them all properly and house them in bad weather without overcrowding. Next spring we'll see expansion once again with baby chickens, goats, and pigs.

Sneak Peek

This is my current favorite idea for a Critter Tales cover. I'm thinking about updating my five-year-old blog avatar, so that one photo would change. What do you think?

Winter Pasture

The mild, rainy weather has been good for sowing winter pasture. I've been seeding all the spotty areas using a modified Fukuoka method. More on that next time.

And ...

More misadventures in goat breeding. Stay tuned.

So tell me how October has been going for you so far.

 Around The Homestead © Oct. 2015
by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Hornet Trap

The other day Dan came in and said he'd just seen a huge hornet, close to two inches in length. I immediately thought of the Asian Giant Hornets I read about on a beekeeping website. These predators steal both honey and bee larvae, and, according to Wikipedia, can wipe out entire colonies of honeybees in a matter of hours. It was worrisome to think they were beginning to show up in our neck of the woods.

The next day I stepped out onto the back porch and heard a loud buzzing over my head. I looked up and saw what appeared to be a huge hornet checking out carpenter bee holes. It was easily about two inches long. Before I could think to react it flew away. It was back again the next day. I decided I had better start making hornet traps.

A 1 liter bottle, cheap wine, banana, and a bit of honey

Tipi shaped holes are cut near the top of the bottle. Flaps are folded inward

A couple inches of wine is poured into the bottle, with
a drizzle of honey and a few chunks of ripe banana.

I hung the first one off the porch roof near where we'd seen the hornets.

We haven't seen it since, but the concern for our honeybees remains. I'll get a couple more of these set up and we'll see what happens.

Hornet Trap © June 2015 by Leigh

at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Baby Chickens Report

It didn't take long before our chicks outgrew their box in the pantry and needed bigger quarters. I decided to go ahead and move them into the chicken coop. Before we could do that, however, we needed to set things up to accommodate them.

The first thing we had to do something about was the roost.

"Tree" roost right after it was built.

I love the idea of the tree roost, but in reality it didn't turn out to be very practical. For one thing, some of the less intelligent birds had a hard time figuring out how to get up and down. For another, since the bars were permanently placed, it was difficult to clean out under. We decided to go back to a conventional style roost with removable roosting bars.

(Notice the peeling whitewash? A new coating is on my to-do list)

That left better room for a brooding pen for the baby chicks.

My baby Australorp chicks

All was well for the first couple of days. Then one morning I discovered three chicks were missing. After our last incident of disappearing chicks, we were pretty sure it was rats. I beefed up security, added screens over the top, and Dan set up the animal trap. So far so good.

Hopefully this is rat-proof. The window screens add a "roof" to the pen.

I feel kinda bad for these little guys with no mama.

We currently have 14 chicks

Not that she could protect them from predators, but because there is no one to teach them about finding food and to fuss over them the way mama hens do. I believe that everything that is intended to have a mother ought to have one. Fortunately, none of the hens is hostile toward the invaders in their coop. A rooster might have something to say about it, but we have no rooster at the moment except for the little up and comers. Hopefully they'll all make it.

Baby Chickens Report © May 2015 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Of Cats, Songbirds, & The Way Things Are

I received a comment on my "The Catchers" post which has been on my heart to answer. Unfortunately the comment has since disappeared, so I could not answer it there, but I felt strongly enough about it to address it in a blog post. I had apparently offended this person because in the comments I stated, "I agree that I hate it when they catch birds (Katy usually) but there's no way to break that. My dad refused to have a cat for that reason. Still, the other destructive critters make it worth it to have some control. I suppose it's always a balance, isn't it?" The commenter focused on the "worth it" and took me to task.

When we first bought our place we had several rat snakes in residence. I've watched them slither up trees to raid nests. Dan found a dead one and cut it open to discover a full grown bird digesting in its belly. Snakes also rob chicken nests of eggs and baby chicks. They eat mice too, but is that a good trade-off? We find that when we keep the rodent population down, we have fewer snakes.

Last summer we lost six chicks to what we eventually figured out was a rat. That's when we decided to get more cats.

It is true that if we either did not have cats or kept them in the house, some birds would not be killed. The flip side to that coin is that we would have an ever increasing population of mice, rats, and snakes. Given the choice, which would you prefer? Unfortunately, there is no "none of the above" in life.

In the big picture, cats are not the only thing that hunt and kill songbirds. In our area hawks, owls, rats, and rat snakes prey on birds. Crows, blue jays, grackles, cowbirds, squirrels, and chipmunks rob nests. Some will be quick to point out that domestic cats are biggest threat to birds. That is very likely true in areas where there is a high population of domestic cats and a low population of vermin, i.e. urban and suburban areas. In rural areas, where there is a lower density of domestic cats, they will find a larger variety of things to hunt. However, I'm not interested in arguing that point with anybody.

When one lives close to nature in the way the farmer or homesteader does, one discovers a politically inconvenient truth; that nature is neither kind nor benevolent. It is, in fact, violent and cruel. No amount of technology, knowledge, human intelligence, nor tampering with it can change that.

I think the real issue is that there is a huge experiential divide between those who live in urbanized areas and those who live off the land. Unfortunately, this divide has nothing to do with reality, reason, and logic, but everything to do with opinion and emotion. This is why some discussions go nowhere but in circles. But does argument and criticism really help solve the problem or create new ones?

The beloved Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote

"I should like to sentence the ex-governor who vetoed the state bounty on hawks to make his living raising chickens."  Little House in the Ozarks: The Rediscovered Writings

Does that mean she was a hawk hater? Or a politician hater? Some would jump at the chance to say so. More to the point is that we become so bound up in our emotional point of view that we forget there is another, usually valid, side of the story. We ignore the old proverb about walking a mile in another's shoes. If one has only seen beautiful, graceful deer in zoos, for example, it is so easy to rail against the farmer or gardener who is at wits end because the deer destroy all the corn. (Ever read The Yearling?)

I will be the first to admit that humans are the most destructive creatures on the planet. So what are the options? Argue about it? Further reform the educational system? Create laws and political campaigns to restrict everyone because of some? Genetically modify cats so as to remove their hunting instinct? Anonymously criticize and belittle others who have different opinions and experiences? Punish them by no longer visiting their blog or website?

So, was I really saying it's okay for my cats to kill birds? Those who interpreted the phrase in context know I did not. Perhaps it would have helped if I'd mentioned in that post that most of the things my cats catch they do not kill. Instead they try to bring them into the house to play with! Most of their catches never make it beyond the back porch, and I cannot tell you how many live birds, chipmunks, and mice we've had to catch ourselves (not so easy when they're hiding behind the washing machine!). The birds we set free, the rodents we dispose of ourselves. We finally had to lock the kitty door to one way only - out.

Still, my cats do occasionally kill birds. Do I like that? No.  Do I wish they didn't? Yes. Will I imprison them in the house because of it? No. They are doing what they were created to do and that is a necessary function on our homestead. They are earning their keep. I will not apologize for that.

Well, I'll tuck my soapbox away now for another while. The person I'm responding to will never read this because they vowed off my blog. Still, the sentiment is sadly all too common. Intolerance takes on many forms, but it always begins to create a very small, suffocating world. May we learn to respect one another enough to not to contribute to that.

Of Cats, Songbirds, & The Way Things Are © June

2014 by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Where Oh Where Did My Guineas Go???

This is the sad story of how we suddenly became guinea-less.

Of all our critters, I think the guineas were my favorite. We got them as keets to clean up our tick problem. What we discovered, is that they are unique and remarkable birds. They have personality, and opinions! Ours came when they were called, ("guineaguineaguinea") and usually spent the night in their guinea house.

The most common question folks ask about them is, are guineas really as noisy as they are reputed to be? The answer is yes. They are loud and noisy sometimes, at other times, they chirp and twitter amongst themselves like songbirds. The other problem is that they roam.

The noise and roaming were always potential problems because we have neighbors near the front of the property. As long as the guineas stayed away from the road, no problem. True, they would often hop the fences to check things out next door, but there had never been complaints. The neighbors on the one side had lots of acreage and likely never noticed. Our neighbors on the other side have chickens, so occasional stray birds on either side of the fence (theirs or ours) is mutually accepted. If only things would have stayed that way.

When the guineas wandered too far we'd go bring them back. They would come for chicken scratch when called, and could usually be distracted by being allowed into the chicken yard. For some reason they loved the chicken yard and would happily spend the afternoon there (much to the indignation of the chickens). Even so, it was a chore to keep retrieving them.

One day the guineas were being particularly naughty. They decided they were going to go across the street. We'd already had several go-rounds with one of our neighbors, about their dog doing its business on our property, and wanted to keep things amicable. Having our 9 guinea fowl continually exploring others' neat, trim, suburban looking yards didn't seem a good way to keep things neighborly.

Anyway, I had to go get the guineas several times. None of the usual distractions worked, and the last time I went to fetch them, they balked when they got into the street. To make matters worse, a pick-up truck came barreling over the hill and had to stop because of them. I'm out there waving my arms and trying to herd them to our side of the road, they're all screaming at the truck, and the driver is making faces and hand gestures to let me know that having to wait 20 seconds for me to get my birds out of the road was not acceptable.

As I herded them toward the back of their property, I debated what to do. As much as we loved and wanted the guineas, the nine noisy wanderers were really too many. Keeping track of them was becoming a full time job. I began to understand why the job of herding animals was often given to youngsters in days gone by. Still, I needed to do something immediately.

In the end, I took them back to their house and used chicken scratch to get most of them to go inside. I closed the door, posted an ad for free guineas on craigslist, and waited by the phone. Seven of them were locked up, two were still on the loose, and I figured two would be a better number for our situation than nine.

The folks who took them were trying to get their own little place together. They didn't live close so there was no chance of the guineas coming home. It was hard for me to watch them go and I kept hoping a few others would get away too. It was amazing how quite the place was after they left.

The interesting thing about the two remaining birds is that they were not only on the bottom of the guinea pecking order, they were guinea rejects. The others would continually chase them away and not let them come in the coop at night. It took forever to get the guineas put up in the evening because the last one was afraid to go in with the others. I'd seen them attack it several times. But it always went in, which I felt was safer than leaving it out all night as easy picking for some predator.

About a week later I went to feed our two guineas and they were gone. Dan had seen them at about 2:30 that afternoon and I discovered they were missing around 5, so they disappeared within a several hour timespan. We'd been outdoors and never heard them holler and fuss, so we have no clue as to what happened. Did something get them? Did they decide to leave? Did a fed up neighbor pick them off? Did someone think they were wild turkeys or oddball pheasants?

The other night Dan woke up and went to look out the window. He thought he saw something run by and went outside to investigate. While he stood there in the dark, something came running across the road. At first he thought it might be a large fox. A second one followed and he shined the flash light on them. It was coyotes, likely the same ones our neighbor told us about last summer. Right now, that seems the most probable reason for the last two guineas' disappearance.

I've not given up on having guineas, but will definitely not mail order them next time. The minimum order of birds was too many for our situation. Maybe next summer, if I get a broody hen, I'll see if I can buy a couple keets locally and graft them onto her.

So that's the tale of our brief career as guinea wranglers.

Where Oh Where Did My Guineas Go??? © December 2013 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

More Problems With Predators

We lost two more of our young chickens to predators, although I'm not entirely certain as to the culprit. I found the first new victim early one morning next to the coop, headless. Several of the young chickens had managed to spend the night in the cedar tree in the chicken yard. Something had plucked one out of the tree and killed it.

I found the second one several days later. This time in the pasture next to the farthest fenceline. It was midafternoon and I had just been out there a few hours before. This chick was also headless.

3 month old pullets and cockerels: Buff Orpingtons,
Speckled Sussex, and Silver Laced Wyandottes .

Quite a few chicken predators consume only the head and crop. Most of them, however, hunt either at night or during the day. Did that mean we had two different predators, a night hunter and a day hunter? Dan set out the live animal traps and I made sure all chickens were in the coop before closing up at night. I also changed the chickens free range area, directing them to the front pasture with the bucks.

We had already lost 7 young chicks to a rat and did not want to lose any more. Even though the chicks were now too big to be attacked by rats, we discovered that the "barn" was infested with them! I saw two in the coop when I did a night check, and Dan could hear them running in the walls.

Speckled Sussex pullets drinking whey from cheese making.

Our chicken coop/goat shed is an old building (as in about 85 years old) that has gone through several transformations. At some point, someone poured a concrete floor and put up paneling to turn it into a workshop. We turned it into a home for our critters and haven't had problems with rodents until this year. Now the rats had tunneled under the concrete floor and had a series of entries and exits into the walls and all around the building. Except for the chick killer we caught in a live animal trap, all the rest had deftly avoided all attempts to catch them. After searching YouTube, Dan build this.....

YouTube inspired rat trap. I don't have the video address for you, sorry.

A PVC pipe and elbow runs from a rat hole up to a tub of water. A strip of old towel in the pipe offers traction, and peanut better at the mouth of the elbow is the bait. The rats fall into the tub and drown. The fellow who invented this said he successfully disposes of rats on an ongoing basis.

The next morning we approached this contraption with anticipation. No joy. However, inside the chicken coop, I discovered this....

Snake skin

.... a newly shed snake skin.

This story is already long enough, so to shorten it up a bit, I can tell you that we never drowned a rat in the YouTube rat trap, but all the rats vacated thanks to that snake.

Dan did find the snake, a black snake, under the nest boxes. He removed it to the back of our property, and released it in the woods. If it would only catch and eat mice and rats we wouldn't have minded it being around, but they also eat eggs. He also ended up catching two possums, one in a live animal trap and one in the fig tree. They are gone now too.

Total loss from predation this year has been 9 out of 25 chicks. We're hoping that will be the end of it, but now we're entering autumn hawk migration. I reckon it all just comes with the territory.

More Problems With Predators © September 2013 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Coyote Sighting

Our neighbor came by yesterday to let us know that he had just seen two coyotes passing across the back of his property toward the back of ours. Because coyotes haven't been seen around here in a long time, he initially thought they might be German Shepherds. As he observed their behavior and play, he realized they were coyotes. This is not good news.

Does and kids

We live outside of a small town which has it's shopping centers and housing developments, but is surrounded by a lot of rural land. Of wildlife we've personally seen deer, opossums, rabbits, groundhogs, fox, and wild turkey. There is, however, little agriculture. Our town, like many others, was based on textile mills which have long since closed down. This not farming country. There are some who keep cattle, horses, or Boer goats, and quite a few of these grow hay, but there are plenty of folks who simply keep a humongous lawn surrounding their house. It's not uncommon to see folks out on their tractors with mowing attachments, mowing acres and acres of ground just to keep it trim. Even our Cooperative Extension Office caters to this; ask them for information on what grows well in the area and you'll walk away with a stack of landscaping literature.

Guinea keets, 10 days old

Not surprisingly, our neighbor's news means we have been seriously discussing our options. I've been researching the hunting habits of coyotes as well as how to protect livestock. Articles suggest things like fencing (7 feet tall recommended with one foot buried, also electric), lighting, housing, human presence as a deterrent, and guard animals (donkeys were at the top of the list followed by llamas, then dogs).

I regret that our two livestock guardian dogs didn't work out. Our Great Pyrenees was more interested in chasing our chickens and goats than protecting them, and our Bernese Mountain Dog died of complications of Lymes Disease (which was why we got our Guinea keets.)

5 week old baby chickens and Mama Hen

I'm sure those of you with experience have quite a few tales to tell, as well as advice to give. On the internet I've found several helpful informational sights to start:

• Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management
• Coyotes
• Control and Management of Coyotes
• Are Coyotes Troubling You?
• How To Protect Goats From Coyotes

Our goats, poultry, and cat are potential targets, but there are plenty of deer, rabbits, and groundhogs around so at least these coyotes aren't starving.

Riley,  a good night hunter, has lately been very cautious exiting the house.

Still, we need to be on guard and do all we can to protect our critters. It seems a variety of measures would work best. We've started by locking the goats up at night. The rest, we have yet to figure out.

Coyote Sighting © July 2013 by Leigh at 

http://www.5acresandadream.com/

Chick Killer Caught

It took three tries to get it, but we finally caught our chick killer. It was a rat, and it managed to kill seven chicks before we got it.

7 of our chicks have been killed. 

Why it didn't go for the bait in the rat traps is a mystery; we've never before had a rat turn its nose up at peanut butter and cheese. This one, however, preferred raw chicken to grains, legumes, and cheese. We used a raw store bought chicken neck as bait. It couldn't resist that.

It wasn't heavy enough to trip the trap door the first night, so it made clean away with the bait. The second night Dan added some weight to the trip plate, but it gnawed most of the chicken neck from the outside of the cage. Finally, Dan secured the neck with wire in the cage so that the critter had to enter.

The concern now is whether or not there are more of them. We'll continue setting the trap for awhile, just to make sure there isn't something else.

Chick Killer Caught © July 2013 

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com/