Pendergrass Ranch - Big changes!

[PendergrassRanch]

Love the pics. It is fun to see our animals out enjoying themselves.

Its even better to see them out there and not have to worry about that part of the fence anymore! I still have to go connect the hot tape. I'm going to add a line along the bottom to keep the goats off the inside of the fence as well. I am so happy though. That little stretch of fence was my biggest worry because of dogs entering and small goats exiting.

Jody stayed home from work today. She usually goes to work with Drew every day because she has SA and needs to be with her Papa. We really need to invest in a metal crate for her. She breaks out of all our regular wire crates. A good solid aluminum one would be really nice JUST in case we have an emergency. We really can't be worrying about her breaking out of the house because she is concerned about Drew.

She is good today though. She must be tired because she hasn't moved since he left 2 hours ago. Normally she worries at the window or paces. Its kind of nice!

 

[PendergrassRanch]

I am not having luck with these little rascally pullet chicks that I traded my ducks for. Good thing I also got 3 wonderful hens in the deal because I have lost 2 of my favorite of the pullets and one roo. I don't know why the first one died, then I am pretty sure a cat got the other pullet. I just found one of the roos dead as well.

Hopefully the others hold up. I quite like the remaining 3.

 

[PendergrassRanch]

A woman came by today to check out the goats that I still have for sale.

Cobra (lightest one from first group), is seriously the sweetest goat ever. She is the only one that will come right up to you and climb your leg. She lives for back scratches. I just love her and I wouldn't be upset if she didn't sell

I joked that she turned on all her charm for this woman. Came right up, basically crawled in her lap and just stayed there. Why couldn't she have run away and pretended that she hated people? HAHA



I think a crow is preying on my little chicks. Every time I go out there, this HUGE crow is sitting on the fence above their pen.

We are going camping this weekend. I'm excited to fish and do nothing for a couple days. My parents are house sitting so they get a vacation too

 

[Southern by choice]

Crows won't do anything to your chickens...they are probably looking for scratch grains.
Crows can bring in disease but they benefits are they keep the hawks away. Crows hate hawks and will chase them away.
Years ago, before the adding of geese, goats,and LGD's we had a serious hawk problem... we had a crow caller and the crows would come in and chase off the hawks.

 

[PendergrassRanch]

Crows won't do anything to your chickens...they are probably looking for scratch grains.
Crows can bring in disease but they benefits are they keep the hawks away. Crows hate hawks and will chase them away.
Years ago, before the adding of geese, goats,and LGD's we had a serious hawk problem... we had a crow caller and the crows would come in and chase off the hawks.

I've already lost 2 chicks and I haven't seen any cats around except my own. My cat is always in the garage though. I'm pretty darn sure it's the crow. They are opportunistic animals. They usually scavenger but they won't turn down a helpless critter.



I do love crows though. I use to have one. I found him as a chick after a windy day and raised him. He once ate a hummingbird whole. swallowed it entirely. I will just keep the chicks locked up in their cage until they are a little bigger. We have a neighborhood flock of crows that I always see chasing the hawks. This crow is huge though. I've never seen such a big crow.

 

[BrownSheep]

Ate you certain it's not a raven? They will eat chicks and are even known to peck lambs to death.

 

[Southern by choice]

Technically they can eat young birds and eggs... just not their real preference. Is it poor insect availability in your area?
This stinks if they have decided your farm is their feeding ground. We are heavily wooded here with lots of food for every kind of critter imaginable. Guess maybe the reason they never mess with ours. We have chicks piling out all over the place and we are nearing almost 1000 birds raised and never a loss to a crow. (Funny I was telling someone we have raised about 500 birds... been doing all my paper work and records I guess we process a lot for the dogs cuz I am not seeing the $ ) Sorry if that came off wrong... it sure can happen just kinda shocking as we almost are thankful for them as the big problem here is hawks. I love hawks BUT not when I run a poultry farm.

Do you all have a lot of people in your area spraying insecticides? These crows must be pretty hungry.
Get Gunner out there! He should take care of the problem! I love that dog!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Silly Cobra, you just had to go and be charming.

We have had several owls in our area go after chicks and even a few small hens at our neighbors.

 

[PendergrassRanch]

Ate you certain it's not a raven? They will eat chicks and are even known to peck lambs to death.

It could very well be a raven! He is really big, way bigger than the crow I had.

Technically they can eat young birds and eggs... just not their real preference. Is it poor insect availability in your area?
This stinks if they have decided your farm is their feeding ground. We are heavily wooded here with lots of food for every kind of critter imaginable. Guess maybe the reason they never mess with ours. We have chicks piling out all over the place and we are nearing almost 1000 birds raised and never a loss to a crow. (Funny I was telling someone we have raised about 500 birds... been doing all my paper work and records I guess we process a lot for the dogs cuz I am not seeing the $ ) Sorry if that came off wrong... it sure can happen just kinda shocking as we almost are thankful for them as the big problem here is hawks. I love hawks BUT not when I run a poultry farm.

Do you all have a lot of people in your area spraying insecticides? These crows must be pretty hungry.
Get Gunner out there! He should take care of the problem! I love that dog!

Plenty of insects from what I experience! We do feed raw to the dogs so I'm sure he was attracted by that, then saw the little birds. A few weeks ago I had 2 turkey vultures and 2 of these huge crow/ravens in my oak tree.

Not much agriculture in our town so I'm not sure about insecticides. The bird does fly away when I go outside, I normally only see him there in the morning, sometimes other times. The pullets are in a dog kennel, but in a pen within the dog kennel. It has a wire top so they are safe until they grow a little more.

Silly Cobra, you just had to go and be charming.

We have had several owls in our area go after chicks and even a few small hens at our neighbors.

We have a large barn owl in the oak tree. He hasn't seem to be an issue so far. I love barn owls. They are my favorite owl.

And yeah...Cobra. I love that little goat. I would keep her...I want to but I really don't need a bunch of goats!

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

but I really don't need a bunch of goats!

What?