rachels.haven's Journal

[CntryBoy777]

About the bucket....we had a doe get stuck between the handle and bucket....I ripped every handle off and put theor feed bkt on the fence with the good thick bungee straps with "S" hooks.....course, we only had 3 goats, but they do make feeders that will hang on fence or wood.......

 

[rachels.haven]

Dangerous buckets. I guess I'll need to implement another system.

I figured out what's killing the chickens and it isn't a weasel, thank goodness. It's a hawk carrying birds off. He took two more today and the second I caught him in the act, chased him off, and took my headless, plucked bird back. time to put up some yarn over the run in the am and later a net over the top of the run.

 

[CntryBoy777]

Something that ya may like, the orange construction fencing, sold on rolls at HD or Lowes.....if ya build a frame from some schd 40 pvc ya can make a "T" on the ends of whaever length ya have the base.....then stretch the fence from end to end and set it wbere ya need it....all raptors see orange and won't get tangled in a net....also, if it is hawks, most prefer to have an angle to dive from.....the height can vary, so ya don't have to bend over or duck....just a thought, anyway....

 

[rachels.haven]

Spent all day yesterday shoring up a third of the chicken run and covering it.

Today it looks like my little razorblade cooper's hawk friend walked or hopped around on top of the cover until he found a place that could be made into a gap and went in and killed at least 4 of my smaller chickens and bashed out the way he came with the defeathered carcasses-no feathered drag trails in the dust, no holes under the abbreviated pen fence, the piles of feathers were under a new hole in the snow fence that is the run's ceiling. I guess I need to completely sew it together instead of tying it every 6-12 inches.

Wish I had a hawk zapper. Nasty, nasty, despicable little bird. We are totally overrun with rabbits and chipmunks and it chooses to test my chicken run and eat my chickens.

I wonder if there's a point I should give up and quickly sell what's left at a super cheap price to get them away from the nasty bird?

 

[Mike CHS]

I have no idea how I would deal with what you have going on.

 

[CntryBoy777]

I certainly know what I would do.....but, it depends how far away your neighbors are.....sss....

 

[rachels.haven]

I might use aviary netting and leave town for the day and hope he tangles and dies while I'm out.
In the meantime, tomorrow I will be sewing the snow fence with baling twine.

 

[Baymule]

What kind of run do you have? Can you post pictures? At our old house I had a pretty good coop and run. We moved 4 years ago and I have had a series of craptastic coops. It is on my radar to build another coop similar to what I had, but bigger and a longer coop. I'll modify the coop with a double 2x6 header in the center of the "roof" to better support it and cover the top with corrugated tin to keep the run dry. You have a snow load to deal with and I don't. A double 2x6 header run from front to back on the hoop run would provide better support for your run, maybe a post in the middle to further hold it up.

Here's pictures of what I used to have.

I would suggest a similar covered run for you to keep the pesky hawk out. If you will notice in the lower right corner of the picture above, I skirted the run and coop with wire laid on the ground, hog ringed to the bottom. That was to keep varmits from digging in.

This is one of my coops now, it will become part of the run for the new coop I will build. It is only 2 cow panels. I want to add 2 more for a bigger run.

 

[rachels.haven]

That may be where we are headed. I will get pictures when I go out in a few minutes. My run cover is NOT as nice as yours. It is spur of the moment, ugly, and was just supposed to be temporarily functional until the chickens got out of the less bright 12-16 week juvenile stage. Yours looks bear proof.

 

[rachels.haven]

This is the gist of what I put over the run. I closed yesterday's gaps and some potential gaps. My run is a cage now. Picture is pre-gap closing. I've never had to deal with a hawk this relentless.