Recent content by amarsano

We have had 3 different dogs with our chickens. Our English Setter, who is no longer with us, was ridiculously smart. She wanted to hunt them, but she knew they were ours and never touched them. FWIW, she would snatch song birds out of the sky and kill any rabbits that unfortunately ventured...

How old was your lab when he stopped acting interested with the birds? I have a golden puppy and I won’t let the birds out unless I, there with him. Unfortunately, my birds found an ole in a fence and made their way out. He ended up killing one when he as able to trap her in a corner as she...

I’ve had them find dead, dehydrated mice in the yard after the winter and devour them like candy. Same with frogs. They’ve been fine before, but just curious if anyone had done it.

Mine give me dirty looks every time it snows!

Mine don’t mind the cold, but they don’t like the wind. They stay in the covered run that I cover with plastic sheeting during the winter. I’m looking to build chunnels to get a covered area to their runs so they have more space. The snow can get thick here, and they hate the snow.

My dogs love hunting rats too. They’ve killed 3 so far. They are a coon hound and a golden, so they can’t get in the smaller holes. I have made sure all treats are served in bowls and I clean up at night after I lock them up.

As soon as I can manage to kill one I’ll happily cook it for my birds! They’ve killed 9 birds in a couple of weeks. Thankfully, they’ve been roosters, but still makes me angry.

I’m far less worried about that as 0 of my neighbors have rats. Guess I’m the lucky one! I’m also on the edge of a state forest and have marsh lands in it. Also, I’m the only one with a plethora of birds.

So there are electric traps you can buy on Amazon. I move them once I’ve caught one or two because they seem to know to avoid it. I’ve also had a couple of mice get zapped. They run on 4D batteries and the ones I bought come with an outdoor protector. I haven’t killed any large rats, but...

THAT sounds like a fantastic idea. I could get down with that.

I've never heard of this, but I will be investigating RatX! I'm leaving chicken in traps and they could care less.

I'm not cooking rats for my chickens. I don't live in a swamp! :) (Shrek reference)

I can get them to generally come around when I come out because i throw scratch and the like. I had them in a separate coop from 2 weeks until 12 weeks when I slowly integrated them into my main flock. In their original coop, they stayed in without roaming for the first 2 weeks. They were...

Valid point. I'll toss them into the woods

We bought ourselves a paintball gun, voice triggers, and arrows with soft tips. We also bought a pellet gun incase we actually trap one. Freezing paint balls and shooting them WILL sting.