Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

SusanH

That snarling critter sounds like it could be a raccoon. The one I caught yesterday was snarling and growling at me not happy.

Jaye Sorry to hear about Deanie, I think this heat is pretty hard on them.

Jaye, I'm sorry to hear that you lost Deanie too .

{{{{Hugs}}}}
Linda

Jaye..that's sad news about Deanie...I know exactly how you feel

Well my little chicken road trip was a success, picked up a few new cuckoo malines from 3 different bloodlines to add to my breeding groups in the future and got a few legbars that are carriers of the white gene.

I checked out photos on my game camera from last night, it was a busy night... had a fox visit the bird area twice, another raccoon visit twice and one of my neighbour's dogs visited. Live traps re-set with fresh bait, I am interested to see what the morning brings. Hopefully all the birds will be okay.

With my potential health issues, we decided to postpone our 3 week trip out west until next year and head to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for a shorter 10 day trip. Leaving around July 21st, time to get planning.

JimW

@Jaye Very sorry for your loss. It's very difficult to find one dead in the coop. She was well love!

sorry jaye this heat and humidity are tough on them, especially the older ones. i lost all my 5 year olds in the last month....one here, one there. hadn't laid in a year or so any of them, and found dead in a nesting box or under the roost in the morning (yep, my birds sleep in some of the nesting boxes....just because and they're old, so i let them). mine i'm sure were from nice and seasonal to HOT and HUMID and back to a cool night at 12C and then back to 38 plus the next day. sigh. never easy. never nice.

for the flying polish...was that susan? hm. oh, anything snarling and up a tree is a coon or a possum. possums will play dead, so my vote is one pissed off coon. they know how to drive dogs insane. lol. and the flying polish. if she hasn't wandered i would not worry too much, but if you do not want her flying just clip about 1/3 of the flight feathers on ONE wing. they won't feel a thing, there's no blood in the feathers after they've grown. you don't cut so far as to take the entire feather out, in fact you might not even notice if she has her wing folded up. so typically if you unfold the wing it is the longest 3-4 feathers at the tip of the wing (front of the wing). just take them back 1/3 of the way. it will let enough air out that she'll fly in a tight little circle about 1 foot off the ground. when she moults them out the new ones will grow in full, and you'll need to repeat the clipping....but it should buy you a good few months of grounded chicken. HOWEVER, flying is one way for chickens to evade predators....so....if you do have a coon hanging out if it were my place i wouldn't clip until that coon is taken care of....that way she's less of a target for the coon.

hope you have a wonderful trip jim when you go! the east coast is certainly beautiful!

discovered last night that our house sitting house has a leak in the only outside tap that had the sprinkler installed so we could water the hanging baskets....argh. so mental note for anyone thinking of getting house sitters and trying to minimize the work for them-do NOT buy a pile of hanging baskets and planters that need watering 3 times a day when it's 30+C outside with sun!!!!!!! OR make sure your taps don't leak so a sprinkler can be installed...so much fun....i need another 5 hours in a day!

WLLady, just a thought. Is it possible to remove all those hanging baskets and plonk them all down in an area near another tap to make it easier for you to water?

LOL so we had taken all the boxes, planters and everything and put them in one spot and put the sprinkler on for them. we thought of exactly what you mentioned labradors, but they only have one outside tap......ha ha we looked yesterday. the other one is inside the garage and leaks worse than the other (plus it's dark in the garage). so, the bathtub it is...or maybe i'll just go throw them all in the pond!

Much as I love flowers, I say let them die. Perhaps they won't ask you to house-sit again...…. .