Tag: chickens

Crow Away!

denisemor 0 July 1, 2016

You might remember that I lost a baby chicken (maybe 8-9 weeks old) to a pair of ravens back in late April.

That wasn’t the first incident.

We lost two hens out in the pasture to raven attacks last year.

From what I’ve read online, it seems like it’s not terribly common for ravens to attack full-grown chickens, but the pair that we had hanging around were really aggressive and persistent.

And of course it’s illegal to harm them.

So, we had to try and outsmart them.

And as it turns out, Peter and the Crow Away team in Australia have done just that!

Note: This might read like a paid advertisement, but it is not. I’m just a very satisfied customer. 🙂

Crow Away is a soundtrack, about an hour long, that is apparently very unnerving to corvids (crows, ravens).
You can purchase have the product online, download the audio file, and have it up and running in minutes.
We loaded it onto an old mp3 player and set it to play continuously through some old computer speakers set up in our garden shed.

And the Ravens went away.
Seriously.
I was very skeptical at first. I watched carefully for the first few days and kept my little chickens cooped.
When I finally let them back out, I thought perhaps the prospect of baby chicken for dinner might bring them right back.
But it didn’t.

They are still in the area. But they aren’t hanging around our property anymore.
And I’m calling that a victory.

So I just wanted to share this info in case there are other folks out there struggling with Ravens and crows attacking their chickens and or stealing eggs. It’s not something you can do just once, or occasionally. I’ve found that if the soundtrack stops, the ravens return pretty quickly.

But it’s been working great for us for about two months now, and I’m still kind of amazed.

Chicken Report

denisemor 0 June 12, 2016

The not-so-baby chickens moved into the pasture a couple of weeks ago.

They are acclimating ok, but as expected, the old grumpy chickens are not being especially welcoming.

The two chicken populations are mostly keeping to themselves, but occasionally they cross paths and much fussing and squawking ensues.

And,,, it’s kind of looking like we might have a couple or three roosters in the bunch.
Here are the candidates-

Bertrand

Stumpy

and Mr. Speckles (because he didn’t have a name and he’s a Speckled Sussex) 🙂

Was hoping I could capture a little bit of the crowing and posturing going on out there, but everybody was pretty cooled out this evening.
Here is a little impromptu footage from the pasture.

Also started reading another sheep-keeping memoir this week

I’m not very far in yet, but it looks promising.
I have a little bit of stay-cation coming up in a week, so maybe I’ll just save it for then!

Grounded for their Own Good

denisemor 2 January 10, 2016

It seems we’ve got some crazy eagle convention going on here or something.

They’ve been hanging out in the neighborhood for a month or so now, but until now they seemed to be focusing all their attention on the Samish River. Seems super late, but there must still be salmon running?

But this afternoon, just after the Seahawks miraculously won their wildcard game against the Vikings (!), I went out to celebrate with the critters and saw this

That is a tree right on the edge of our pasture.
I stood there for a while, chatting up the sheep, hoping that maybe he would move along if all the chigs were occupied in the shed with a bunch of scratch grain I tossed out to them. But no. Seems like he’s established a post.

I didn’t feel comfortable leaving the silly chiggins to innocently wander about with this thug eyeing them from above, so I took action to confine them in the shed for now by blocking the gaps under the interior gate and the shed entryway that are their primary access points.

They could still pop out from up on top of the hay if they wanted,,, but I think that’s a little high for them. Hopefully they won’t get that desperate to escape. They’ve got everything they need in there, and plenty of space for everyone to hang out. Hopefully in a couple of days the some of these aerial predators will move along.

In wool news, I’ve got one more skein of Chone yarn plied, washed and hanging to dry. Think that brings us to about 960 yards or so. And I’m done with knitting the argyle socks, but there is still a bit of seaming and a lot of end weaving-in to finish. So close, but yet, so far!

Also just wanted to put in a plug for the WSU Country Living Expo, coming up in a couple of weeks (Jan 30).
It’s going to be a great day of classes, an lunch is included in the registration fee.

If you have an old wheel sitting around that they’d like to get spinning again, or want to get some info and a little hands-on experience with a wheel before you buy one, I’m going to be teaching Spinning Wheels 101 (2 hour class) during sessions 1&2.

Have a great week!

Adventure Chicken on Walkabout

denisemor 0 October 11, 2015

A while back we noticed that one of the new girls was getting out of the pasture during the day.
She would be out in the yard, and, assuming that she wasn’t able to get back in herself, we would go out and open the gate to let her back in with her friends.

But over the last week or so it has become clear that she is a chicken apart, who has her own ideas about where she wants to hang out, and can come and go from the pasture as she pleases.

I spent some time observing our adventure chicken, and it turns out that she is returning to her chick-hood pen over on the other side of the yard to lay her eggs.

I figure as long as I know where to find her eggs, I guess we’re good. No point in trying to keep her in. She’s a free spirit.

But I have taken steps to try and keep the crows from their egg thievery!

Net. Lots of net.

Crows are way too smart- I’m sure that if they really want to they can find a workaround.
But I’m hoping that it is just annoying enough to make them go somewhere else to get their goodies!

And, of course, there are more hats-

Only a month or so until the holiday market I think I can maybe get another 6 done by then.

And after that, I think I might be ready for a sweater project. It’s been a while since I’ve cast on for something big, and I’m starting to get the itch!