Category: Wildlife

Cats

On By CarynIn Wildlife

Not really surprising that a cat will eat a chicken, or chicks given the opportunity. What is surprising is the number of outside cats that prowl the neighborhood. Our neighbors have a clowder of cats to keep the snake population down, especially the copperheads (yikes!). I’m all for those cats doing their job (although I think there is a speckled king snake on our side of the fence, and I hope he stays because he (or she) also keeps away the poisonous snakes), but it means that we have to plan on protecting the chicks and chickens both from stalking cats and slithering snakes. Here is a photo from the trail cam.

One of our neighborhood snake patrol agents. His name is Rusty.

Cute, but deadly! Hence “Chicken Fort Knox”. We are planning on putting 1/2″ welded wire along the bottom of the runs and skirting the coop to keep the smaller critters out, and 1″ welded wire along the upper sides and top. We will also bury welded wire mesh all along the outside of the coop and runs to deter digging.

We’ve had a gray calico adopt us as well, so we really want to make sure we protect the chickens and still be able to enjoy our outside felines.

Sophie, who decided to adopt us.

Not Ranger Rick

On By CarynIn Wildlife

You know what else likes to eat chickens? Raccoons. And we have a whole family of raccoons that live on the property, and they regularly show up on the trail cam.

So I know raccoons are smart (I did read Ranger Rick as a kid, and even recently with my own kids), but I didn’t know until recently that raccoons can undo latches. And raccoons can tear through chicken wire (chicken wire is really just effective against chickens, everything else can rip it open or crawl through), so we will be using hardware cloth to cover any openings in the coop and will bury it around the base of the coop and runs to keep these critters out. And use complex latches that need two or three steps to open. Phew!

Foxy fox

On By CarynIn Wildlife

So we check the trail cam periodically, and on this last check found a picture of this cutie.

We believe this is a common gray fox, and the trail cam has picked up a few pictures of her (him?), but never straight on like this one. This is one of the biggest reasons for building Chicken Fort Knox. The photo was taken less than a 100 yards from the coop. Not only do we have foxes (and coyotes, and bobcat), the neighborhood dogs tend to slip through their electric fences and go for a stroll through our property. Dogs and chickens don’t go together either, so we need to anticipate trouble. Everything likes to eat chickens.

Now we do have our own dog, and I plan to follow these recommendations for introducing dogs to chickens, but for the most part our dog will be in his yard, and the chickens will be in their yard.

And just in case you thought it was just one fox… I think there are three in this picture!

I got my buck

On By CarynIn Wildlife
Young White Tailed Buck

picture, that is. Our town has some nice walking paths, and there is a herd (or two) of deer that hang out near the paths. Last week I saw two bucks amongst the does. I see the does quite often, but spotting the bucks is more rare. I tried to take a photo with my phone, epic fail.

Epic phone picture fail

So I have started to carry my good digital SLR camera on my walks. It takes a little longer to get through my walks, because not only am I walking farther to see if I can find more picture opportunities, I stop a lot. Oh well, fresh air and sunshine is good for the soul. I also have taken some nice pictures of the does as well. Maybe I will even spot that older buck again one of these days, with camera ready.

What?