Oh no No egg yolks

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #61

There are ways of protecting chickens from aerial predators that don’t require full-scale netting (which is always an option, of course). I have also read that having trees for the chickens to retreat to will help protect them. But that still leaves the problem of foxes and the like.

I have, however, seen designs for a mobile coop attached to a fully-enclosed mobile run, which is supposedly effective, as long as the chickens are back in the coop by sundown. The whole shebang can be moved from location to location in your yard, to provide some of the fertilising benefits of free-ranging chickens.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #62

Sorry for the religious element to my earlier reply, but it felt appropriate, because the idea of not eating animal foods is ultimately rooted in a sort of religion. As you can tell, it’s a sort of religion for which I no longer have any respect.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #63

Gosh, no problem. I get it.

(Bob M) #64

We live on what was a horse property, and I installed a raptor perch on it. So, there’s tons of open fields and places for raptors to come. I see hawks all the time, though only sometimes on my perch (it’s too high).

Anyway, it would be tough for us to have chickens. My wife is allergic to them (the actual birds, not the meat). That would leave me as the sole provider. I’m not sure I’m up to the upkeep.

I’d love the eggs, though.

(traci simpson) #65

I used to listen to Dr. Oz years ago but he’s all over the next fad so I no longer listen to him. I have been eating eggs for so many years, I can’t even count.

#66

I reckon you have nailed Dr Oz’s modus operandi right here.

He is a celebrity chameleon. He is playing a different game than we are. We are in it for health. His aims could be more complex and favoured more around notoriety and celebrity to maintain status (and probably income).

When I was at university as a student, I observed the medical students could often be multitalented. Those good looking, intelligent, sometimes arrogant demigods, could also play musical instruments, or act wonderfully in university revues. This may be a bit too general, but I think many doctors labelled “good” are actually mis-categorised good actors.

When Dr. Oz talks about stuff we agree with, he is wonderful. Then he goes and gets egg on his face and everyone starts choline him out for what he is.

Yes, this is an argumentum ad hominem. I’ll cop that. But I don’t think it’s misplaced. But on the back of a double but reversal I do write this with the underlay ethic of not harming the messenger… unless the messenger is a cockerel who crows at midnight.

#67

( small print: not sure if Laura actually likes eggs)

(Doug) #68

It’s not - when you add up his differing, even self-contradicting positions, he’s a shameless idiot. :neutral_face:

#69

Not sure I’d give him the loophole of idiocy to slip through.:wink: Even the loophole of stupidity should be closed. Dr. Oz is intelligent and that is where we pity. I totally agree he is a contrarian (self serving), self-contradicting and shameless, despite his intelligence. It’s a great recipe for a cartoon villain.

(Allie) #70

After four days fasting, my egg storage overflowed so I had to boil a huge batch this morning :joy:

(Jane) #71

I bet!

I have a greedy (but very appreciative neighbor) who keeps our supply from getting too large. When my husband said he was coming over for another dozen I asked him to only give him 9 because I planned to make some cauil-egg salad when I get home tomorrow. I know they pile up when I am gone and just him but still… :unamused:

#72

A fortress of some kind is what it takes in most places, even the city - where some folks underestimate smaller night predators.

I once was awoken at night by the squawking then bloodcurdling, very high volume sounds of a solitary hen’s last minutes battling for her life against a hungry raccoon who’d reached into the old, weathered, vulnerable box coop she was in and killed her though the raccoon couldn’t get her body out. Then all the sudden all was quiet again and I heard my neighbors door slam and her sounds as she found the dead bird (Phyllis was the hen’s name, RIP). I had no idea that chickens had that volume capacity, and she taught me that.

Later that day I learned Phyllis was being hen-sat by the neighbor- grandmother for her grandkids for two nights - as some kind of pet with no other chickens in her life, poor Phyllis.

None of the adults involved had a clue as to Phyllis’ vulnerability and her security needs. Coop maintenance, hen companions, and sheltered security mean the world to winged ones. Your chicken fortress sounds great!

(Jane) #73

Poor Phyllis :pensive:

Mine are pets also with names and it took 6 months to get 5 hens up to laying age so any loss would be terrble for us.

We have been wanting to start a flock for over 10 years and have talked to a lot of people over the years who keep hens so we knew what we were up against as far as predators. And you are right - there are predators in the cities also.

And you have to consider how each predator might try to get in. Snakes… we have small mesh wire on all 6 sides of the coop - especially on the bottom. Hawks, owls - bird netting on the top of the 7-foot run, small mesh wire on the coop. Raccoons - gotta make sure they can’t undo the latches with their opposable thumbs and great dexterity (and intelligence). Coyotes/bobcats - wire mesh around the bottom of the 7-ft tall run (32’x48’) with cinder blocks on top to make it very difficult to dig… then they still can’t get into the inner coop at night when they usually hunt.

(Jane) #74

We sent a small fortune, plus lots of sweat equity! But a one-time cost… I hate to think what my $$/dozen eggs is my first year :laughing:

(Allie) #75

I have people I give eggs to, and one neighbour asked if she can buy them from me but she’s very ill with cancer and is in a wheelchair so every so often I leave some outside her house as a gift to her.

(Eric - The patient needs to be patient!) #76

That is so kind of you.

#77

Which is the post that describes Chicken Fortress?

I’m imagining the Aardman Animation “Chicken Run” set up.

The reason I’m asking, is to find out if it included a guard dog (I think it is Allie @Shortstuff that has a dog named Chunk, who is a walking, woofing chicken fortress).

(Allie) #78

Yes and my hens have a fortress as well as a guard :grinning:

(Bob M) #79

Where I live, tick-borne illnesses, particularly Lyme disease, are prevalent. I cannot tell you how many people (including kids) have Lyme disease. Lyme disease is carried to a large extent by mice. One technique for getting rid of mice is to treat them with some type of insecticide:

We’ve thought about doing this, but what happens to the predators that eat the mice? What happens to the hawks and owls?

So, we decided to try to make our property more attractive to predators like hawks, to attempt to keep the mouse population down.

What’s this have to do with chickens? Well, it’s hard to raise chickens when you’re telling their predators to come to your place. If I had the money, I’d build a run around most of our yard, well protected and fenced/covered from all areas, and let chickens eat all the bugs before they get into our yard. The issue though is that deer can simply jump over that, unless you also fence it in with fencing the deer can’t jump. When you’re on 4+ acres of grass, that gets expensive very quickly.

I also considered a rolling coop, but then I’d have to stand outside and watch everything, otherwise we’d have dead chickens on our hands within no time. We could get a protective dog or two, but my wife is allergic.

So, I look longingly at ways to get chickens, but have not yet figured out how.

(Brian) #80

PaulL, please don’t apologize for the religious remark!! Thank you for making it!

As you were once a Puritan, I was once a Seventh-day Adventist. WAS!!
I have come out from among them. And I don’t EVER wanna go back.

Yup, I’ve been called a glutton and immoral. I’ve also been called warped and twisted. It’s a bit humorous, though, when one of them happens to be morbidly obese and wants to preach to me about my gluttony. LOL!! (I’m only a handful of pounds away from Onederland having started at nearly 300 lbs. I was at that 300 lbs following their “wisdom”.)

I’m not against all religion. And I have my personal beliefs. But the kooks out there show up in a bunch of flavors, many of them disguised as a part of some sort of religion. It’s a very effective way of coercing people to behave like you want them to.