Another use for rabbit cages!

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GBov

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Location
Cumbria, UK
When I started free ranging the chickens they got into EVERYTHING, even things that I wouldnt have expected them to. Esp. as I have free ranged chickens before but these hens, daaaaaang, they just go everywhere! :evil:

So I now have all my seedling pots in spare rabbit cages! If I cant keep the chickens off my potting/seedling table, at least now the baby plants are safe. It feels a bit odd to have to open a cage to plant seeds though. :lol:

For my next trick, keeping the danged hens out of the garden! :roll:
 
I used a foldable transport cage on my strawberries because of the puppy. :lol:
 
I have a love/hate relationship with free range chickens :lol:

I just moved mine to a new coop and am enjoying not having to dodge the chicken bombs they leave everywhere they go, or the kids squealing b/c they are getting too close to them :roll: , but I know for a fact our yard has far fewer bugs when they are out and about. In summer you can see the difference just in the little biting gnat things that fly the couple of feet above the ground... and our neighbor/tenant that shares a driveway with us has the worst time with fleas, but our yard isn't all that bad. I am trying to figure out my garden for this year... we moved it last year, and during growing season they were penned up. I don't have anything built for them yet so I am not sure what we'll do. Either fence them in, or fence in the three main garden areas.
 
We fenced in the main garden area and have made wire covers for the other beds. Gonna have to re-work some, I noticed today they got in my roses.

Sure do like the no tick thing, though.
 
GBov":6oo20z69 said:
So I now have all my seedling pots in spare rabbit cages!
Click to expand...

:fainting: Species inappropriate cage usage is bad enough, but plants and animals aren't even in the same Kingdom!!!

You did this just to torture me, didn't you GBov?!? :wall:

heritage":6oo20z69 said:
I have a love/hate relationship with free range chickens :lol:
Click to expand...

Me too. I love seeing them out and about, but they do get into everything you don't want them to. Even with 2" x 4" fencing laid on top of the soil in the raised beds, they still try to scratch in the soil!

The feather footed chickens are allegedly less likely to scratch, so I may get some cochins this year for yard patrol. :?

heritage":6oo20z69 said:
Either fence them in, or fence in the three main garden areas.
Click to expand...

I tried that... i-am-so-o-o-ashamed-t24497.html but my Wyandottes simply flew right over it. :angry: Granted, the fencing used was only 3', but it was still irritating. They are (once again!) confined to the coop at all times.
 
I am going to get some more guineas this year for pest control... I am hoping to raise them up with a broody hen (it worked fabulously last year, and even kept the guinea from straying too far!). Supposedly they don't mess with the garden much. I hope to fence in the chickens and clip their wings so they can't fly out, but leave the guineas so they can come and go as they please. I had them in the past and left to themselves they wouldn't go back to the coop or anything and quickly became snake (and who knows what else) food. Last year when I went to pick up the last few chicks available (after deciding my hens would be broody forever if they didn't have chicks) there was one lone guinea for $5. She asked if I wanted it, since it was all that was left. I told her I wasn't interested in $5 snake food :lol: ... she felt bad for the poor guy so she drastically discounted him so I would take him with me. I stuck him under the broody and the next morning I could hear him out chirping in the briers. No way I was going to find it, much less catch the thing! Figured he was a goner. I guess he learned his lesson and once he finally made his way back he never strayed far from her again and deemed himself a chicken... I was so mad when my oldest informed me one of the dogs had guinea feathers in it's mouth :evil: . I hope to get a couple more again this year if I can time it right with a broody.

Thanks for the link reminder, MSD. I remember reading it shortly after becoming a member and liked a lot of the resourceful ideas ;) . Definitely need to put the PVC fence support into use when we get the chicken run back up.

One of the leftover chicks I picked up last year is a bantam cochin, I love the little feathered feet! I'll have to pay closer attention once they are out of the coop (they just got moved to a new one so they are still locked up in it for another week or so) to see if she scratches any differently than the others. Mine like to dust bathe on newly planted stuff...
 
In my experience, it is easier to fence chickens out of a garden area than fence them into a chicken run. We have four foot chain link around the vegetable garden and for the most part, the chickens stay out. I mean, c'mon birds . . . you have 32 acres at your disposal. To keep the birds in a yard, I had to put an extra two feet of chicken wire above the chain link. And even that didn't always work.

Silkies are probably the easiest chickens to control, as they are not good fliers.
 
It's not just the garden for us... they like to hang out under the kids play area - I don't mind the grassy, fairly neutral smelling poop, but that sticky darker colored stuff?? :sick: Not to mention the driveway, sidewalk, porch, etc. I don't mind the chickens, but their poop drives me batty!
 
MamaSheepdog":331163ko said:
GBov":331163ko said:
So I now have all my seedling pots in spare rabbit cages!
Click to expand...

:fainting: Species inappropriate cage usage is bad enough, but plants and animals aren't even in the same Kingdom!!!

You did this just to torture me, didn't you GBov?!? :wall:
Click to expand...

Ummmmm, well, kinda, yes? :D

But it was really hard to resist adn I am weak. :lol:

So far the only thing that has kept chickens out of a garden for me was 6 ft poultry fence with an extra two feet on the ground on the OUTSIDE of the garden so they couldnt dust bath a depression adn roll into the garden under the fence.

But it didnt keep dogs out. :roll:

My Guinea's may not scratch but the STAMP stamp TRAMPLE stampeeeeeeeeeed RUSH GALLOP through any veg bed they can get to, even going waaaaay out of their way to do it.

They are cute and funny but that habit of seedling murder, not so much. :evil:
 
GBov":2d63c2zd said:
My Guinea's may not scratch but the STAMP stamp TRAMPLE stampeeeeeeeeeed RUSH GALLOP through any veg bed they can get to, even going waaaaay out of their way to do it.

They are cute and funny but that habit of seedling murder, not so much. :evil:
Click to expand...

Hmmmm... good to know. Maybe free ranging guineas won't work quite as well as I had hoped?
 
Guineas are useful but they are a pain. Given too much freedom they will roost anywhere but in the coop. Including on top of the coop and on top of the house. Birds of prey love them and if you have any large owls within miles you will soon have them in your yard grabbing the stupid things off trees and buildings at night. Unless you just live in a huge empty area with nothing to fly on to you have to repeatedly remind them to return to the coop at night by locking them up for periods of time. They also often don't lay in the coop and will build up a nest somewhere hidden and then the broody goes missing to probably never be seen again. Personally I was just writing off the losses and not getting too attached. I live right next to the largest producer of guinea fowl and what eggs you do fine can be hatched by a chicken hen so I just replaced steadily. We single handedly rebuilt the great horned owl population while living there. :lol:
 
You have spare rabbit cages? I (think, am pretty sure anyway) have kits coming, and a neighbor wants to give me a proven mini-lop who is too big to show so I can make meat mutts, and I'm looking at my cage space and I feel like :indy-jones:

Your story and Maggie's replies about keeping chickens out of places rather than keeping them in reminds of a large family I knew who set their Christmas tree up inside a playpen every year. Same principle.
 
My guineas go into the coop really well but my poultry only gets fed morning and evening and the evening feed goes into the coop and the Piranhas swarm into the coop to get it. We could be trampled to death if we get in the way! :lol:

I was letting the poultry roost where ever they liked (except the rabbit cages :evil: ) but we lost 3 guineas in one night so now everyone gets locked up at night.

And due to a really reliable witness seeing it happen, all of our young poultry is in total lock down. He saw a Black Vulture swoop down and snatch up a LIVE and healthy 7 week old chick and fly away with it. :shock: It landed about a hundred feet away in the woods to eat it so my friend chased it off. The chick recovered but daaaaang, never expected to have to worry about critters that are supposed to only eat dead/dying stuff.

Spare cages? Sadly yes, I had to downsize from 80ish bunnies to 10ish. Have sold off lots of cages and am now repurposing the rest. Am in the process of attaching a back to back cage (each side two by fourt ft) to two bicycles. With a really thick slab of styrofoam and roofing metal over the top to keep the buns cool and dry it will be a movable grow out pen to roll round the garden. If I put quail on one side and bunnies on the other I can roll it up and down each veg bed and have two manures in one. :D And its high enough to be able to go over growing crops if they need a boost.
 
GBov":1e65hr0d said:
MamaSheepdog":1e65hr0d said:
GBov":1e65hr0d said:
So I now have all my seedling pots in spare rabbit cages!
Click to expand...

:fainting: Species inappropriate cage usage is bad enough, but plants and animals aren't even in the same Kingdom!!!

You did this just to torture me, didn't you GBov?!? :wall:
Click to expand...

Ummmmm, well, kinda, yes? :D
Click to expand...

Nyah-hah!!!

I knew it!!! :evil:

This has GOT to be against the terms and conditions!

:reading1: Hmm... mmhmmm... where is it? Where is it?!? :reading2:


Ah-ha! Found it!

"Moderator baiting, whether for nefarious purposes or profit, shall result in swift and sure banning of said foolhardy member." :contract:

:ban: :yes:

:reading2: Fascinating reading, just fascinat--- :eek:verreaction: Oh dear, oh dear... hold the ban hammer! :cry:

"Mitigating circumstances- if said member shows clear signs of mental illness, such as suffering from Raging Rabbitosis or Improperitis Equipmentitis, punishment shall be restricted to a severe whacking with "the chair," in the hope of knocking some sense (and respect!) into the perpetrator of this heinous crime."

Well, drat. :angry: I was so hoping to use the ban hammer since MidnightCoder has stopped all the Spammers cold. *Sniff*

Still, at least Miss M can have a bit of fun! :p

Miss M!!! Your presence is required in "Our Other Animals"- don't forget to bring The Chair!!!
 
Indeed you do! :yes:

Miss M bears watching... such a slacker. :angry:

She should have been here with "the chair" some time ago! :evil:
 
GBov":hamhyer4 said:
He saw a Black Vulture swoop down and snatch up a LIVE and healthy 7 week old chick and fly away with it. :shock:
Click to expand...

These are black headed vultures not your normal turkey buzzard. The first I had ever heard of them was when they were harassing a neighbor's newborn calf. The momma cow was trying to protect it but there was a group of the buzzards. My father-in-law called him and he went out and ran them off. This was a LIVE calf not one that was dead or dying.

http://www.sequoyahcountytimes.com/arch ... 3990d.html
 
alforddm":1wzyaxu7 said:
GBov":1wzyaxu7 said:
He saw a Black Vulture swoop down and snatch up a LIVE and healthy 7 week old chick and fly away with it. :shock:
Click to expand...

These are black headed vultures not your normal turkey buzzard. The first I had ever heard of them was when they were harassing a neighbor's newborn calf. The momma cow was trying to protect it but there was a group of the buzzards. My father-in-law called him and he went out and ran them off. This was a LIVE calf not one that was dead or dying.

http://www.sequoyahcountytimes.com/arch ... 3990d.html
Click to expand...

DH's gpa has seen them eat the eyeballs and back end out of a newborn calf - ALIVE. We stopped to watch a newly born calf one morning and a little while later ODS came running that he thought it was dead b/c it was surrounded by buzzards :x . I ran out expecting the worst, but thankfully the calf was OK... I chased them off and they went on their way, circling over something else a little ways down the road. <br /><br /> __________ Wed Mar 09, 2016 4:50 pm __________ <br /><br /> alforddm's article references hanging dummy dead vultures around to deter, and that's what they do at a local boat ramp. The birds there are destroying vehicles while they are parked at the ramp!

http://www.northcarolinasportsman.com/d ... hp?id=4395
 
MamaSheepdog":3fyeu7x1 said:
You did this just to torture me, didn't you GBov?!? :wall:
Click to expand...

Ummmmm......

"You did this just to torture me, didn't you, GBov?!?"

Methinks you needed a comma.....
 

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