My scariest moment in chicken farming

[danno]

Seems funny now but last summer I was up at my barn with about 50 chickens surrounding me begging for dinner scraps.  I was standing next to their ramp going in the hen house when a large furry critter ran down the ramp brushing the side of my leg.  I almost had the big one!!!   It was a large woodchuck that had snock in to eat alittle grain.

[Cindi]

Danno, lucky it wasn't dark, eh?  Things that go bump in the night.   I used to see rats out of the corner of my eyes when I was in the chickenyard now and then, now that gave me the willies too.  We don't have any more rats thank goodness (or not that I can tell anyways)  A woodchuck, don't know them, but I remember from that little diddy, that a woodchuck could chuck wood.  Have a wonderful and great day, love our life we're livin'.  Cindi

[Brian D. Bray]

Danno,

Looks like you might be a falconer.  Do you raise pigeons or quail for training your birds?

[Angi_H]

Oh Danno I love the picture of your Falcon. He/She is beautiful. I used to do rescue and have rescued hawks. We would incubate chicks up to the day of hatch and freeze them for feeding the rescues. As well as we bred mice and rats. And depending on where they were in rehab depends on what they got dead or alive.  We did Owls as well. I miss doing that and that is why I want to go back into Wildlife Conservation and rehab work,

Angi

[danno]

My bird is a female redtail that i trapped as a juvi.  I named her Belle.   As for quail and pigeons, I had a homing pigeon loft in my last house but desided not to do it in my new house.  Except for trapping hawks there isn't much use for them.  I feed mainly rabbits, mice and squirrels

[Scadsobees]

I had a moment like that last month...was checking out the hives in the yard, and as I turned away some weeds hit the tarpaper wrap on the hive.  It somehow sounded just like an animal snarling right behind me!!! Whew, amazing how something so basic can get so much adreneline going....

We had fun with woodchucks when we were younger.  We also had a colony of rats underneath our chicken coop.  They chewed big holes in the floor, and we would sit and watch them as they poked their heads out and try to shoot them with the air rifle.  Sometimes we'd go back there and there would be a line of rats lined up a the feeder.  My dad tried to fumigate them out by pipeing a muffler underneath it but it didn't do too much.  And poison worked a little bit.

I love watching hawks and have dreamed of having one...but I've got enough going on right now.   So I'm jealous....

Rick