Chicken carnage

[aczlan]

I thought about doing something similar to that and wondered how it would work. How long did it take before the skunk was out? I'm thinking an hour is a little overkill (pun intended).

Good question, no idea on how long it took as we put black plastic over the trap. An hour was probbaly overkill, but we didn't want to have it wake back up while we were burying it...
The skunk was in the neighbor's trap, so in addition to not getting sprayed ourselves, we didn't want to get his trap sprayed and we didn't want to mess up the trap with a .22.

Aaron Z

 

[TnAndy]

TnAndy: I looked at designs similar to the one you use but stuck with this design for the first few as I like the lower profile. The tops on mine will open up like a cellar door so we can get inside if we need to. I do need to get wheels on them, though, but want a design that allows me to use a single set of wheels and just move them from tractor to tractor. I've seen guys using a dolly but I think there's probably another way to do it.

Yep, I understand David. Difference strokes for different folks ! I like being able to walk thru a door rather than stoop over so much. Sign of my age, I guess....ahahahaaaa

The wheels on my are removable. They just happened to be in the 'on' position in that pic, as I had just moved the tractor.

I bought some cheap ones from Harbor Freight with a 5/8" axle hole, then welded a 5/8" bolt to a piece of 3x4" x 1/4" thick plate, drilled some screw holes in them, and mounted to each tractor. I 'jack' up that end with a shovel, and the wheel just slips on/off the 'axle', held with a 5/8 nut, as needed. I take them back off when the tractor is in place so there isn't a gap under the bottom of the 4x4 runner.

Someplace on the internet ( don't ask me where ), I saw a rather cool design that had the wheels mounted to a pivoting, sort of offset bar....kind of a cam action.....you cranked it one way to lift, and move, then back the other way to lower into the resting position. Looked like it was built out of 1" square tubing, with a couple of funky offset angles in the length. Wouldn't be too hard to copy, I'd think....

 

[MossRoad]

Why don't you put bicycle tires on it on a bracket with the wheels about an inch off the ground. When you pick the front up, the bicycle tires make contract with the ground and off you go. Bicycle tires roll so much better than little wheels over grass and dirt. I have a garden cart with bike tires and I would never trade that for something with hand truck wheels. Just a suggestion and good luck.

 

[David P]

TnAndy: I believe I saw the same video or at least a very similar sounding design. The video was of a guy who was going over his chicken tractor design on youtube, I think. I liked the lever option as well. Currently we're using 2-inch pvc, one piece on each side, which acts as a ball bearing of sorts. I have too many projects going right now so I probably won't get to putting wheels on until the winter. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time for putting a good design together.

MossRoad: I like the bicycle tire idea. The bigger the wheel, the easier to move.

 

[David P]

Well, for the second night in a row the fox is back. Here's a still I gleaned from a video clip. In the picture, you can see the chicken wire lying on the ground along the perimeter of the tractors with t-posts lying on top. It was very apparent from the video that the fox didn't care for it. But he also seems to be getting bolder.

 

[aczlan]

Well, for the second night in a row the fox is back. Here's a still I gleaned from a video clip. In the picture, you can see the chicken wire lying on the ground along the perimeter of the tractors with t-posts lying on top. It was very apparent from the video that the fox didn't care for it. But he also seems to be getting bolder.
View attachment 383637

Time for some sudden onset lead poisoning for the fox...

Aaron Z

 

[oosik]

Because of my remote location and not wanting to deal with live animals in traps its the 12 gauge with high base #2 shot. For whatever reason, I've not had any raccoons, skunks or porkupines here for several years. And that's fine by me. I have a hunch its because the closest neighbor about 3.5 miles away quit burning his garbage or as some say - cooking the meals for the animals. His burn barrel got away from him some time back and came very close to burning his place down. Lesson taught.

 

[David P]

Well our meat birds are all long gone now (to the processor) but I had something happen that put a huge smile on my face this morning and I thought I'd share. I should give a bit of an update first.

We purchased a chicken coop from someone locally (5x15) and placed it on the far side of our pole barn. It sits off the ground about 4 feet with a run below. We shored up the run by removing the poultry netting and installed hardware cloth instead. We also purchased some electric poultry netting so the hens have a nice outdoor run where they can run around and express their chicken-ness :cool2:. I put our 30-mile fencer on this run which packs a pretty nice wallap when you get nailed.

During our morning chores we noticed that the North end of the poultry netting was all lying on the ground. Upon closer inspection we found three dig marks, eerily similar to those we found outside the chicken tractor over the summer and likely from the same critter who got my chickens. Looks like he tried to dig under the electric fence and must have have gotten hung up in the netting as it was all twisted around itself and 4-5 poles were actually pulled right out of the ground. As I'm standing there thinking about the mess he caused over the summer I just got a big smile on my face as I envisioned him getting zapped by my fence every 1.5 seconds until he got himself untangled. I'm guessing he won't be back for a while!

 

[Bird]

Yep, David, the only way that would have been better is if you'd been there to see it.

 

[David P]

Yep, David, the only way that would have been better is if you'd been there to see it.

Sure wish I still had my trail can out there!