Repairing Electrified Netting

 As I have mentioned last time, one of the measures I have gone to for predator deterrence is electrified netting.  The netting is very easy to set up and move around and generally works well.  It does have some limitations, however.  One is that it's relatively fragile.

Several times I have found a section of netting down on the ground.  Cameras have never been positioned the right way to show me what happened, but I have assumed it was a deer that got caught on the top of the fence coming in or going out, and in its effort to free itself, it pulled up some of the posts. A coyote might be another possibility, or a bobcat--all of them are present to some degree.  I haven't seen hogs or bears, although a bear wouldn't be completely out of the question.

The most recent time this happened, it was very obviously a deer:

The hoof marks in the dirt show where it flailed around a bit trying to get out.  Another first for this time around is that the netting was actually damaged.  A couple of non-conductive vertical strands were broken, and two horizontal conductive ones were, as well.

Premier1 includes a little repair kit with each roll of netting; it has small rolls of each type of cord in the net, along with a few brass crimpers to put around the repair knots to help ensure a conductive bond.  The number were too limited for serious repairs, so I got a package of fifty 14-8 copper crimp sleeves.  They have a flared end that enabled them to slide over the square knots I tied to join the replacement pieces to the broken ends of the existing netting.

Then a quick squeeze with a pair of pliers and the repair was done:

The end result isn't particularly pretty--it's obvious there was damage--but it is again fully functional. That's all that matters.

Predators and Predator Abatement

This is mostly just a collection of night pictures of the chicken tractors, along with some fixes.  Everybody loves chicken, as the saying goes.

Initially, I put my chicken tractor out on grass, moving it daily.  I put a trail camera on it to see if there were any nighttime visitors.  Sure enough, there were.

I didn't necessarily see predators every night or even every week, but they did come frequently and get up close and personal with the chickens.

As noted previously, one night a fox did get two chickens--without ever making it into the tractor. I'm assuming it was a fox because the camera did capture a fox that night, although there were no shots of the attack itself.  At the time of the attack, I had six pullets and two cockerels in the tractor.  One of each died.  The predator attacked through the handhold opening for the milk crate.

Unlike many, I haven't had much of a problem with digging, but did see clear signs one day:

In response to all of this, I have implemented a series of preventive measures.  One was discussed in the post on tractor construction.  To close off the handhold openings, I put hardware cloth on the gate:

 

The gate still opens. To guard against digging, I put split cordwood around the tractor in any areas where there are visible gaps.

This also deters the chickens from trying to dig out.  Other than the one incident shown above, however, I haven't had a digging problem.  Finally, I realized that incidents like the one shown above--with the fox on the top of the tractor--weren't good for the chickens, even if they were secure inside.

To deal with this, I set up electrified poultry netting.  That has worked very well.  Since starting to use it, I haven't captured any pictures of anything inside the net (although deer and birds have come inside).  Although foxes could jump over, they seem to be disinclined to.

Sweetgum, 2021

 I have commented more than once about splitting sweetgum. Sometimes relatively small pieces split okay, and it does produce decent BTUs. So I'm happy to take small-diameter sweetgum if offered.

 The smaller pieces actually did split fine.  Up to four inches or so, one hit with the maul is all it took:

 

Larger pieces were more challenging to do manually, turning into a death match with maul and wedge, so I broke out the splitter.  It got the pieces split, but they tore badly.

These were mostly in the six inch range.  Although the splitter was able to crack them, they often needed significant mauling after the splitter to separate.  On the bright side, this fall and winter all of those wood shards will help the pieces catch fire and burn.

Nesting Boxes-Success!

In my last post, I mentioned that the redesigned nesting boxes hadn't caught on like I'd hoped with the new chickens.  They were making a nest out of the hay bedding I was using in the tractor over the winter months.  Once I started moving the tractor again, they kept using the back corner--and the middle of the tractor--for their eggs.

In the last few days, I'm seeing signs of hope:

 

One day I found three eggs in one nesting box and two on the ground in the tractor; within a couple of days, both boxes were in use.  For the last two days, all eggs have been laid in the boxes. Success!

I usually have to open up the tractor, anyway, because I have two feeders.  One is a tray on the ground, which they often knock over and kick around, so it might be unreachable from the front door.  I also will probably always have to check for eggs on the ground inside, because moving the tractor with an egg on the ground would probably break it. But this is definitely an improvement.

The Ignored Nest Boxes

 I explained in some detail previously that for my second chicken tractor, I lowered the nesting boxes. As I noted in another post, the original plans have the nesting boxes relatively high in the tractor which made them the go-to roosting spot.  To this day, my older birds try to pack themselves into the two nesting boxes each night to sleep.  That's problematic on a number of levels.  First, it has dissuaded them from laying eggs in those boxes.  When they started laying, I put another nest box on the floor of the tractor and they have mostly used it.

Another problem is that there's a lot more stress on the nesting box framework than anticipated.  It was really only designed for one or two chickens to be there simultaneously, and for relatively short periods of time.  Instead, it has 50 pounds of chicken sitting on it all night, every night.  I added some bracing but it's holding up relatively well.

So those were the factors that led me to modify the second tractor.  I introduced a lot of complexity but can confidently say I successfully removed the nesting boxes as a roosting spot.  I kept the boxes closed off until the new chickens started laying, but now that I have opened them up, there's very little evidence they have been used at all.  I have only gotten one egg in the boxes.  The rest end up like this:

You can see that they have all decided to use the same spot, back in the sheltered corner under the nesting boxes.  You can also see hay, which has been used to hollow out the nesting spot.  I've been using hay for bedding in the tractor for the last few months while everything has been dormant.  I can't move them around on the grass when it isn't growing, or they will over-graze it.  Hopefully, once things start moving and they are on grass, they'll decide the nesting boxes are a better place to lay eggs.  If not, I'll be 0 and 2 for nesting box placement.

Overall, despite the spot being relatively tough to reach, it's working pretty well.  

 

Update: In the last week, I have started rolling them around the yard again.  They are mostly still using the same spot, in the back corner sort of under the nest boxes, but there are usually one or two eggs out in the middle of the tractor, too--that's bad, because they're susceptible to getting broken. Sigh.

 

Splitting Next Year's (or Later) Wood

 Very generous friends dropped a red oak tree last week and gave me the wood.  It was medium-sized.  It fit (barely) in the bed of the truck.

The relatively small branches I set aside for the moment, and started on the larger sections of the trunk.  Although fresh, it split relatively well, with exceptions.  I have had problems with some varieties of oak when newly-felled.  These pieces tore in places, and some were very hard to fully separate, but over the course of about three hours, I got it all done.  Some I stacked on a pallet:

And some I put on a linear rack under cover.

In the picture above, the new wood is to the left; on the right of the rack is an eclectic mix of maple, poplar, and red oak mostly cut down in 2020.

The two pictures show about two-thirds of the wood from the truck bed. In terms of volume, the truck bed holds about 52 cubic feet; a cord is 128 cubic feet.  When split, the 52 cubic feet would expand somewhat, but it is still probably only about a half cord.  More will be needed for a season's heating, but this is a nice and welcome start.

Some say that oak needs to season for much longer than part of a year: November is only eight months away.  I have burned oak that seasoned for about eight months, and more that has been older.  The longest recommended interval I have found online is three years (here and other places). Many sites suggest two years.  Most sites agree at least that it seasons quicker when split.

I have other wood to burn before this, but will most likely begin burning it sometime next winter.

Contrasting Egg Sizes

I have two batches of Barred Rock chickens, from two different hatcheries.  One bunch hatched in early May, so they were coming into maturity (insofar as egg-laying capability goes) after the fall equinox when days were getting relatively short--and declining.  They didn't start laying until after the winter solstice, at about eight months of age.  The second group was hatched in late September, so they hit maturity after the winter equinox when day length was increasing.  I started getting my first eggs from them at five months.

I realize that, despite the nominal breed being the same, the two groups of birds might be different in important ways.  However, the age gap is interesting, as is this:

The one on the right is from the second group, while the others are from the older chickens.  The bunch that waited eight months before beginning to lay eggs has laid full-sized ones from Day 1.  They have all been about 52-64 grams, or large to extra large.  The one on the right is 37 grams, aka peewee-sized (which is not uncommon for young birds just beginning to lay). Hopefully they increase in size soon.