"Duck" Tape - another great use for it

I've raised chickens for many years. Last year I decided to get some ducks. I have a pond and I knew my kids would enjoy them. This year as we got some new chicks, we also pick up ducklings to go with them for the second time. They've been a lot of fun and it's really interesting to see all the differences between them. The ducks grow way faster but their wings don't develop until a lot later. Chickens like to peck at everything that looks unusual, I guess to see if it's food. If one of them gets injured, they'll peck the wound and the blood until it dies if we can't catch it soon enough. I've found that as the ducks get their new wing feathers they look interesting to the chicks and almost always get pecked until they bleed. I've tried putting Vaseline and other nasty stuff on them to make them taste bad, colored the area to hide the blood/wound, I even tried putting part of a sock around them to protect them. I really don't want to cage them up individually until all their wing feathers are in. The solution I finally figured out, was to put a piece of duct tape on the wing. I put it on loose, but fold it over the wing and allow enough to stick to itself so it will stay on better. It moves with the feathers as they grow and eventually falls off by itself after the feathers are grown enough. It works so well it's amazing, especially when nothing else does.

First foxes, what now?

Well I've been trying to catch the foxes that have been eating our chickens for quite a while now. I'm now getting a little nervous about what I might catch. That trap I built is quite large. I built it large enough to catch any big dogs that came over. This could get me into some trouble. While talking to the neighbors, they mentioned how they've seen all sorts of animals go through where I have that trap set. Everything from elk to bears. After talking to them I was down checking the traps and found some large tracks. The tracks were almost as wide as my hand. After researching them online I believe they are tracks from a large cat like a cougar. This makes me a little nervous about having my kids play outside, they do this alone quite often. My property, although it's large and has some thick secluded areas, is still in what I call the city although I'm on the edge. It's not supposed have those types of wild animals around.

Why is there so many expensive, terrible products?

I'm a tool guy. I like to have the best tools for whatever job I have. I know where to find good power tools, but when it comes to home products, it's hard to find what I want. Why are there so many kitchen tools, cleaning tools, cleaning products, car care stuff, etc. that are so expensive and most of them are crap? If you're lucky to find a real supplier of commercial products, you'll find their stuff is way better quality, cheaper, and the right stuff for the job. I got a tip about a restaurant supply that sold to the public and stocked up my kitchen with all sorts of great stuff that you can't get in the stores. I have a friend that does car detailing and he buys a protectant that's many times better than Armor All for a dollar a gallon. If you go to Wal-Mart you'll find 20 products for every little job, they all come in a little teeny container, you can't tell which or if any of them actually work, and they all cost five times what they should. Why do we have to mess with this stuff. Why can't everyone sell commercial grade products? Who wouldn't want that?

I haven't caught my fox yet...

I started letting my chickens out again for a week or so, but I lost another chicken and duck (I'm down to 3 chickens and 2 ducks). I can't afford to lose anymore chickens (until my new chicks are laying), so they are locked up permanently. We saw the fox going around our property yesterday morning. I think it was sneaking around to our duck pond (avoiding us). I went down to the pond and saw it ran back the way it came. I moved my trap closer to where I've seen it come from in a thicker area where it won't have to come out in the open. I baited it with some old lamb burger I happened to have (I'm not sure what would be the best bait). I only thing I've caught after a few days of having it there is a stray cat. I did catch one of my chickens when the trap was up by the coop and I had let them out.

To Catch a Fox

After I knew that a fox was eating our chickens, I locked them in their coop for about a week. I put wire mesh over their door and built a trap that I set in front of the door. I figured that the fox was going into the chicken coop to get the chickens (this was not the case), so if I put the trap in front of the door it would go into the trap to try to get into the coop. The trap is very simple. Other than the door, it's made completely out of wire mesh. The door is made with 2"X2"s that I cut grooves in with my table saw, so a piece of plywood could slide up and down. String connects the platform on the bottom to a lever. The lever has a nail in it, that holds up the door. Depending on where the string wraps around the lever, the sensitivity of the trap is adjusted. I love having that ability. It makes the trap very versatile. It's big enough to catch a large dog, but sensitive enough to catch a bird.

Fox eating chicken and ducks

Last year we picked up 13 chickens and 4 ducks and have really enjoyed having them. At one point we did have some neighbor dogs come and take out three or four of the chickens. We chase them away couple times and caught one and took it to the pound and haven't had a problem since. But lately we keep losing them. maybe one every 3 to 4 days that we let them out. We're down to two decks and four chickens. I did see a fox with a chicken in its mouth in the middle of the day once toward the first, so I think it's probably the fox doing it all. But there's also lots of stray cats around, the neighbor dogs might be coming back, or it could even be a skunk, a raccoon, a large owl, or a golden eagle (all of these are around). They've never disappeared at night, during the day one will all of sudden turn up missing. I keep a fairly close watch on them although I can't watch them all the time, so whatever it is, it's very sneaky.