We are surrounded on 3 sides by large fields and the rats come from there into our garden and then into our chickens run where they quite nonchalently and confidently help themselves to the chicken feed. There are two rats—at the moment-and they are highly intelligent and amusing to watch.
But I find the fact that they are in such close contact with our chickens quite disturbing and want to find out how to deter them from accessing our 7 pet hens.We’ve tried about three different makes of sonar supposed deterrants none of which worked.We’ve place humane traps with tasty food near their tracks,but they ignore them. What really worries me is that more rats will join these two. We remove the hens’ feed bowls at night but the rats make their forays into the hen coops during the day. There is no way I would consider killing them and my question is ‘Does anyone know of a humane way of dealing with my ratty problem?’ Thank you in advance of receiving some workable suggestions!!

Cheers,
Jennifer

Well I know a lot of people are agenst breeding animals well the one’s that we raise that is. Well My questions is why is it that we don’t have a problem with people who just breed and place lots of hormoans in to animals to make them grow quick but we have problems with people that take time to make sure there isn’t any hormoans in the animals and feed them right and take the time.

Now I use to live on a farm a while ago.

Now the first thing is if you are in beef cattle then you need to breed them to make money to feed them right??

If your in to goats/ lambs you need to breed them and sell them to make money to feed them??

if your in to Chickens then you need to breed them because they need to keep making chickens to have eggs and to keep hens in the coop and you have to sell the eggs or chickens to feed them??

Now I know the dog and cat propulation trust me I volitier for a no kill shelter and see how many animals they house every month. But can I question something, if someone like myself doesn’t want a pure bred dog or cat why would I want to pay for a pure bred when mutts or mixs are free?? Now I am not saying breed all the time but some people just want a mix, I like my mix and he is very smart but I wish the people who had him didn’t breed the parents because he is in terrible shape with hips and shoulders.

Now I was told by my vet that a mutt or a mix is a lot healthier than any pure breed dog or cat. Because they get the excellent and the terrible of both jeans.

Now why don’t we complain about the people who just breed the other animals that we eat for money that pop hormoans in to our food and give us deases like cancer or make our kids come in to adult hood sooner than they should have? Please don’t be mean reckon about it. I am not saying stop breeding but stop the hormoans in the food. If my 2 dogs can’t eat the hormoans why would I want too. I like meat don’t give me incorrect but I was raised on ancient fashion growing up animals. Thanks for your answers.

Please do take time to reckon about my 2 questions thanks.

WHAT CHICKENS NEED

1. Grains (whole, living grains are way better than cracked, and a mixture is way better than pure corn) Scratch grain mix, from feed store, containing many kinds of grain (/50 lb)
Extra yellow corn (cracked) — it gives them warmth in the winter, we’re told
GRAINS MUST NEVER BE WET AND MOLDY — CAN KILL!
2. Greens (grass! weeds! fresh veggie parings from kitchen!) Grass forage
Garden clippings
Kitchen trimmings (thrown in the compost pile near their coop)
3. Protein (in summer, they get enough bugs — but in colder weather they need protein supplementation, including perhaps the following: yellow-jackets from restaurant traps, soybeans, worms, milk, meat — but sea fish is the very best). Every morning (quantity for 12 chickens): 3/4ths cup of boiled soybeans ~~ (make a batch every week or so: SOAK 2 cups of dried soybeans in three or four times the volume of water overnight; bring to ROLLING BOIL in the same soaking water for 15 minutes; DRAIN; STORE in fridge) mixed with 1 cup of instant oats, some sunflower seeds, milk to moisten, warmed up. Every other afternoon, same thing, with some fish flakes, bits of scrap fish, or some canned cheap fish.

4. Hard grit (do not confuse this with oyster shell or calcium — these dissolve in the chicken’s digestive system, grit does not — grit is used in place of "teeth"); quartz-based sand with angular edges (not rounded, as often is found in riverbeds) can be collected wherever you find it. You can also collect angular granite grit from trips to areas that have it. Tiny chicks need tiny grit, so get a variety of sizes. A small lasts a long time. The girls will pick and choose a few choice pieces now and then. Fun to watch them study and try out the different grains of grit.

5. Calcium (crushed oyster shell, other shells, ground or hammered bone) (There’s lots of calcium in greens, if they get to forage all day.)

6. Vitamins A (and D if the weather is cloudy for long stretches)

7. Salt (best given separately, free choice; kelp is the very supreme choice for this, if you can get it — it supplies all the minerals in the world — see below)
8. Minerals – Dried kelp fronds (the leafy parts, not the stalks, which are too hard to chop up and don’t get eaten) are kept in their coop on a sturdy clip. They can free-choose it, letting them adjust their salt and mineral intake. There are nearly 100 minerals on Earth. Only sea water and sea life has them in the ratios that animals need. All blood of animals contains these minerals, in the same proportions as in sea water! Scientists have barely scratched the surface of understanding all the things that these minerals do in living bodies. For optimum health, it’s best to get all of them.

Just gather a mess of kelp off any beach that is more than 50 miles from a city, sling it into a garbage bag and take it home. At home, set it out in the yard, and in a very small while, it will be dry and crisp. Take the flakey parts, and clip them about a foot off the ground where your chickens frequently go — those document clips with a black "hinge" and two folding silver "arms" work best.
Reference: http://www.lionsgrip.com/intro.html
Chicken Feed

Tnx….

Puppy Mills: Holocaust For the 21st Century

Atrocious… Abhorrent… Inhumane… Sickening…

These are only a few of the adjectives that come to my mind when I reckon about the growing number of commercial mass puppy breeding operations that are thriving throughout the USA and Canada at this very minute. A dog and puppy "holocaust" is taking place, with "canine concentration camps" in every state and province. Most of us have heard about puppy mills, but (and I am guilty of this, too) we avert our eyes and minds from them – because the truth is just too horrible to reckon about.

Well I received my "wake up call" yesterday when a "responsible breeder" attempted to post advertising on "Responsible Breeders Showcase", my web site dedicated to responsible dog ownership and responsible dog breeding. In checking out this breeder, as I do with every breeder that wants to showcase their dogs and puppies on my service, a search deep into the bowels of Google revealed a shocking document which told me just what this breeder was all about. She had been charged with numerous counts of animal cruelty and neglect, all related to her keeping breeding dogs in a barn without adequate care. Many of the dogs had to be euthanized due to injury and illness as a result of this neglect. There was even mention of findings of dead dog carcasses left amongst the living dogs. Despite these charges, the breeder was still in business. In searching Google for information about this breeder, I was shocked to learn just how many "breeder directories" had allowed her to advertise – no questions questioned. I was disgusted and alarmed.

Sadly, the Internet has become an advertising Mecca for puppy mills, back yard breeders, puppy brokers, and others who profit from misery. The number of commercial dog breeding operations in the USA and Canada has more than doubled in the past 10 years, and their numbers are still on the rise. With high-profile celebrities like Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie and Britney Spears waltzing into pet stores and buying puppies like fashion accessories, it’s no wonder that there is such a market for these cruel profiteers to exploit. The public sees only adorable small teacup puppies being toted around in designer dog carriers – what they don’t see is the haunted look in the eyes of the parents of that cute small puppy – the dogs who live and breathe solely for the purpose of producing more and more "cute small puppies", confined in cages and runs, often without adequate food, shelter, room, clean water or veterinary care – and ALWAYS without the one thing that dogs thrive on – human companionship.

The term, "Puppy Mill" has been used to mark many types of dog breeders, and there are many who disagree on what the definition of a "Puppy Mill" really is. Certain radical animal activists would have dog breeding in general against the law (which would likely see the extinction of most of our most beloved purebred dog breeds within about 10 years)

For me, a "puppy mill" is a "dog factory", where dogs are seen as "equipment" and puppies as "the product". Like any business, the goal is to make the most money possible while keeping costs to a minimum. Dogs are kept like livestock, in small pens or cages, and bred at every opportunity until they are too ancient or ill to be of further use to the "factory". Once this occurs, these dogs are "disposed of" – either killed or sold to laboratories to be subjected to further mistreatment. Not all commercial breeding operations are this terrible – and most are not this excellent.

I’m not going to fill this article with graphic photos of neglected dogs standing behind chicken wire – or cooped up in small, filthy pens barely huge enough for them to turn around in, much less get the daily exercise a dog needs to remain healthy. I’m not going to detail the tales of yucky neglect and abuse that so many breeding dogs and puppies endure at the hands of their owners. What I AM going to do is hopefully incite a call to action, outlining what we, as dog owners and dog lovers can do to help make puppy mills go away forever.

Like the man who coined the term "Man’s Best Friend", I have always seen dogs as loving, joyful, innocent, forgiving, intelligent animals. I’ve heard that dogs have the intellectual capacity of a 4 year ancient human child. I like dogs, and I really have to wonder how these charming and wonderful creatures can be treated with such disdain by lawmakers. How can it be legal to "farm" dogs like cattle, regulated only by the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), who ensure only that each dog’s "basic requirements for life" are met? How can it be acceptable in our advanced society for 1 person to own in excess of 250 dogs, and do with them as they please? How can the "Companion Animal Act" omit the one thing "companion" animals require the most – companionship!? It’s a stunning show our society’s apathy, lack of education, lack of information and lack of meaningful sanc

If I were to buy a flock from a certified breeder? Can you really own them as pets, and do do they make excellent pets? I know people who have a few as pets and I plot to do research on them before/if I can get one.

I have the room for it; a huge backyard, and a built in chicken coop from the ancient owner of our house.