Connecticut!

[pmessner]

I lean towards what new chick said too. Obviously you don't want to start a war with someone who has adjacent property, but then you might have a lot more to endure. I think people really do need to have some consequences for their actions or they just keep them up and/or escalate.

I completely understand your celebration of the wildlife you were privileged to see and the sadness at being powerless to stop the changes around you. It wasn't a stupid post! Have you talked to your other neighbors, the ones who were horrified along with you? Perhaps you could all approach him. Or all let the authorities know.

We have lots of predators too, but even if one managed to get a chicken I wouldn't want to kill it. Every time I see satellite pictures I'm shocked at how little land the animals have left. I root for our fox every year and love seeing the hawks. I just also make sure my chickens are very secure.

So sorry you're stuck in this situation.

First let me say thank you all for your responses... I've pulled myself together... had to go to work yesterday afternoon... life goes on. My neighbors and I have all discussed calling the wetland commission on this guy... but he actually is good natured and no one wants to put a negative spin on our little idyllic spot here... so we all just put up with him. He did move my chicken coop for me with his tractor. He is always the first out with a chain saw to clear the road if a tree falls. He seems quite conservative and I wonder how he justifies blatantly breaking the law which he has done twice now. He hunts, has a web camp on his property... is very knowledgeable about wildlife and yet seems very ignorant when it comes to the effects of his actions on the balance of nature. Unfortunately, the way our properties are situated everything he does is sort of right in my face. I'm up on a hill looking down on him and can see everything he does. It amuses me that after he clear cut the whole property he did manage to leave one shrub next to a tree... a barberry... which some of you may know is a nasty invasive weed and if you were to leave one shrub, why that one.
Red tails supposedly mate for life so I guess I will see what happens next... does the remaining bird stay ? Without a mate and young to feed it has become less aggressive... if it chooses to hang out but continues to attack the pigeons then its fate is certainly sealed... but it may just be content with small stuff now that it has no young to rear. I do not begrudge any of the losses I have had due to predation... with each new threat I have just added electric fencing or whatever is needed to protect my own... at this point my flock can only free range when I'm out and about in the yard. Half the fun for me is just seeing them out and about doing what chickens do.

 

[CaCO3]

Yes, you make valid points. However, I could certainly butcher livestock if I needed to. If there are others who are more comfortable performing processing then I am comfortable letting them do it. Especially if they are skilled. Specialization of labor. I also eat a loss less meat since raising chickens, probably because I appreciate even more what goes into raising a living thing. And I have a very hard time letting it go to waste. I have no problem chopping off pieces of torn combs, and performing all kinds of gross + gruesome bloody repairs of my animals. I'd much rather eat the chicken raised humanely by the farmer down the road, then feeling compelled to raise it myself. It's all the same to the chicken if he/she has the same good quality of life.

 

[Mikedero]

the cheapest I found for a processor in CT was 7.00 per bird. that would mean I would spend more money having it processed then I did buying it and feeding it for 8 weeks. One of my reasons for raising meat birds is to save money. for me and tha tis just me I rather do it myself.

i have friends that I hunt with that also pay to have their deer cut up, I do that myself as well.

But each person is different and there is nothing wrong with that at all.

granted I can not wait until next year when I buy my plucker that will make life musch better for me. In fact that is the only part I hate doing

 

[CaCO3]

Respectfully agreed.

Recently had two close encounters with skunks in or next to my coops. Hey, wait, you're not a chicken...... $&@#!!! I think I am more afraid of them than the bears. I think one lives under my deck. Every summer. It's brutal.

 

[pmessner]

the cheapest I found for a processor in CT was 7.00 per bird. that would mean I would spend more money having it processed then I did buying it and feeding it for 8 weeks. One of my reasons for raising meat birds is to save money. for me and tha tis just me I rather do it myself.

i have friends that I hunt with that also pay to have their deer cut up, I do that myself as well.

But each person is different and there is nothing wrong with that at all.

granted I can not wait until next year when I buy my plucker that will make life musch better for me. In fact that is the only part I hate doing

"But each person is different and there is nothing wrong with that at all."

Yes, we are all different and there is nothing wrong with that at all... we each find what we are comfortable with.

When I was younger I struck out in life to be different from my parents... ended up on an organic goat farm in Washington State... we raised the goats for milk and cheese and had chickens as well.... animals were butchered in an orderly fashion when no longer useful but always in a human way... not like the butchering that goes on in today's large scale agriculture. I left that lifestyle and came back east where I was from originally, but the lessons learned still stay with me. I don't begrudge anybody anything because I think things have gotten so complex most people don't have a lot of choices concerning where we get our food and how that food is grown. If some one wants to take the time and effort to grow livestock for their own use, whether it be chickens or what ever, then I respect that. A backyard chickens life is so much better than one of those poor creatures housed 100,000 to a shed in overcrowded conditions pumped with hormones and antibiotics until ready for market. I have butchered animals in the past... right now I have no stomach for it but I do not have a problem with anyone else who does.

Hope you get your chicken plucker... paying $7 a bird for processing makes no sense unless money doesn't really matter to you. I couldn't afford it, for sure...

 

[Mikedero]

agreed right now I use a plucked that attachs to my drill. I am not paying 7.00 and that was the cheap place.

I also like keeping the gizzard and livers most of the processors will not keep them for you. I saw one place wanting to charge 12.00 per bird craxy I tell ya.



As far as Skunks the first one I put down was int he run (the coop door was closed) it could not get back out so I made a rookie mistake and my run smelled like skunk for about a week. I have improved my run and that is not a issue anymore. I agree they are by far the worse but their pelts when done right make pretty cool stuff with them cat toys, mittens, ear muffs

 

[ChampionAlex]

Anyone ordering from benedicts in monroe next week?

 

[CaCO3]

Skunk ear muffs. Cracking me up. ... I love it!!! I am entering you in the next season of Project Runway.

 

[Adenium]

 

I feel like there is a huge and unacceptable disconnect between people and their food. Somehow we've gone from valuing and appreciating our food to thinking that it is dangerous, dirty and just plain "yucky." I guess Joel Salatin says it best “The average person is still under the aberrant delusion that food should be somebody else's responsibility until I'm ready to eat it.”

I agree here. I was amazed that a coworker wouldn't eat backyard chicken eggs - she thought they should come from someone who "knows what they're doing" and that somehow the store ones were cleaner? I was so tempted to show her images from industrial poultry operations.

I don't want to cull birds, which is why I don't hatch. Not because it's too yucky - I'm a nurse and see plenty of yucky. I just plain don't eat chicken/beef/pork etc and haven't in about 20 years. I do figure if I want to eat it I should be comfortable doing the killing - which I'm not. I do eat eggs, which is why I wanted chickens. I want to know where my food's coming from and that the animals are healthy and treated humanely. Granted, I got my hens from a hatchery which also generates lots of males that they need to deal with. Nothing is perfect but this is the step I'm taking. However, many folks aren't in a position to be more connected to their food. I'm pretty spoiled having 3 acres and understanding neighbors.

The predator issue I view a little differently. I don't kill predators because I don't need to, but understand others do feel compelled in their own situations - what pmessner was dealing with was illegal predator culling. Always many angles to every issue. I hope they can find some decent resolution with their neighbor - in this day and age where so few neighbors interact none of us want to lose good relationships.

 

[CaCO3]

Nope. But I did just get a bunch of eggs today that I am going to incubate.