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we got one the week we moved into our house. 1/2 acre of waist high grass, nottles an docs. never used one before, took 2 days to cut the lot. a good man back in the day could do an acre a day!!! it was some of the hardest work I ever did. technique is everything, dont try to cut to big a swathe, an...

this was the first time we had any trouble with mink, but just to be sure i bought a can of expaning foam ( not the most env friendly I know ) and filled in any gaps in walls and fence more than 2 inch diamater. completely mink proof!!! I hope. trap set just in case anyway, nothing in over a week, i...

the same happened me last year, the duck sat for nearly 7 weeks, then the eggs started to dissapear. a friend said she might be eating them out of frustration. I took them from her. not a duckling in any of them. I got anew drake, and 15 ducklings this year - minus one the mink got!! if she is sitti...

I got myself a mink trap, and caught it last Sunday!! you can tell the difference between a mink and and otter fairly simply - a mink will swim with his tail up out of the water, an otter will have its tail in the water. out of the water a mink will look very slim and sleek, and if you get close eno...

Ireland have no native mink, feral escapees from farms or released by anti fur groups. we have stoats and pine martins, but they tend to stick to wildlife for dinners, so have had no problems with them. got a trap today and have it set, had to run out a few times to chase off local stray cats trying...

just brought mama and babies indoors, they will live in our downstairs shower until i can catch the mink. I dont mind a fox to much, I can fence off a pen to keep them out, but a mink will always get in!!!

I was at our sink this morning at bout 9.30am, I noticed a bit of a commotion in our duck pen, with our 14 one week old muscovy ducklings and mama duck, I went out to see what all fuss was about. mama as flapping around mad, babies very agitated, when I saw the mink and noticed the dead chick. I ran...

I have a muscovy sitting on a clutch now for about 4 weeks, which is great, but here is where Im stumped. i have 2 ducks with my drake, keep them all in the one pen, should I move the other duck and drake out before the clutch hatches? contradictory advice from local 'Birdmen'. this is my first time...

I called into a local pharmacy that stocks a lot of vet products, they have a specialised vet pharmacist, he told me there is nothing liscenced for poultry use to get rid of mites in the Republic of Ireland, but gave me a powder to kill fleas on dogs, told me it should work. i treated the rest of th...

the feathers o her back looked like they were being pecked off, it was like she had dry dioreah stuck to her tail feathers, loss of appetite, lethargic, within 2 days she couldnt walk, that was when i decided to cull her. her tail feathers looked exactly like a picture in a book i have of a bird wit...

rang local vet, but shes still fairly busy, coming to the end of calving time around here. in the end she never got back to me. just read that northern mites dont attack much in hot weather, we've just had a full week of temperatures in the mid 20's, becoming more doubtfull that it was them.

just a quick question, what are the symptoms of northern fowl mite, i thought one of my chickens had them. but on looking up the net i found lots of contradicting info. in the end i had to kill her, she could not even walk. the rest of the flock aren't showing any symptoms. havent treated them yet, ...

I love an odd Indian ( prawn rogan josh!!! ) about 6 a year, but latley feel miserable after it, i thought it was all the oil and grease in it, could msg affect moods?? or am i just a moody f@~#$r??

hi,
a friend of mine tried to keep pheasants and hens together in the same pen, the pheasants killed the hens each time, maybe free range will work better, but if they are locked up together at night you might have the same problems. but maybe he was just unlucky!

hi all didnt feel guilty at all and still dont, especially after having a lovelybacon and cabbage dinner!!!!! just in from killing our two turkeys. I had only ever killed a chicken before, not much different with turkeys, a bit more work plucking though!!!! will definatley get pigs again though, gre...