Do ants kill chicks???greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread |
Two of my chicks were dead and covered with ants this morning. They were fine last night.The momma hen takes her babies under this little house to sleep and they have always been ok before.This morning I happened to see one lying just outside of it covered in ants. I looked under and another was also dead.Do ants kill babies. I seem to be cursed with ants this year.First they are in my house and then in different places in my flower beds and yard, then my corn and now my chicks? What do you think?I am trying to be patient and not use pesticides but things are getting out of hand.Imagine what a horrible way to die that would be.
-- Bonnie (josabo1@juno.com), July 22, 2000
Are they the small ants? Red ants or what? I wouldn't think the small ants would kill a baby chick. Wouldn't they continue to pick at them like the hen does? I know they'll chase even moths, so why not ants? Maybe it depends on where you live, what kind and how big of an ant? Maybe after they died, is when the ants took over them? Just thinking outloud!
-- Pat (pmikul@pcpros.net), July 22, 2000.
So sorry to hear that. Fire ants will consume a downed cow in no time. Those suckers are very tiny, but just awful. If the chicks were sleeping, that specie of ant could take them over very quickly. My chickens really chow down on the fire ant hills. And that's the main reason I have chickens! Just the thought makes me shiver, but I've yet to lose any to them. The gates to their pens are open during the day and they wander in and out for food/water. I dust the ground of the pens with Diatomaceous Earth. Also put it under their waterers and nest boxes (large, covered cat litter boxes). The DE keeps the pens fly free, and it also gets any ants that the chickens don't.
-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), July 22, 2000.
They are small ants but lots of them. Not red. I don't know what could have killed them though if not the ants. They were a week maybe two old. Very active; apparently healthy. No signs of obvious trauma.I just think it's very odd. If just one had died I would assume things happen.But two at once and the rest are still very active normal looking chicks.
-- Bonnie (josabo1@juno.com), July 22, 2000.
I stopped trying to raise chicks once the weather warms up. Ants'll get in the nest and kill the chicks before they leave the shell. I try and Sevin dust them every couple of days, but sometimes you forget, or can't find the nests, and they're lost to ants. I still have free range bannies who insist on getting broody year round...those that I find I 'dust', and collect mother and chicks, and place em in an ant free coop for several weeks. The ones who like to hide their nest don't get their 'genes' passed along.
-- phil briggs (phillipbriggs@thenett.com), July 22, 2000.
bonnie, sorry about losing the chicks, I love the little fuzzballs and have all sizes around here. this may sound a little simplistic but why not put the hen and chicks in a pen or cage and block up the hole under the shed. It sounds like a great place for a snake or possum to get them easily. karen
-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), July 23, 2000.
Karen, I have so many hens and babies at any given time (well late spring and summer ) that I don't have enough cages or pens. To tell the truth this is the first year I have needed more than one pen . My hubby built me a pen for my babies kinda like one of those Forsham Cottage arks. It's really great. Not as pretty maybe because it's not as fancy but same basic principle, with wire bottom and all.It has handles so it can be moved around. And pretty much preditor proof. I am keeping her and her babies in there at night. But they do so much better if you let the hen take care of them ( USUALLY ) Any way the last hen is still sitting and has been for some time. She is very broody but a terrible mother. I think I will take her eggs away soon and rid myself of this trouble for the rest of the year.
-- Bonnie (josabo1@juno.com), July 23, 2000.