Many people who raise chickens have pet cats and many of these chicken owner's use permethrin to get rid of mice, lice, and other insects in their chicken coops. Permethrin is highly toxic to kittens and cats, can cause severe tremors, and even death. One of the biggest mistakes cat owner's make is not reading the warnings and instructions on mite and lice treatments. Find out more about permethrin and treatments for accidental poisoning here:

• Permethrin is highly toxic to kittens and cats article and .pdf study report.

How to treat your chickens for mice, lice, and other pests without harming your cat
Food grade DE is a natural organic substance that can be used to treat your chickens, coops, dogs, cats, and other pets indoors and outdoors. Find out more about Food grade DE and where to get the best deals on it here:Go to Food grade DE 

Turkeys in Staten Island, New York are making headlines these past few weeks as the USDA euthanized many of them in an effort to pacify irritated residents who are bothered by the birds stopping traffic and leaving feces in their yards. Animal rights activists stepped up to the plate and some of the turkeys have been moved to sanctuaries. Find out more about these so called "hoodlums" taking over New York, is it the turkeys revenge for thousands of years of abuse? Check out Turkeys ganging up on Staten Island:

• Turkeys gang up on Staten Island, New York and are taking over
  

Farming is big business in the U. S. : Fast facts on farm statistics
Commercial farming is big business in the U.S.A. Most modern day commercial farmers are well educated, have college degrees, provide jobs, and help to improve our national GDP (Gross domestic product-the amount of food and products produced in one year by a country). According to a General Facts Agricultural report produced by NCA University:College and Agricultural Life Sciences farming is big business, and helps to increase the amount of exports(products going out of the country) which increases the amount of money that the U.S. has to bargain with. Imports are products and services we buy from other countries and exports are products and services other countries buy from us. The general idea is for the U.S. to export more products and services than we import. U. S. commercial farms are a huge contributor to products and services which are exported out of the U.S. to other countries.
Fast facts and statistics about U.S. farms:

1. Twenty two million Americans produce, process, sell and trade the U.S. food and fiber
2. 4.6 million American's live on farms 
3. Only 2% of the U.S. population actually live on food producing farms
4. Consumers buy 547 billion dollars in food produced on farms and ranches in the U.S.
5. Farmer's make 23 cents on each dollar consumers spend on commercial food products grown or processed on commercial farms
6. .77 cents of each dollar consumers spend on commercial food products goes toward production, processing, marketing, transportation, and distribution.
7. $6 million dollars worth of U.S. agricultural products are shipped to foreign markets every day/365 days per year
8. U.S. agricultural exports create more than $100 billion dollars annually for the U.S. economy
9. Almost 1 million jobs for almost 1 million workers are provided by commercial farms in the U.S.
10. 75% of agricultural land provides a home and natural habitat for wildlife in the U.S.
11. U.S. farms produce bio-diesel fuel from corn and grains with reduce our dependency of imported foreign fuels.

Buying products produced by U.S. Commercial farms is not only good for our health but it is also highly beneficial to the financial stability of our country, and our environment.

Reference: General facts about agriculture.NCA State University. http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/CollegeRelations/AGRICU.html

Yesterday, while moving the chicken coops around and cleaning them, my little Yorkie named Zack was going crazy digging at a piece of cardboard he found under the dirt near one of the pens, I thought he may have found some buried treasure for a moment but when I jerked the cardboard up I quite nearly, jumped out of my skin as I found a huge copperhead snake, it was quite alive and lunged at me, when it did my little Yorkie charged in, it happened so fast, I was not sure if my dog had been bitten or if I had as I felt something hit my leg but gave it no thought as I lunged toward the snake to save my little dog who was trying to save me. (I had a garden hoe in my hands to clean the pens) I took a few swipes with the hoe, managing to make contact but not enough to stop him, I shoved Zack out of the way with my foot, stabbing away at the snake but doing no damage except now he was heading into my chicken coop where Meme my rescued rooster and his new girlfriend Weezy were they jumped back but all my other hens were heading to me to see what was going on, meanwhile I managed to get the hoe flat on the snake where his head was trappeed in the coop and I had the hoe mashed on his tail while I screamed bloody murder for my husband who came running with a shovel and chopped the deadly viper to pieces, we had to move fast as the hens thought they were in for a treat or something the way they ganged up on us trying to get the snake. After the scare and close inspection neither Zack or I had been bitten but the pain I felt on my leg was where I must've clipped my leg with the hoe when I started my attack..whew! God was truly watching out for us today! My chickens would have been in dire trouble up against that monster.Now I am wondering if there are more snakes laying in wait for our chickens or sneaking into the coops. With one rooster gone lame already, I am now wondering if he had been bitten by a snake rather than a gopher as we originally thought. From what I have read so far if snakes are in or near your coop it is because they are searching for food such as rodents or an easy meal of a fresh egg. Some say snake repellents do not work while other's swear by them. I am wondering what would happen if a chicken gets bitten by a snake? Is it better to leave the snakes alone so they can eliminate the rodent population or to get rid of the rodents to eliminate the snake population. What is a humane way to get rid of rodents and snakes? I have also seen several articles and video's stating chickens kill and eat snakes and in my experience this may be true with baby snakes but I lost three hens last year to snake bites. I am looking forward to your comments :)-Motherhen (The chicken lady)

Well, I have learned quite a bit about how to keep snakes away from my chickens and had great success, and I want to share what I have learned with you. Go to How to Keep Snakes Away From Your Chickens

Last year, I rescued a pocket gopher, poor little thing only had one eye and was walking down the driveway when my late nephew Lamar (Bubba) Hibbitts III picked her up and brought her to me. We named her Bubbasita, she stayed in an aquarium in my living room for a few months until her eye healed, she seemed to be well and able to take care of herself so we took her to the edge of the property and let her go near what appeared to be a gopher hole. (Figuring it must have been her home). I have been repaid for my kindness but not in a nice way we are under siege by pocket gopher's! They are burrowing into the chicken runs, gathering huge amounts of feed, and even bit one of our rooster's who was trying to stop the gopher from getting the feed. Last year we found only one or two mounds and did not worry about it but this year-it is getting crazy. I have had to replant my garden 3 times because these critter's just yank the plants underground from the roots. I am afraid to use poison because I do not want the hens or roo's to get a hold of it by accident. I have tried flooding them out, putting stakes in the ground and banging on them but they seem to be thriving in spite of my efforts. My garden looks like a gopher waste land again today, my rooster is lame and terrified when I sit him in the dirt for a dirt bath, and I am at my wit's end. Please help! I need a humane way to get rid of these rodents. Any idea's?

Gophers are a huge pest, they steal chicken feed and destroy garden plants. I did not want to use traditional methods of rodent control. My neighbors put a 2 liter empty coke bottle with slats cut out of it and put it on a piece of pvc pipe upside down with the opening you pour from placed onto the pipe and pounded it into the ground. I watched to see if this method worked or not. It did seem to work for about a week and then the gophers were back, upon inspection of the contraption I noticed the gophers had simply clogged the pvc pipe on the end that goes in the ground with dirt. Failing to find a way to humanely  get rid of the gophers I gave up for awhile and then something happened. I got a couple farm cats to get rid of mice that were trying to steal all my feed and eating eggs. The cats multiplied and soon there were no more mice or rats, only the gophers remained. During certain times of year the rodents are very scarce (my cats are great mousers) and the cats discovered that gophers also make a tasty meal. Needless to say I have no more gophers but oddly enough, the little one eyed gopher still comes up at feeding time, why they haven't eaten him I will never know...or maybe his days are numbered.

It's that time of year again. Snakes are looking for a little dinner and they really like to eat eggs. I use a mixture of garlic, cinnamon, rosemary, thyme boiled together, strained and put in a spray bottle, then I spray it in the nest boxes, the hen house, and the coops and it works pretty good since snakes see with their sense of smell rather than their eyes. One whiff and they are usually out of here. However, we do still run across one every now and then. I got to wondering if there are other people who raise chickens which may have home made snake repellents that have worked. I would really like to try them. Feel free to try mine and to share yours. If you have a homemade snake repellent that works- would love to hear from you!

I have discovered that snakes do not like cinnamon oil and clove oil and I spray it in my nest boxes and around my coop to keep them away. I use 10 drops of cinnamon oil and 10 drops of clove oil per gallon of water. Mix well, put it in a spray bottle and spray any dark place where snakes may be. Be very careful for the next week after applying because any snakes that may have been hiding there will come out and you could run into them.

Living on the Brazos River with my little chicken farm, I found myself in a constant battle with snakes. I was finding them in my coop, in nest boxes, and even under my broody hens. Since using my get rid of snakes methods I no longer have a snake problem. See how I keep snakes away from my chicken coop here: Go to How to Keep Snakes Away From Chickens