Stella's Social Club

[robhuncor]

That's good to hear after all the horror stories of what's going on, weatherwise, in CA.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Easter Hatchalong link:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/the-10th-annual-byc-easter-hatch-a-long.1291653/

 

[mlm Mike]

Update from what's been going on here.

My mom finished her last radiation treatment on December 31st. She is looking and feeling great, and her hair is growing back in.

On the day before Christmas Eve, the bear took out my beehive. It didn't destroy the hive, it took it apart with precision, and left the one box without honey completely undisturbed. It ate all the honey and almost all of the bees. That morning, I found a dead deer in our fence with it's back leg tangled in the fencing. We got rid of it that day, but I don't know how long it was there. So I think the smell from it brought the bear there. I've had bears on our property for many years (and bees for 7 years) and they have never found the hive until now. Ticked me off too, because that queen was amazing. I have 3 packages ordered for spring, and I will be enclosing the bee yard, and possibly electrifying it. I have seen it multiple times in our trash, it looks to be a juvenile, not fully grown.

I've had a couple of predator issues with my chickens. The first I suspect was a "neighbors" pit bull when we were out of town, as it looked like dog claw marks under the fence. I lost 10 chickens, only 1 eaten, the rest just dead, including my 10 year old Light Brahma Marshmallow. Piles of rocks with the tractor covered up all of his holes under our fence, and he hasn't been seen on our property since.

The second, I think was the bear. The pop door was opening early, like 5am, and I haven't had an issue all winter. I was busy and didn't even think about it. Whatever it was reached in through the pop door and killed 1 male and hauled another off. The reason I think it was the bear is, it carried the chicken down by the trash can where there was a pile of feathers. I thought I heard a squak, but then didn't hear anything else, but I did hear the wagon we use to haul firewood right on the back of the house move. The feather trail went straight over to our fence (keeping in mind we are on 5 acres, so this is about 200 feet away) and the fence was bent. The trash area is the bears area. If it was a fox or bobcat, it wouldn't have come down that far, it would be agile enough to avoid the wagon, and it wouldn't have bent my fence.

So I moved the survivors to the other coop, and purposely left the door opener to open at 5am still, so whatever it was knows it is empty now, and no more food there. In another week or two, I will move a "test subject" (meaning spare male) into that coop and change the timer so it doesn't open until it's light out, and make sure it's safe. Then I'll move a few more and wait and see.

Wow, sorry about the bees and chickens.
I'm glad to hear your mother is looking and feeling great.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Thanks Mike. It's been quite a winter.

 

[Happy Chooks]

I got stung today. Now mind you, I've been in my own hives hundreds of times and have managed to avoid getting stung for 1 1/2 years since my last honeybee sting that I had a bad reaction to. (meaning full body hives and plugged ears)

This morning, I didn't see the culprit on the piece of wood I was putting in the woodstove, and the gosh darn yellow jacket got me on the finger. They do overwinter in the wood stack, but I hadn't seen any this winter, so I didn't even think to look. Hurts worse than a honey bee sting too. So I told myself, I guess we are going to find out if I'm allergic to yellow jacket stings.

The plus side is no adverse reaction to that sting. Now I still could be allergic to honey bee stings, I won't know until I get stung again. (which I'm not planning on doing on purpose)

But I am still ticked that the stupid yellow jacket got me. If I'm going to be stung, I at least want it to be by a creature that is worth a darn. I hate yellow jackets!

 

[ronott1]

I got stung today. Now mind you, I've been in my own hives hundreds of times and have managed to avoid getting stung for 1 1/2 years since my last honeybee sting that I had a bad reaction to. (meaning full body hives and plugged ears)

This morning, I didn't see the culprit on the piece of wood I was putting in the woodstove, and the gosh darn yellow jacket got me on the finger. They do overwinter in the wood stack, but I hadn't seen any this winter, so I didn't even think to look. Hurts worse than a honey bee sting too. So I told myself, I guess we are going to find out if I'm allergic to yellow jacket stings.

The plus side is no adverse reaction to that sting. Now I still could be allergic to honey bee stings, I won't know until I get stung again. (which I'm not planning on doing on purpose)

But I am still ticked that the stupid yellow jacket got me. If I'm going to be stung, I at least want it to be by a creature that is worth a darn. I hate yellow jackets!

Yellow Jacket stings are nasty!

Watch out for a secondary reaction. That happens about a week after the original sting.

It can be quite dangerous--including kidney damage. I had a bout of that a year and a half ago when I was stung but wild bees

 

[Happy Chooks]

Yellow Jacket stings are nasty!

Watch out for a secondary reaction. That happens about a week after the original sting.

It can be quite dangerous--including kidney damage. I had a bout of that a year and a half ago when I was stung but wild bees

What are the symptoms of a secondary reaction?

 

[ronott1]

What are the symptoms of a secondary reaction?

The site where the sting or stings is begins itching and swells up. You can get a fever and chills too.

It is an auto immune reaction to venom that is not in your system any more..like scarlet fever is with strep bacteria. With scarlet fever, there is no strep in your system but the immune system attacks your cells thinking that it is strep. When attacking the heart, it is rheumatic fever

Added: a Week after the initial sting.

 

[mlm Mike]

I got stung today. Now mind you, I've been in my own hives hundreds of times and have managed to avoid getting stung for 1 1/2 years since my last honeybee sting that I had a bad reaction to. (meaning full body hives and plugged ears)

This morning, I didn't see the culprit on the piece of wood I was putting in the woodstove, and the gosh darn yellow jacket got me on the finger. They do overwinter in the wood stack, but I hadn't seen any this winter, so I didn't even think to look. Hurts worse than a honey bee sting too. So I told myself, I guess we are going to find out if I'm allergic to yellow jacket stings.

The plus side is no adverse reaction to that sting. Now I still could be allergic to honey bee stings, I won't know until I get stung again. (which I'm not planning on doing on purpose)

But I am still ticked that the stupid yellow jacket got me. If I'm going to be stung, I at least want it to be by a creature that is worth a darn. I hate yellow jackets!

Yes, yellow jackets are nasty. I had a problem with them a couple of years ago out at our lake cottage.

 

[robhuncor]

Oh my gosh Kelli, I remember the picture of your swollen face after the honey bee sting - it was awful! Do you have an Epi pen for emergencies?