BYC Café

[CLSranch]

I did. It was rather out of my control. I just passed out when I sat down for a bit. A little over 2 hours and I'm still beat but I've had a hell of a couple of weeks.
I think tomorrow will be better.

In the meantime, the mousey battle rages on. My run door has shifted enough in the opening that it's opened up a gap larger than 1/2" and the little vermin have been coming in every night and helping themselves the flocks leftovers.
I have trapped 6 so far. Three of them had been cannibalized during the night. Last night, both traps were licked clean and un-tripped even with bread smooshed in the PB on the trigger. Tonight I reset them with a small amount of PB way under the trigger.

Tomorrow, I'll install another door stop to block the gap in the door framing.

I'm sure not going to be beaten by some cannibalistic smarty mouse.

I added the metal square Tom cat multi traps(Like a mouse live trap). Like you see in factories and such and have had pretty good luck. When they get bad though I have to put poison under the floor of the coop, in the cabin/feed room and around the hay in the barn and recently in the house and garage. Had some little foot prints in the grease near a victor trap. Also had a few baby's the poison got that the traps apparently couldn't.

 

[CLSranch]

Hey ya all get to whine we have snow.. At least like 4 inches now.. Did manage to go scrape the tables down
birds have not left the coop in two days either the main or the little one ..

I recently (last month) drove over 1,800mls from near tri-cities WA back to OK to warm up and be with the family after 10 months, Ehh I got laid off. It's single digits in the next few days and negatives coming with over a foot of snow possible. It's been colder here than dessert WA most of the time since I got home. We're used to 75 Mon 0 Thurs 55 Sun not weeks of not hitting freezing.

 

[Happy hen lover]

Yes. The Victor wood traps.
We'll see what I get in the morning.

I always used to glue small bit of cat food go them. Then they have to wrangle with it to get it which usually made it go off.

 

[Perris]

Loved the review. I'm going to order for a anatomy reference . What other chicken book would you recommend for a newbie?.

I'm glad you found it useful Hhl. As someone who keeps heritage breeds in a traditional way, I have found old poultry handbooks most useful, as they speak to the same sort of chickens living in the same sort of environment. My favorite is this one
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn4kga&view=1up&seq=1&size=125.
If you keep modern hybrids in a penned run, you would probably be better off with a modern handbook such as the chickens for dummies one.

 

[Perris]

We're back. Long visit. Emotionally draining.
Things went very well after they heard the doctor say that he fully supports my decision to not do a prostatectomy and that I'm "doing everything possible to take care of DH and I'm doing a great job". Emotionally draining or no, they needed to hear that from the doctor. We got to the clinic a few minutes after them so they know I didn't prompt that comment.
They both actually talked to me more than they ever have when we went for something to eat afterwards.

I am so pleased to hear this Tonya; you both deserve their support, and hopefully now they will start to provide it.

 

[DobieLover]

Whoa! Never seen that happen before.

Had it happen in the garage too when we first moved here. It's gross.

When they get bad

It's not that bad for me. I know how they are getting into the run and I'll continue to set traps. But with the way I normally run my setup, I think I'll keep setting traps after lockup.

I checked the run camera and it appears I've got two more. So the shoving a small amount of PB under the trigger worked. I'll keep doing that after I install another longer stop to the door.

It's getting easier for me to pry their heads out of the hammer. I didn't do that with the cannibalized mice. I had to scoop up the whole gooey, frozen mess and put them in the bag.

 

[DobieLover]

Good morning Cafe. Coffee is ready and a fire is raging in the stove.
It's 9F this morning, 11 degrees warmer than yesterday morning!
I'm off to see to the birds and collect mousey corpses!

 

[Sally PB]

Thanks for the coffee!

We're starting out at a balmy 17 degrees this morning. Our forecast low of -5 for Sunday night has been moderated to 2 above. I never thought I'd be thankful for 2 degree temperatures, but here I am.

 

[DobieLover]

I'm sure not going to be beaten by some cannibalistic smarty mouse

One had his little mousey face still shoved under the trigger.

 

[LaFleche]

Good afternoon everyone!

Bright sunny day with icy cold temperatures and still lots of snow to plough through.

I had a good laugh with your mice biting the dust, DL Ours seem kind of icebound, as I don't see any traces of them in the snow or anywhere around the coops.

Have wonderful weekend and stay safe all!