California - Northern

[OR4-hmom]

Ali, do you have a 5 gallon bucket you could fill with rocks to block the door for tonight? I have 1 for each coop in case I found a spot were something was digging. I would think it would be heavy enough to frustrate a coon. Our neighbor leaves food out for his cats so they are never far from us. I've seen them at 2 pm walking through our back property going for a snack.

Grandma wasn't mean, just a twisted sense of humor. I'm sure the look on my face after tasting it probably made her grin for years.

 

[debs_flock]

If I ever decide to grow up, I wanna be just like Deb!

Ahhh, thanks! I've always liked the old lady past times and now it's good since I'm an old lady, LOL

Ali, the first thing I'd do is get on Amazon and order a Havahart trap. They are quick and you should have it by mid week. Then all you need is a cheap can of cat food and a 22. SSS

In the meantime, I'd make sure everything is as secure as possible. Raccoons are very good at finding a way in. Once they've found a food source they will keep coming back!

 

[Hangtown Farms]

Lol. Grandma must have had a mean streak.

Me too!
Thanks Jason. I have a hoe that needs sharpening then.

I used hardware cloth and I left an apron on the bottom but didn't dig it in or cover it yet. That is this weekends project I guess. That and finish the ramp door to be more solid and secure.

Now I am all worried.

you should be ok. just button everything up as fast as you can to make sure
that red light- night guard may not hurt either

 

[lizanne]

Okay so I have been on here a long while and read peoples problems with critters.

I just went outside to close up the chickens and on the fence between my neighbors and my property was a rather ugly raccoon. I used to think they were pretty but this thing was not.

It saw me and promptly went back down the neighbors tree and trotted off. I would guess that he was probably 15-20 lbs at least.

Here is my question. It wasn't even dark yet and he was coming around. Is that typical?

How strong are they in terms of being able to pull wire apart?

I could see he could climb rather gracefully. Now I am concerned about the top of my run and coop.

I have the door for the ramp into the coop only held closed by a couple bricks but they have to get into the run first. Are they good diggers?

Anything I can do to scare them away? I only have a shot gun and I am not using that in town. If he gets in my coop I will probably hear it. How do I get him out without damage to me?

**** thing looked like the neighborhood gangster!

Thanks for any advice.

Edited to ask. Is **** a swear word? It stared out my word above like I am a sailor or something.

Lolol. Edited again to say that big brother is editing my posts. I am not sure I like that. Dam is not really that bad is it?

Do you have a BB gun? That would be a little quieter, I just bought some pointy, hollow tip, metal BB's.

Raccoons are smart about getting into things.

 

[mendocinosunris]

Okay so I have been on here a long while and read peoples problems with critters.

I just went outside to close up the chickens and on the fence between my neighbors and my property was a rather ugly raccoon. I used to think they were pretty but this thing was not.

It saw me and promptly went back down the neighbors tree and trotted off. I would guess that he was probably 15-20 lbs at least.

Here is my question. It wasn't even dark yet and he was coming around. Is that typical?

How strong are they in terms of being able to pull wire apart?

I could see he could climb rather gracefully. Now I am concerned about the top of my run and coop.

I have the door for the ramp into the coop only held closed by a couple bricks but they have to get into the run first. Are they good diggers?

Anything I can do to scare them away? I only have a shot gun and I am not using that in town. If he gets in my coop I will probably hear it. How do I get him out without damage to me?

**** thing looked like the neighborhood gangster!

Thanks for any advice.

Edited to ask. Is **** a swear word? It stared out my word above like I am a sailor or something.

Lolol. Edited again to say that big brother is editing my posts. I am not sure I like that. Dam is not really that bad is it?

Ahhh, thanks! I've always liked the old lady past times and now it's good since I'm an old lady, LOL

Ali, the first thing I'd do is get on Amazon and order a Havahart trap. They are quick and you should have it by mid week. Then all you need is a cheap can of cat food and a 22. SSS

In the meantime, I'd make sure everything is as secure as possible. Raccoons are very good at finding a way in. Once they've found a food source they will keep coming back!

Unfortunately, I've had waay too much experience with raccoons. They are active at dusk and right before dawn. They can tear open regular chicken wire, and if they can't rip open the wire, they will rip the chicken apart & pull it thru a piece at a time.
They're fairly easy to trap. I have a havahart trap like Deb mentioned. The best bait I've used is cat food & peanut butter.

But the very best, most effective thing I've done is put up an electric fence around my chicken yard. There's a hot wire about 6" from the bottom, and another hot wire around the top of the yard. I have only lost two birds since I put up the electric fence. They were in a small pen outside the fence, & a bobcat ripped off the door. They were just a couple of roosters that I was growing out for dinner, but that was MY dinner, dangit!

 

[juststruttin]

You guys are killing me. My hubby and I went off sugar for 28 days and all this talk about yummy jam is about to drive me cuckoo. I did spy the Santa Rosa plums getting ripe tho, so I am right behing ya.....

We are also going off meat and dairy. It is going to be tough, especially since our timing is terrible with all the summer bbq opportunities. We are going to still have to cook meat since my kids said "No Way"! .

If anyone is interested in watching a good documentary on health and nutrition there is a great video on Netflicks. It is called Forks over Fingers. I think you can also stream it from the website forksoverfingers.com

 

[PetRock]

I do, but boy has it been slow to get going. I put it in bareroot a few years ago. I finally got some decent size stalks this year, but they refuse to turn red, still green.


It's only the leaf that is poisonous. The stalk is the part you eat. Rhubarb was my dad's favorite too, must be a generational thing. I never thought I liked it in particular, until the year I decided to can stewed rhubarb. I tasted it, then ended up eating so much of it I got sick. I've never been able to eat it much since, LOL.

We had a huge patch of rhubarb in our yard when I was growing up in Iowa. I loved picking a stalk and dipping the end in a bowl of sugar then eating it. Those were the days! My favorite pie is rhubarb custard. What a wonderful combination of two of my favorites: rhubarb and eggs!

I try to make one for my birthday each year but this year I was on food intolerance diet with no sugar, no eggs, no gluten, and no fun!

 

[mendocinosunris]

You guys are killing me. My hubby and I went off sugar for 28 days and all this talk about yummy jam is about to drive me cuckoo. I did spy the Santa Rosa plums getting ripe tho, so I am right behing ya.....

We are also going off meat and dairy. It is going to be tough, especially since our timing is terrible with all the summer bbq opportunities. We are going to still have to cook meat since my kids said "No Way"! .

If anyone is interested in watching a good documentary on health and nutrition there is a great video on Netflicks. It is called Forks over Fingers. I think you can also stream it from the website forksoverfingers.com

wow - that sounds difficult. But the timing is probably better than during the holidays, with all the turkeyhamroast dinners that happen in november & december.

Thanks for the link to the video - it sounds really interesting. I'll watch it tonight.

 

[PetRock]

We are also going off meat and dairy. It is going to be tough, especially since our timing is terrible with all the summer bbq opportunities. We are going to still have to cook meat since my kids said "No Way"! .

If anyone is interested in watching a good documentary on health and nutrition there is a great video on Netflicks. It is called Forks over Fingers. I think you can also stream it from the website forksoverfingers.com

Thank you for the recommendation! I'm going to check it out! My DH and I have been on a no sugar diet since April. We have been following JJ Virgin's food intolerance diet. For 21 days, you cut out of your diet the 7 most common foods that people are intolerant of (corn, soy, peanuts, sugar, gluten, dairy, eggs) and then slowly add them back in one at a time to see how your body responds to them. Of course there are a few that she recommends you keep below 5% of your diet and sugar is one of them. We have been amazed at how good we feel and how some of the signs of aging like joint pain, poor sleeping, etc. have almost completely disappeared. We have made the change both for health reasons and to lose weight. My DH has lost over 30 lbs and I've lost 22 lbs so far. It sounds hard but it really has been the easiest life change we have ever made. It helps that we are feeling so much better. I had no idea that I was feeling bad until I cut out those foods. We are thinking about doing a 30 day paleo diet challenge that is very similar to the one we have been on except you are allowed eggs but not allowed legumes with a few exceptions. It shouldn't be hard since we have already made most of the changes.

Here are the links if anyone is interested!

http://jjvirgin.com/
http://whole9life.com/category/whole-30/

 

[Happy Chooks]

Anyone grow the red rhubarb????

I grow rhubarb, but I am not sure of the variety. I got it from my DH's grandmother who dug it up from her yard. The stalks are red and green.

I watched my first chick hatch today, it was so cool! So far I have 2 BCM's, an Ameracauna is pipped and another BCM is rocking, may be pipped by now.

Congrats!

Wow I didn't know Rhubarb was poisonous! Good to know. I

Only the leaves are toxic. The stalks are edible.

Okay so I have been on here a long while and read peoples problems with critters.

I just went outside to close up the chickens and on the fence between my neighbors and my property was a rather ugly raccoon. I used to think they were pretty but this thing was not.

It saw me and promptly went back down the neighbors tree and trotted off. I would guess that he was probably 15-20 lbs at least.

Here is my question. It wasn't even dark yet and he was coming around. Is that typical?

How strong are they in terms of being able to pull wire apart?

I could see he could climb rather gracefully. Now I am concerned about the top of my run and coop.

I have the door for the ramp into the coop only held closed by a couple bricks but they have to get into the run first. Are they good diggers?

Anything I can do to scare them away? I only have a shot gun and I am not using that in town. If he gets in my coop I will probably hear it. How do I get him out without damage to me?

**** thing looked like the neighborhood gangster!

Thanks for any advice.

Edited to ask. Is **** a swear word? It stared out my word above like I am a sailor or something.

Lolol. Edited again to say that big brother is editing my posts. I am not sure I like that. Dam is not really that bad is it?

They are very good at getting into things, though I think not as good of a digger as a fox, coyotte or bobcat. I have personally had a full grown Orpington pulled through a 1 inch by 2 inch hole in chicken wire (when I was new to chicken keeping) piece by piece. All that was left was a leg.

I've heard anything a 3 year old child can manage to open, so can a raccoon.

You guys are killing me. My hubby and I went off sugar for 28 days and all this talk about yummy jam is about to drive me cuckoo. I did spy the Santa Rosa plums getting ripe tho, so I am right behing ya.....

We are also going off meat and dairy. It is going to be tough, especially since our timing is terrible with all the summer bbq opportunities. We are going to still have to cook meat since my kids said "No Way"! .

If anyone is interested in watching a good documentary on health and nutrition there is a great video on Netflicks. It is called Forks over Fingers. I think you can also stream it from the website forksoverfingers.com

I watched one called forks over knives.

I've been doing the live the lifestyle eating program. First week is a cleanse, with no protein. (also no oils, sugar, alcohol, caffeine, grains) Then certain proteins are added back in. It's all about listening to your body as you add one thing at a time back in to your diet. It is still heavily plant based though. It stresses that veggies are your main course and meat is a side dish. I don't have any more cravings and things that used to taste good, don't taste good anymore.