calling any one from missouri

[SueT]

Our porch swallow babies have graduated! They all can fly now, but came back to the nest for the evening. We have enjoyed watching them, they grow up so fast! Meanwhile, mom and dad are still swooping down on the cats. 3 of the cats run for cover, but little Ollie the Adventure Cat just lays back, reveling in his badness. Well he didn’t get these babies. We’re so proud of them!

 

[jthornton]

Traps….

So far they have ignored all traps with peanut butter bait and bait stations for weeks now.

JT

 

[jthornton]

Starting to see some flies having meetings around poop piles so time to put out the fly traps.

Hmm, I have an idea for a sticky trap box... going to try that next. I can't just put a sticky trap out because the hens just cover it up in straw.

JT

 

[chiknGeek]

Which fly traps do you use?

 

[jthornton]

Starbar Captivator Fly Trap with Bait, been using them for years. I place them near areas that attract flies and they fill up fast.

JT

 

[chiknGeek]

Think I'll pick some of those up next time I'm in town.

 

[OhZark Biddies]

I need a field mouse snake, I've tried everything I know to catch the little buggers and nothing works for me. They come in the chicken run at night and eat the bits of scratch left by the hens. Anyone have any ideas?

JT

When you say “field mouse”…?

Do you mean voles? Chubby mice with short tails, making holes all over the yard.

That’s what I know as a field mouse, but other folks use that term for other types of mice.

I was losing the vole war, in an overwhelming way a few years ago, so I had to bring in whiskered mercenaries, in the form of a pregnant stray cat and her platoon of kittens.

And they got it done in a big way, on the voles. I seldom see vole holes around now. But when I do it is often by the coop. Generally, within a day or so Bess posts up there for a day or two, takes care of them, and then it becomes yesterday’s weather,

I just happen to know of a very pregnant orange tabby that needs a good home, hint hint!

she showed up at my sister’s recently, and she’s the sweetest, friendliest thing ever… she really deserves a good home with a fella that dotes on his critters. And according to a poll a read in the “ShowMe Grit and Scratch” weekly while getting a hair cut, your chickens rate you as such a fella.

I’ll bring her to Eminence this weekend if you’d like to recruit her into your field mouse war. You might need to pass the approval of my niece though… she really wants to keep her.

Also when I say “very pregnant cat”… I mean be ready to boil some water and rip up some bed sheets next week.

 

[jthornton]

When you say “field mouse”…?

Do you mean voles? Chubby mice with short tails, making holes all over the yard.

No, these are for sure small mice and we have 3 cats but they are inside cats. Anyway a cat could not get to these mice because they live under Coop Deux which has 1" hardware cloth around the bottom. The mice fly right through the 1" squares.

I devised trap #C and built it and put it in place last night.

Oh the other place the mice live is in the compost bin and they ignore every trap or bait I put in there.

JT

 

[jthornton]

I just happen to know of a very pregnant orange tabby that needs a good home, hint hint!

I'll have to pass on any new animals, we're not getting any younger and don't want to make that commitment to an animal. Ten years ago that might have been a different story, but now things start to change and you make adjustments. As for my hens they can stay as long as they can and I'll take care of them but no new chicks there either.

JT

 

[SueT]

A stinkhorn mushroom in the strawberry patch! I saw this thing with flies buzzing around it and didn’t know what it was till I looked it up…