EDUCATIONAL INCUBATION & HATCHING CHAT THREAD, w/ Sally Sunshine Shipped Eggs

[Pensmaster]

Thanks I will try that. I am a little leery to try it, and I don't know why it's just your basic root.

(peeled)

They are great. Just a little on the small side but delicious

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Never tried the leg trap. Cage trap works well here.

They work well for the unenlightened raccoons. The educated ones won't go near the entrance of a cage trap.
Plus, you can buy 5 DP leg traps for the price of a single cage trap.

 

[BullChick]

Adopting 9-week-old kittens made her start lactating.

 

[Cynthia12]

what I really need to send teenage boy that wants to come sit out with the 22 and just pick them off. I am just not good at shooting them no matter how much I don't like them as a predator. I just need them gone. funny I can shoot an animal for food, but since I'm not going to eat these... on the other hand, I don't want them eating my chickens. I have just been very thankful for my automatic doors.

I'm the same. Hunting I did..for food... Elk tastes amazing! To shoot an animal that has eaten my birds? Can't. I caught, and released.

 

[Cynthia12]

Adopting 9-week-old kittens made her start lactating.
View attachment 1916451

What? Yours??

 

[kwhites634]

The concern over declining amphibian populations and even extinctions has been known for over 50 years.
I have noticed a drop in some bird species but my experience is possibly due to the fact that I no longer have the plethora of wild bird feeders I used to have. I had hummingbird feeders, oriole feeders, several tube feeders, thistle feeder, a safflower/cardinal feeder, a big woodpecker feeder(filled with tree nuts) and a platform feeder for ground feeding birds. All day there would be goldfinch and purple finches, flickers, nuthatches and up to 4 species of woodpeckers, I haven't seen one of those this year. I haven't seen an indigo bunting, scarlet tanager or bluebird here in years. And bluebird is the Missouri state bird.
I have a lot of frogs, toads and several species of reptiles here. I don't even have a body of water on my property other than a seasonal rain garden by the house. The nearest permanent bodies of water are a small pond about 300 yards behind me and a creek about a 1/4 mile down the hill. Just walking through the back of the property where the chickens, garden and bee hives are will get some skinks, frogs and occasionally a toad scurrying out of the way.
Maybe your situation is more of a prolonged drought issue.
There is no shortage of insects, spiders, etc. here.
We've had a disturbing influx of the invasive stink bugs.

We were pretty much stink bug free this year, 'til a couple weeks ago. Very unusual. Suddenly, they were everywhere; killing them by the dozens, literally, inside the house. Don't know as I've ever seen them worse here.

 

[BullChick]

What? Yours??

No, but she looks like him, and I was hoping someone would ask.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

We were pretty much stink bug free this year, 'til a couple weeks ago. Very unusual. Suddenly, they were everywhere; killing them by the dozens, literally, inside the house. Don't know as I've ever seen them worse here.

It was about 6 weeks ago they were all over in the house here. I still see them outside.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

We were pretty much stink bug free this year, 'til a couple weeks ago. Very unusual. Suddenly, they were everywhere; killing them by the dozens, literally, inside the house. Don't know as I've ever seen them worse here.

We just recently started seeing them everywhere here. They are super annoying.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Another devastating invasive species due to human activity. It is amazing how quickly they have spread since introduction. In 2010 they caused $37 million of damage to apple crops in the middle Atlantic states. Some fruit growers lost 90% of their crops.
A native of Japan, China and Korea, they are now a problem in Europe and South America too.
I found this information about predators and what we are trying to do to control them without causing even more problems.

Predators
In China, Trissolcus japonicus,[43] a parasitoid wasp species in the family Scelionidae, is a primary predator.[44] This species is not currently present in the U.S., but is undergoing study for possible introduction.[5] The major problem with this idea is the possibility that T. japonicus will also become an invasive species with no native predators. Before introducing the Chinese wasp, scientists are trying to find natural predators of the stink bug already present in the United States. To do so, they have studied other species of parasitoid wasps native to the United States. They found that several other species of the parasitoid wasps attacked stink bug eggs in Virginia soybean fields.[45] Several indigenous parasitoids and predators have been reported to attack stink bug eggs, nymphs and adults in North America and Europe.[46] Researchers have also experimented with different spider species, as well as the wheel bug. Several spider species attacked both the eggs and adult stink bugs. Pill bugs eat stinkbug eggs.[47] The wheel bug, however, was the most voracious predator and attacked the eggs and adults more consistently.[48]