Hurricane Advice

[Ursuline Chick]

Looking at my hens earlier this morning as I am not getting but a few eggs if I am lucky, every couple of days (youngest one is 3 1/2 years old.) Half have combs that are getting pale, one I know isn't laying, she is about 5 or 6 years old and used to lay a blue egg. Haven't seen one of those in a while. So I guess I need to start looking for pullets. Sigh We will keep the other six as pets.

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Had to tell my daughter that if a squirrel comes after her she should stomp it into the ground and not touch it until someone from the city comes to pick it up. There are lots of squirrels at her school.

Better safe than sorry, but I am waiting for a phone call from the school, saying she tramatized the other girls. LOL

 

[Crooked Chicken]

We have squirrels here too and they have not been a problem at all. The young squirrels are frequently seen as they are not as skittish as the adults. I've only been here in Missouri for 1-1/2 years now. I'd only seen the red squirrels until this spring when a baby gray squirrel appeared. They eat all of the fallen hickory nuts and I feed them on occasion.

My dog goes nuts for the squirrels and the young ones will play and tease her from the limbs. Last year, there was a youngster I kept feeding peanuts to and he eventually got to where he'd take them out of my fingers and I could pet his tail. Once he got a bit older or found the girls he quit coming to me. A lot of people here hunt squirrels to eat.

Dang it! I was looking for a file to attach and somehow I managed to delete my "my documents" folder. Had a lot of important stuff saved. Grrr.... Luckily I still have photo folder.

 

[ronott1]

Looking at my hens earlier this morning as I am not getting but a few eggs if I am lucky, every couple of days (youngest one is 3 1/2 years old.) Half have combs that are getting pale, one I know isn't laying, she is about 5 or 6 years old and used to lay a blue egg. Haven't seen one of those in a while. So I guess I need to start looking for pullets. Sigh We will keep the other six as pets.

The 3.5 year old hens are likely gettng ready to molt. They will lay again next spring.
TSC had chicks here now. If you got chicks now, they will be laying gor you next spring

 

[Kiki]

i'm very fussy, and I don't much like meat and don't really like the idea of eating dead animals. I don't like to think about it. But I think because I am a bit squeamish, I don't have any problem with people eating 'alternative' sources of meat. A dead animal is a dead animal. We may have an emotional response to eating certain things, but cows and sheep are also nice and they get gobbled up without a second thought. I wouldn't particularly want to try bear, but if I ate it and liked it, I'd go 'whaddya know, I like bear',I wouldn't chuck a huge wobbly about it.

Do ya like potato chips?

 

[Ursuline Chick]

The 3.5 year old hens are likely gettng ready to molt. They will lay again next spring.
TSC had chicks here now. If you got chicks now, they will be laying gor you next spring

Would rather pullets, than chicks. Can't keep a roo, and unless I have a broody I can trick, chicks seem like a lot of work. Since daughter started high school, it's time for me to go back to work. Example: get a text from her yesterday morning 15 min. after I dropped her off at school, "by the way, I need $400 tomorrow for the choir trip at Christmas". UGH! Well she got it, but she was lucky with such short notice, that it was available. So I need to start to bring in some funds into the household.

 

[Kiki]

We have squirrels here too and they have not been a problem at all. The young squirrels are frequently seen as they are not as skittish as the adults. I've only been here in Missouri for 1-1/2 years now. I'd only seen the red squirrels until this spring when a baby gray squirrel appeared. They eat all of the fallen hickory nuts and I feed them on occasion.

My dog goes nuts for the squirrels and the young ones will play and tease her from the limbs. Last year, there was a youngster I kept feeding peanuts to and he eventually got to where he'd take them out of my fingers and I could pet his tail. Once he got a bit older or found the girls he quit coming to me. A lot of people here hunt squirrels to eat.

Dang it! I was looking for a file to attach and somehow I managed to delete my "my documents" folder. Had a lot of important stuff saved. Grrr.... Luckily I still have photo folder.

Look in your "trash can"

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Look in your "trash can"

Look with care, be prepared to jump back and deffend yourself!! LOL

 

[Frazzemrat1]

Look with care, be prepared to jump back and deffend yourself!! LOL

 

[Flashpoint]

One more squirrel story.

Decades ago growing up, I lived in the country sandwiched between small clusters of houses and several dairy farms. We ourselves had chickens, ducks, horses and ponies, and oftentimes, several other animals as pets -both domestic and wild. Read raccoons, skunks, groundhogs, and yes -squirrels.

Our place had a huge mulberry tree in the front yard. It had been there forever and was always loaded with amost inch long mulberries that my mother used to make mulberry jam and pies. (It was also her "switch tree" for those old enough to remember being "switched!).

Right next to it, but on the other side of the sidewalk, was an equally large maple tree, which was now home to a squirrel Dad had raised from a pup. It never wandered far away and was usually found in the two trees or on the telephone wires between them.

One day, my mother prepared to gather the ripe mulberries and she did so by hanging a large sheet by it's four corners to branches on the tree, where the berries would fall into it and not hit the ground. Then my brother would climb the tree and shake branches until she had what she needed.

When my brother had finished, he called her to come outside to see if that was enough berries.

Dad came with her, wearing a tee-shit, a pair of baggy jeans, and barefooted. This was an unusual occurrence since Dad typically was almost always dressed in a suit and tie considering his status as a local businessman. (This was in the mid 60's, back when things were a little different from today and where a certain decorum was expected and followed if in public.)

He started unhooking the sheet so they could fold it into a bag and so Mom could dump the berries into her bucket.

Suddenly, that squirrel jumped from the maple tree into the mulberry tree and started barking at Dad. Dad was laughing and yelling at the squirrel - when the squirrel unexpectedly jumped out of the tree onto Dad's head. It apparently startled Dad so bad, he flung the squirrel off to the ground.

The squirrel than ran up Dad's pant leg - on the inside.

By this time, the whole bunch of us kids were yelling, Mom was yelling, Dad was cursing like a fool and....

Well, there is no good way to describe the look on Dad's face at that point.

Nor is there a good way to describe how he came out of his clothes, either.

Unfortunately for Dad, at the same time this happened, the mailman drove up to the mailbox, a neighboring farmer was going by in his old farm truck, and the neighbor lady next door had walked across her field to see what all the yelling was about.

And there stood Dad in his underwear for all the world to see...... And, needless to say, embarressed as hell and red as a beet.

The squirrel? Well he had run back up the mulberry tree -- after he found his way out of Dad's pants. and, he was still barking at Dad.

The final result?

Squirrel - 1 Dad - 0