my meat project

[3KillerBs]

What a great setup for a hot climate area.

 

[Bossroo]

Jeff, Be careful what you wish for. They may be pretty , but they are a royal pain. About 30 years ago and at another home and town here in sunny California, we had ONE 30 ft. tall palm tree and the neighbors had 5. They are ROOF RAT MAGNETS !!! Wild pigeon too. The rats use the overhead power lines as highways. The rats got so bad ( they started to eat at the electric wiring in their attic) that the neighbor called out the heavy infantry pest control. They put out poison bait and when the rats ( they found 14 dead rats) started to die in their attic and mice ( by the dozen) inside their house walls the STENCH of rotted corpses was unbearable. They had to move out for a few weeks and had a professional cleaning company that deals with crime scene clean ups to deal with the smells. They had to remove sheetrock from several bedrooms to remove the decomposing bodies in the walls. We had a similar scenario but no where near as bad as we only had 2 die in our attic. We had a tree removal company cut ours down at the cost of $ 400. We got off easy as they cut theirs down too, and all told the neighbor was out over $7,000.

 

[Tad]

So you cut down a tree because rats and mice were living INSIDE your home?

My house is tucked away in this pic surrounded by palms and we dont have a rat or mouse problem,

 

[Chicken Girl]

That vary cool looken!!


Chicken Girl

 

[Bossroo]

YUP !!! Roof rats live, nest, and reproduce in those palms in great numbers in this part of the country. Then they use the power/ telephone lines as highways to gain entrance to houses by chewing through the home siding/ roof/ etc. Mice soon follow. They also bring in numerous FLEAS with them.Then too, they start chewing on the insullation on electric wireing in the attic when they build new nests in the attic insulation causing short cirquits and occasionally attic fires. My neighbor replaced his with deciduous shade trees. I replaced ours with an apple tree. Ten years ago at my new home on 2 acres of grounds, I braught in 100 tons of boulders for retaining walls and landscaping, then I planted 72 Redwood trees and now my home is in the middle of a Redwood forest island surounded by arid rangelands. Now, in the evenings, as my wife and I sit on our 2nd story deck with an adult beverage made out of locally grown fermented grapes, we enjoy the sights and sounds of mourning doves nesting in them and a dozen Cottontail rabbits living under the overhanging branches. Much better than living alongside pests.

 

[Tad]

hahaha thats funny, like a rat wouldnt use any other tree to gain access to a roof, blaming the palm tree is asinine, maybe if you trimmed the palm out and did some basic pest control the population wouldnt get so out of control, funny, fence to fence I have 20 acres here...no rat and mice problems...and if they are so content in the palm whyever would they abandon it for your attic? blaming the tree is just silly!!

 

[CC Lefty]

Tad, I have to agree with Bossroo. I, too, live in California. Here, palm trees are good for two things. Roof rats and sky rats. That's just the way it is.

I love your set up. Good luck with the project.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Well.... I like the palms... but wouldn't like the rats!

We have plenty of them around here but they are serving their part in the food chain. They don't get over populated by any means... to many hungry animals out there.

 

[Bossroo]

My neighbor even had a barn owl family living in one of his palm trees. The barn owls pick off just a dumb one or two but can't get to the rest of the roof rats. The fronds are just too thick and dense. At our new 20 acre ranch, there is a family of Red Tailed hawks nesting in a huge centuries old Oak tree on our dry creek's bank with several dozen ground squirrels living in tunnels right under that tree. There are field mice by the hundreds too. They are covered with fleas that harbors many pathogens. We have coyotes by the dozens too and they just don't seem to be able to catch them. We have 3 100% indoor Siamese cats that at least one mouse in the house every day, not to mention the 2-5 that we catch in traps per day. We used to get 10 free adult cats from the County pound every 6 months to control the mice in the horse barn. Reason... the coyotes have the cats for their meals instead of the pests. Now they charge $35 per cat plus another $50 fee each to spay or neauter. So, We buy poison grain and poison gas cartriges from the County Agricultural Pest Control every year to poison these nasty vermin inside their tunnels. Yet, new ones migrate in every year and the cycle continues.

 

[EGGTASKTIC]

TAD

How many days old are your chicks when you put them in yours raised brooders in the first pic. Do you have any issues when you raise them on wire.