Stella's Social Club

[Happy Chooks]

Thanks Ron. I miss chatting with you all, but my time is stretched pretty thin right now. I'll be back!

 

[1muttsfan]

 

[mlm Mike]

Looks like this thread is dying, huh? Just stopped in to say hi to all my old friends!

 

[Happy Chooks]

I spoke to Mary the other day. She has a lot going on, but is doing well. (and so is Tucker)

I was most surprised to hear that she got rid of her chickens. She turned the coop into a garden shed and the run into a garden.

 

[1muttsfan]

Glad she and Tucker are well. How about Michael?
And how are you doing? I've been really worried about you Cali peeps with all the fires around.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Glad she and Tucker are well. How about Michael?
And how are you doing? I've been really worried about you Cali peeps with all the fires around.

Michael is doing fine as well.

I have been spared most of the fire issues here. Mostly, we just had a lot of smoke. The fires this year were farther away from us. They are devastating to the over 1,000 people that lost their homes in Redding.

I have been extra busy with my mom. She is going through chemo right now, so between checking on her, grocery shopping/errands, cooking meals to help her and my step dad out - so my life is hectic. Plus, I have helped my grandmother by doing her personal finances for the past 7 years and I do her grocery shopping too. Add my house cleaning, kids stuff, chickens and bees, saying I'm a pretty busy person is a HUGE understatement. Now my grandmother fell, and I got summoned for jury duty.

 

[1muttsfan]

Sounds like your life is running full speed ahead! I well remember the time spent with my mom during her year-and-a-half of surgeries and chemo. And it's not just time consuming and hard, it's emotionally exhausting. I'm glad you have a lot of support.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Sounds like your life is running full speed ahead! I well remember the time spent with my mom during her year-and-a-half of surgeries and chemo. And it's not just time consuming and hard, it's emotionally exhausting. I'm glad you have a lot of support.

Yes, it is both. My step dad helps too, but he can't keep it together emotionally. So she is relying on me for strength.

I'm amazed that I'm managing to get anything done. My house is certainly suffering, but I'm keeping up with the basics. My coops really need a cleaning, but I'm waiting until the weather cools down.

Kelli, you have plenty of excuses to get off of jury duty! You are an essential caregiver for 2 other families as well as your own. At least, you should get a deferral. Hang in there.

I'm hoping I call in and I'm done. I really don't mind doing it, but the timing sucks. I was supposedly already served once (though I didn't receive it) and I got the nasty-gram that I didn't appear.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Been thinking of you all. My mom's chemo is done now. She gets a month off, then radiation. She should be finished by Christmas! A long journey, but worth it to keep the cancer away.

BTW, I didn't get called in for jury duty.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Update from what's been going on here.

My mom finished her last radiation treatment on December 31st. She is looking and feeling great, and her hair is growing back in.

On the day before Christmas Eve, the bear took out my beehive. It didn't destroy the hive, it took it apart with precision, and left the one box without honey completely undisturbed. It ate all the honey and almost all of the bees. That morning, I found a dead deer in our fence with it's back leg tangled in the fencing. We got rid of it that day, but I don't know how long it was there. So I think the smell from it brought the bear there. I've had bears on our property for many years (and bees for 7 years) and they have never found the hive until now. Ticked me off too, because that queen was amazing. I have 3 packages ordered for spring, and I will be enclosing the bee yard, and possibly electrifying it. I have seen it multiple times in our trash, it looks to be a juvenile, not fully grown.

I've had a couple of predator issues with my chickens. The first I suspect was a "neighbors" pit bull when we were out of town, as it looked like dog claw marks under the fence. I lost 10 chickens, only 1 eaten, the rest just dead, including my 10 year old Light Brahma Marshmallow. Piles of rocks with the tractor covered up all of his holes under our fence, and he hasn't been seen on our property since.

The second, I think was the bear. The pop door was opening early, like 5am, and I haven't had an issue all winter. I was busy and didn't even think about it. Whatever it was reached in through the pop door and killed 1 male and hauled another off. The reason I think it was the bear is, it carried the chicken down by the trash can where there was a pile of feathers. I thought I heard a squak, but then didn't hear anything else, but I did hear the wagon we use to haul firewood right on the back of the house move. The feather trail went straight over to our fence (keeping in mind we are on 5 acres, so this is about 200 feet away) and the fence was bent. The trash area is the bears area. If it was a fox or bobcat, it wouldn't have come down that far, it would be agile enough to avoid the wagon, and it wouldn't have bent my fence.

So I moved the survivors to the other coop, and purposely left the door opener to open at 5am still, so whatever it was knows it is empty now, and no more food there. In another week or two, I will move a "test subject" (meaning spare male) into that coop and change the timer so it doesn't open until it's light out, and make sure it's safe. Then I'll move a few more and wait and see.