Texas

[Jungleexplorer]

Years ago I was camping in East Africa on a safari. The procedure was to bury the our garbage. (The next morning the holes would be dug up as the Masai took the cans and bits of things they could use or turn into jewellery--I have a fantastic necklace made of beads, a toothpaste cap, safety pins and pieces of tin can.) On one evening, the person burying the garbage was tamping the dirt down at the base of a baobab tree--whacking it hard with the shovel. The vibrations went through the ground into the hive of bees in the tree, African bees obviously. They flew out of the tree in a swarm. I didn't realize what was happening--it just felt like someone was throwing peas in my face, hard. It took a while to figure it out. People were running around screaming. I had long hair and just quietly walked away and dropped to the ground in a ball and waited. Those bees were relentless! They would not give up. I think I was lying on the ground for well over half an hour with them crawling through my hair, buzzing furiously and trying to get to my face. I was getting stung a half an hour after I had stopped moving! They stayed in a rage forever. I think I counted about 40 or 50 stings, but their sting was nothing like an English honey bee. I hardly noticed it. The woman who was running around in a panic got hundreds and hundreds of stings. She was sick, but recovered.

The African bees I ran into (in Tanzania) had very little sting but they had a temper and would not calm down for a long, long time. I can only imagine how dangerous a bee with the English honey bee's sting and the African's temperment would be. It took me years to get over panicking when I heard any insect buzzing.

Wow! Glad you made it. A bit of advice for you and everyone else that reads this thread, don't try laying down or standing still with the africanized honey bees here. I lived with them in the Amazon for 20 years. We learned to start running flat out in a serpentine pattern and head for water or a house with a sealed room. I got stung 10 times and it put me in bed for 48 hours. These babies hurt bad! No I am not allergic. I have been stung a thousand times or more by an incalcuable amount of different bees, wasp, and other insects and have never had an allergic reaction ( I spent 20 years exploring the Amazon jungle) . These Killer Bees that we have over here are just that, Killer Bees. All bees use pheromones as means of navigation. When a human gets excited or scared, we release pheromones and it is this pheromone trail that the bee follows to track us. Most non-africanized bees will only chase you a short distance though, but the Killer Bee will track you up to a mile or more. In order to lose them, you have to break the pheromone trail by jumping in water or getting inside a sealed structure. The reason you run in a serpentine pattern (zig zag) is because a bee can fly faster then you can run and if you run straight, they will sting you while you are running.

One time when I was hunting in the amazon, I upset a hive and they started attacking me. I took off running through the woods zig zaging for about a quarter mile to a river. By the time I got to the river I was way overheated and took off my shirt and put my feet in the water to cool off (it is not good to jump straight in the cool water when you are that hot). I thought, "There is no way those bees can track me after all that zig zagging through the jungle". I had been sitting there for at least 10 minutes when all of the sudden I was hit by 5 bees at the same time. The swarm had found me. Of course I went in the water and swam a good ways before coming up. I sat there and watched the bees hover over where I went into the water for a good while. They finally gave up and I was able to get my hunting gear back. So believe me when I say, "You have to break the pheromone trail!"

 

[galanie]

Wow!  Well, if it were me I would be sitting out hunting for coyotes.....or it could be a bobcat or depending on the area, a mountain lion.  I would hunt them just because they will kill the deer, though honestly they are much less destructive than all the wild hogs we have running around down here.

We have wild hogs too, though I've yet to see any. HOWEVER... there was a spot on my property that suddenly one day appeared to have been plowed up. I'm suspicious of that, let me tell you!

I considered bobcat. No one around has mentioned having mountain lions though it's not impossible. I mean after all we are right at the Big Thicket and there's just open country and forested land everywhere. I think I'm going to wet that area down really well and see if I can get clearer footprints.

I'm just thrilled that I made DANG SURE my coops were solid before putting any chickens in them. I even had them in the bathrooms for 4 days when I first moved here cause I hadn't finished the first yet, in the barn. WHAT A MESS!! But no chickens were killed.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

I want to give a dozen of my itsy bitsy eggs (bantam pullets) to a friend of my husband who is being treated for lung cancer. I don't know what chemo he is on, but it is a very aggressive program. I will assume his immune system is shot.

What can I do to make my eggs safe for him?

Got a dear friend with stage 4 colon and liver cancer who live next door (next ranch). He eats eggs from my birds everyday and has never had a problem (he just about won't eat anything else at this point). All we do is wash the eggs real good. The doc gave him 4 months and that was 9 months ago, so my eggs can't be hurting him none. He has been several rounds of chemo.

 

[mandaleigh1981]

We have wild hogs too, though I've yet to see any. HOWEVER... there was a spot on my property that suddenly one day appeared to have been plowed up. I'm suspicious of that, let me tell you!

I considered bobcat. No one around has mentioned having mountain lions though it's not impossible. I mean after all we are right at the Big Thicket and there's just open country and forested land everywhere. I think I'm going to wet that area down really well and see if I can get clearer footprints.

That would be great. I am sure you could find pictures of prints online and narrow down what you have. We have a big bobcat that runs around near our property. He is beautiful, and as long as he leaves my animals alone I could not bring myself to shoot him. I have only seen a coyote out here once, heard em a few times, but so many people have big dogs around my area that I am sure it keeps em at bay. There was a mountain lion sighting near our deer lease in Leakey, so now DH always carries his AR 15 just in case.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

We have wild hogs too, though I've yet to see any. HOWEVER... there was a spot on my property that suddenly one day appeared to have been plowed up. I'm suspicious of that, let me tell you!

I considered bobcat. No one around has mentioned having mountain lions though it's not impossible. I mean after all we are right at the Big Thicket and there's just open country and forested land everywhere. I think I'm going to wet that area down really well and see if I can get clearer footprints.

I'm just thrilled that I made DANG SURE my coops were solid before putting any chickens in them. I even had them in the bathrooms for 4 days when I first moved here cause I hadn't finished the first yet, in the barn. WHAT A MESS!! But no chickens were killed.

Anyone one who has bobcat problems, just PM me and I will tell you how to deal with them.

 

[galanie]

That would be great.  I am sure you could find pictures of prints online and narrow down what you have.  We have a big bobcat that runs around near our property.  He is beautiful, and as long as he leaves my animals alone I could not bring myself to shoot him.  I have only seen a coyote out here once, heard em a few times, but so many people have big dogs around my area that I am sure it keeps em at bay.  There was a mountain lion sighting near our deer lease in Leakey, so now DH always carries his AR 15 just in case.  

I have seen a couple of huge dogs trotting down the road, but only once and they seemed to know exactly where they were going and didn't look right or left on their way. So not impossible that it's dogs. Plenty around here have them, though not anyone right next to me does. Oddly enough.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

What is this calendar I keep hearing about? What kind of pics are you looking for? You are welcome to use any of the pics from my website if you want. If you just want chicken pics, here are a some of mine.

 

[galanie]

Those are beautiful! Every year about this time, BYC has a calendar contest where you enter your chicken pictures to be on next year's BYC calendar.

 

[Jungleexplorer]

Those are beautiful! Every year about this time, BYC has a calendar contest where you enter your chicken pictures to be on next year's BYC calendar.

Is there a special place to submit pictures to be entered?

 

[galanie]

EDIT: Ok I'm an idiot. IT's in "pictures and stories of my chickens" - Right here: https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/819185/2014-byc-calendar-your-pictures-needed