The Old Folks Home

[Peep_Show]

*sniff* You don't wuv me.



But it's true; sometimes it's hard to decide whether Bambi or Thumper is the bigger nuisance to a gardener.

We have no Bambis here. Just Thumper and some slacker coyotes.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

@superchemicalgirl = the low record we broke the other night was it got down to 41 in town but actually here we got down to 36o next to the house and came close to frosting again out in the field.

Wow that's crazy for July!! When the hurricane came through last week about 300 miles north of here got snow. Insane.

 

[chickisoup]

Quote: yep. getting pretty old. Now they say we probably won't get out of the 50's Monday and Tuesday, woopee.

 

[Pozees]

I hatched Canada goose eggs once but they had been incubated by the mother till the last 3 days so I can't take much credit. Wow, what a mess they made of the hatcher. There was a layer of fuzz on the whole thing.


There is a mink update, I just haven't felt like talking about it.

I've been trapping every night but except for 2 raccoons and 3 opossum - nothing.
I'm now setting 5 traps a night; a hav-a-hart, a duke leg trap and three 110 conibears. The havahart was tripped two nights in a row with nothing in it. I think it was either a huge raccoon that was able to keep the door open and back out or the mink was able to squeeze out under the closed door.

Most of my remaining birds are in one tight building and I screw the doors closed every night. I have a breeder complex with 2 units in one building and 3 units in another. The one with 2 units was one of the buildings that had all the birds killed.
The one with the 3 units is very tight and had padlocks on all the doors. I had my oldest rooster (the one that had gone on the lam) and a leghorn pullet for company in the end unit.
3 nights ago, I went out at midnight with a flashlight to just check on things. I walked up to the breeder house and saw the padlocks on the doors. When I shone the flashlight into the window, the only animal looking back at me from the roost was a mink. He figured out how to get in but couldn't figure out how to get out. I got my .22 revolver and every time I saw him I took a shot. It was so fast and could squeeze through such tiny gaps it was unbelievable. The 3 unit building only has 2 big windows, one on each end unit. no windows on the middle unit with plywood and 1X2 welded wire between units. I'd shine the flashlight in one window and take a shot through the hardware cloth as it would slither through to the other side. I want back and forth from one window to the other till I finally hit it. Every time I saw those beady yellow devil eyes reflecting in the light, I took a shot. I ended up hitting it in the neck and once in the chest. I apparently need target practice but in the dark with such a tiny fleeting target it wasn't easy. I have a lot of .22 caliber holes in the coop and hardware cloth now.

The mink and the two birds it killed that night.

I'm not naïve enough to think that there was only one mink. I'm still trapping and screwing boards across doors at night.
I took a long walk a couple days ago past where the construction is going on where the woods were cut down upstream from me. It turns out there is a Walmart going in there - yet another good reason for me to hate Walmart, now sending mink my way.
I walked all the streets that border the creek and man, there is a ton of good mink/weasel habitat all along the way.
Now I'm down to 1 rooster.

Since I found the chickens right when they were killed (their bodies were still limp), I was able to salvage the legs, breast meat and livers.

I had one chick hatch out this morning around 8. I have about 30 more eggs in the hatcher that were all due about 4 hours ago with no other pips.
They were all the eggs I had on hand when I lost most of the birds. Some were over a week old, some were cut out of dead hens. Then I screwed up and didn't realize the turner wasn't turned on for about 5 days. That's all I needed. Icing on the cake so to speak. I feel like I keep shooting myself in the proverbial foot.

Speaking of shooting, since I'm such a bad shot in the middle of the night with the revolver (I missed a coon with 3 shots too) I brought the old Mossberg .22 semiautomatic rifle out of mothballs. I bet I haven't used that in 40 years.

Glad you got one. I agree, there are probably more, best to remain vigilant. Thanks for the update. I thought of you the other day when someone was here looking at birds and looked out past the coop and said, "Oh, a mink!" Startled, I whipped my head around just in time to hear her say, "Oh, no, it's just a rabbit." Whew!

Thank you to everyone for the congratulations. They are truly appreciated.

Just wanted to add my congrats, I finished my BS two years ago. Gained me nothing at work, no boost nor promotion, but I did it.

For the recent graduates and birthday girls, congratulations and happy birthday.

I just installed a baby monitor in one of the coops and it's working quite well. When I'm in the house, I can't even hear roosters crow so I certainly can't hear a predator attack.
I thought of doing this over a year ago and never got around to it. Shame on me.

Really like the idea of the baby monitor. DH has occasionally mused on how useful it would be to have cameras in the coops, but the finances do not allow at this time.

Drink lots of water!

Electrolytes are important too. Heat stress is not funny and is very dangerous. More die of heat than cold each year.

I hope you are better soon

Just wanted to emphasize how dangerous heat is, and how quickly dehydration can affect judgment.

Wow! I cannot even fathom a foot of rain. That's more than we get all year!

That being said, it is our monsoon season in NM, which means that there's a promise but no guarantee of rain. The skies darken up nicely in the afternoon and we get thunder, but often the rain hits another part of the valley and state and we're just kind of the dry bridesmaid.

The apple crop is holding up nicely, though, and some are starting to get their flush of color. DH is looking forward to fresh cider..... Patience is a virtue, especially when waiting on fruit.

I can so relate, I describe local storms as lifting their skirts to go around us We did get a great storm this past week though, 2" of rain in an hour - would have been much nicer to have had it stretched over several days, but such a relief nonetheless.

yep. getting pretty old. Now they say we probably won't get out of the 50's Monday and Tuesday, woopee.

Wow. Quite the opposite here. The last two days our predicted highs have been low to mid 80s, we were at 92 at 10 this morning. Temperature predictions this year have been almost entirely miss, very few hits.

 

[Lacy Blues]

We hit 97 today and tomorrow and Monday, we're supposed to see 105 on both days! Ugh... I HATE SUMMER!

 

[Cynthia12]

Lacy, us folks over here on the west side of the states is going to do the opposite of what the vortex is doing to the East. We are going to hit 100 by Mon. 99 tomorrow. :/

 

[getaclue]

ds, CONGRATULATIONS!

cc, good for you, getting the rifle out of mothballs. A little practice, and you will probably be able to get rid of your varmit problems. .22 ammo is getting harder to find down here.

 

[chickadoodles]

Lacy, us folks over here on the west side of the states is going to do the opposite of what the vortex is doing to the East. We are going to hit 100 by Mon. 99 tomorrow. :/

Here in Alabama we are in the mid 90's for the high today but this next week the temps will be the upper 80's and low's in the 60's.

Here is a pic of our new pens so far. I decided I did not want the other set of pens. I was feeling to overwhelmed with all the chicken chores with all of these so far.
We only have 4 of the 9 pens completed so far just to much to do and not enough time to do it all. lol



And here are the baby turkey poults I have been so excited about.

Bourbon Red and Std. Bronze

 

[superchemicalgirl]

Your turkeys look really friendly, all pushed up against the fence like that wanting to see Momma.

 

[chickadoodles]

Your turkeys look really friendly, all pushed up against the fence like that wanting to see Momma.

Yes they love attention and treats. I try to handle all so they all get excited to see me. They are two months old I just put them in that pen last night and next to them are 3 month old Broad breasted turkey and the hens are cooing at the babies. It's so cute.