Normally I am much more together before letting them out and have a small wooden cover placed over the buckets (see it not doing what it is suppose to do behind the bucket?)...I well know all about what waterfowl has the height capabilities of messing in the buckets...Appleyards, Crested, Hookbills, the Geese...the bantam ducks can't reach...but the ones that can and do find an uncovered bucket make the water all swilly! Not pleasant. Australian Black Swans have the longest neck to body measurements of all the swan species.
"Dunno," says Smoke egging on his spouse..."Stick yer head in and find out."
Ember, "Glorious WATER!" Smoke, "My turn to see...Glub glub!"
I tell them two trouble makers to "Move it on out and quit being idiots!" and I get the long necker innocent l00k of "Huh? You mean us two?"
Rick took a day off and wanted to at first, mow the veg garden area (told him to bugger off that I had only been off a week and that we'd been gone away a few days...so releasing the FOWLS to forage on the grasses and do some of their own weed/grass whacking was to be a plan forwarded to this week--tho I do have to laugh...every time he does mow the bird areas...the Cheshire C@t grins on the bird faces make me laugh...especially on the feather footed bantam Brahma chickens--suddenly the fluffy feathered housecoated and slippered birds can glide across the area...no grasses to put a kink in their gait!)...so he got a stern "NO" from me to the mowing work bee...so he tried to get me scheduled in yesterday to do some work on the perimeter around the Mandarin House (last thing to doing it and having it completed) and I nixed that one too...
All in the plans...SO what was the poor man to do whilst I did my chores? Well shucky darn and slop the chooks...he had to go work on his Red Chev...<<see where my evil master plan has gone?>> That BOY needs to go play with his own TOYS some of the time too...
Leave it to Rick to have everyone (well, OK just ME) else in his mind to take care of. Teach him to be one of those dependable males so many of us love to love! Anyway...my master plan worked jest fine & dandy and the Dude HAD to work on one of his trucks. I nixed all his "to do" list and shortened it to a one and only item...left on the TO DO list...
For years upon years--decades, he'd get up and go to work, eat peanut butter sands and never mutter a complaint because that is what we afforded. Today, he is off to work and has ham & cheese with tomats on fresh bread with a clutch of apricots and some apple strudels. NOW that is a lunch for him to enjoy. There are benefits to behaving in our youth, doing the family thing and making do...hopefully you live long enough to be bad to the bone in your golden years. He always said about lunches..."Please make them for me"...sometimes the ONLY thing in the whole day that has any JOY in it was to open up the box and peer in to see what she made for me. I truly died in laughter when was it John Candy or Robin Williams (??) was eating boiled eggs driving in a vehicle (busting them on the steering wheel) for a movie and he breaks one that is RAW...forget which comic it was and what movie...yeh...now that was a LUNCH packed with LOVE (or am I further confused and this was a sign of hatred and his relationship was in dire straights ?).
Sure, Rick spent the first part of the morn sorting thru the items he's taking up to store in the two c-cans (he hauled the new never been used in storage welder outside the garage--he's got plans to fire up the tractor and move it to its new home this eve after work--that and with the pallet forks on, he'll take out the two loaded for bear bins of pen cleanings outta the Duece Coop Runs...yah...empty for me to fill up again--repeat repeat and repeat!). But after he was winded (was getting warm out) and I joined him on the porch where we had a good ol' breakfast of bacon, toast, and cackleberries...monkey wrenching was made his game plan. YAH--bring out the widdle boy in him--love that slingshot packing snaps and snails boy of mine!
So he put on a set of new brake drums (the others were already turned and plum wore out so this spring him and I made a big order up and got some parts delivered up here to Canada)...and the other vehicle jewelry he had on hand for it...ordered up, sitting there and waiting for him to "find the time!" <--I made him find the time, eh?
Front and back wheels on his Red '84 Chev
So new chromed nuts, new beauty rings, & on the rear, shiny new 4x4 caps...pretty sparkly spiffy if I don't say meself. My fav color is still CHROME!
Course we had to go wash the beast...all that pollen of yeller was making her dingy...so a trip to town in the later afternoon listening to Led the Z and ACDC blasting from our youths...but this was after he had a bit of nap...that durn summer heat can sapsuck the life and energies outta yah...but after a half hour "power" nap (why is this usually a man thing...them power naps...hee hee? Happens when the day starts at before the crack of dawn...he's out waking UP the roos at 4 a.m.)--we both have a nice clean up and put on decently respectable town cloths and go for a cruise to town to wash the truck, stop and have a DQ dipped cone, pick up a few groceries and do a loser lap to see what's up. I found the Haskaps I paid ten bucks a piece were on sale for half price (moving out the gardening things...yee haw!) so I bought up eight plants and will put them out on the shelterbelt where the graveyard on the hill is located...have that fenced in tight enough I figure the deer won't be snacking on the edible honeysuckles...hoping! Great time of year to snap up discounted garden crap...no idea how they manage to make it half cost and make money but maybe because I bought four at full price because I was worried they would be all gone...that's marketing for you...no Matter!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChickenCanoe
I'm with you on the heat. I've always said I'd be happy if it never got over 60F. I've never understood why everyone loves to go camping over the 4th of July. I hate bugs and sweating when camping. Fall, winter and spring are the only times you'll catch me in a tent. Hating the heat makes me wonder why I'm still here. We do get a break from time to time - like right now. 2 years ago on the 4th of July it was 105 (41C) here. Right now it's 58 (14C) and we might not even hit 80 (27C) today.
...
The rest of the family loves the beach, I love the mountains. I'll take a ski vacation over any other type.
You are where you are because I get not wanting to move. I expect to be moved only once more and that's to be cremated...forget another move for any reason now--got too much junk because it's easy to find a place to put it here ...those are untold full of nightmares and for what purpose...to go another 10 to 15 years to be exactly where we are at now and established with? We moved from Kamloops in 104F heat...Rick rented a ten ton truck for our freezable items we had in storage while we lived in transition looking for our piece of dirt. The truck had air conditioning thankfully...but when I say we ran from
Agreed...something about those mountains (besides that being one of my names...before I was married my name meant "hills trees mountains"--yeh...country to the core, eh?) that beckoned and made us move here to live. Sure the summer is over much quicker than most places but what a grand show and so tired...so very tired and glad to see the snow fly to stay and ice build up to make us slow it down a notch.
I remember camping and we would brave mountain fed streams to get cleaned up...so cold you had an instant headache but man alive, you felt great once you did clean up and got feeling back in your parts. I can't imagine being fun times being all dirty and sweating camping in the heat! Yuck--I get three times as messy camping and adding heat would just make it piggy!
Rick and I no longer do any camping...we figure where we are at...whenever we get timed of camping, we just call it a night and go inside the house to use the amenities....bwa ha ha. I find camping (the real deal) to be very tiring...takes extra long time to do what normally is easy....hauling water, cooking, cleaning, keeping warm. I see the whole fun and adventure but I guess I just don't see the point in it if I can enjoy sorta "camping" here every day...cheating I guess. Last place I want to be is working to do what humans invented our luxury slave like appliances for.
I don't think I will ever get use to the "tough love" scenario...but as many say here...If you eat meat, well the best is your own. I don't name the ones destined for the pot and I think and plan many days in advance for when the DAY is to happen. Walk in, all ready with a designated area away from the other's sight, sound and smell, someone is picked up (never the wiser--because I handled everyone so often)...and the happy existence makes for happy oblivious meat. Instantly over and done...and then there's those dinners.
Not only do the birds fill out (the meat gets firmer and fatter with time) and make the processing much more worth the effort...the texture/taste improves substantially. I found that in our heritage turkeys especially, I use to process at nine or ten months...they were certainly big enough at 35 pounds in the toms, but I now wait till they are 16 months old. I served my son and spouse ten and then sixteen month olds and we three agreed the 16 month olds tasted more delightfully turkyish in flavour. I get to give them half a year more to enjoy their lives and my family gets to enjoy even more tasty meat, gravies and soups. I don't do what I do with an eye on the economics of it all. I am positive that feeding turkeys for 6 months more is not in any way saving us any feed, housing or resources BUT I do this because it makes happiness. As I said, I'll never get wholly comfy processing and taking a life, but to see males fight and harm, crowding, potential diseases, and the horror that too many birds have in a flock...it is with the knowledge that extra individuals have to be dealt with properly--otherwise you don't ever hatch more because you are simply FULL up. I tend to keep a 50/50 ratio of the genders, especially in my Chanteclers since I keep whole pens of just males for breeding...but in species like the turkeys, I like two males and the females in each pen, so it makes the expectations of half of each gender hatched so I can expect to process the excess males in future to get the ratio I prefer. I don't have to set eggs but if I do, I have the responsibility of humanely dealing with any I don't keep--I understand allowing others to process and agree with that way, too. I bring forth life and feel responsible to keep things on the happy side.
According to a movie I watched once, they have Dingos that will eat Babies!
These here are my Dingoes and they don't eat babies...they protect them from other things that would like to eat the baby birds, critters...
Fixins and Foamy...out on inspection at the Point Pasture.
All I have to do is whisper BAD BIRDY and off to the races go them girls...barking and ripping about ready to attack crow, raven, hawk, owl, eagle or magpie!
Oh, I forgot one critter! .... this little fella was caught my someone on the Aussie Thread. It was trying to steal chicks and the mother-hen fought it off; she lost a few feathers for her trouble but survived.
Savage savage creatures...monitor lizards and yet, I like the looks of them. If my climate was not so cold, I would LOVE to set such a beast loose at night to clear out any mice that thought about wandering around! Bwa ha ha...can see the Beware signs already...of Goanna...sure people would think with a name like that...was some team spirited Lassie...ha ha ha!
I would probably lose my wabbits and I am betting they dig pretty decently so when they tired of a diet of lil mices...it'd be into my bird pens and eating the feast quite well. Eep!
No worries, you are not alone with living amongst places where skunks reside! Skunks are more than happy to add eggs and birds to their menu listings.
OK...deterrents first...skunks DO NOT like bright lights and loud music (no Disco Dancing fer dem!)...so if you find them under a building...you can try flooding it with light and LOUD sounds. Skunks DO like to take residence UNDER buildings...you will note that many of our buildings are surrounded in hardware cloth and white lattice...any holes big enough for them to reside in, like from our pipe skids, I fill in with a thick layer of gravel...try not to invite trouble to take up residence!
Skunk populations and interactions with humans cycle. We have good years for skunks when feed is plentiful...then the kits all seem to survive well and it takes a few years for the population explosion to settle on out. Lots of road kill and yeh, you do want to avoid driving over the kill spot and collecting up the spray of their scent glands under your vehicles!...YUCKY!
I have written articles for the local papers on what to do to prevent skunks and how to clean up the spray! Lovely topic...
As with anything, an ounce of prevention is worth the pound of cure you have to use AFTER they start showing up...so keep the place tidy--not just for looks and enjoyment but for predator prevention measures. Don't let the junk pile up, remove the brush and tall grasses that can build up around your buildings and invite wild offensive critters to take up house and home at your place. When building, wire in the skirt of the building to prevent them getting under your coops--good advice to have a clean perimeter around the buildings so you can easily inspect it for intruders that dig (skunks have some awesome claws for digging with!). Now IF a skunk DOES set up a nest under a building...well you can laugh now at the cure.
Take some Exlax (nfi) or generic similar and toss that piece a candy or two under the spot where you think the skunk now lives (a hole or space to gain access into a darkened quiet like nesty area and that faint wiff on the wind of Peppy la PEW eau de toilette). I would ensure all your wandering at large other creatures can't access it as giving a dose of the runs to something you love is not really a good plan--that is unless you somehow revel in cleaning up smelly messes (not my idea of good times!). What happens is the skunk has a sweet tooth and EATS the laxative and wait for it...messes in their own HOME which causes them to move along and won't for a time, attract other skunks to move in either--double edge counter move this one!
As Snagglepuss would say, "Heavens to Murgatroyd!"... a skunk can't STAND its own body functions as in POO is OOOOH!...that smell is just one they cannot stand. Bwa ha ha...imagine that and imagine how bad that has got to smell! Skunks find own their poop highly offensive--offensive enough to move out and have to find a new home!
Skunks have certain limitations...a certain savoir faire!
OK...action plan for just in case something DOES get sprayed...have a coupla bottles of fresh Peroxide (it changes to water over time!) on hand...forget tomato juice and other home remedies...this one WORKS...yeh, I have a Oz Cattle Dog that chose to bite the butt of a skunk (yeh, nothing like a dog breed that easily catches c@ts and feels the ever present need to BITE things and ask questions later!)...so never mind how I know this works...blah, blah, blah--blick!
What you do NOT want to do is make up this concoction and bath something IN yer bathroom tub because it lifts the skunk spray (what it is meant to do!) and the spray then goes into your drains/pipes and your bathroom stinks to high heaven like forever (again, zip yer lip on how I learned THIS one, eh!). The item/being that was washed and they no longer smell so bad but now your HOME stinks for like ever! That is unless you are Fixins and you INGESTED the spray 'cause you had to focus on targeting the most ARMED spot on a skunk! ...AGH...for months afterwards...I would run her and she would repay my "NOT" due diligence by huffing and puffy skunk in her very breath...yeh, fond good times! She's lucky we LOVE her so.
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HIGGINS DESKUNKER REMEDY
2 bottles (1 quart) of 3% Hydrogen Peroxide
1/4 cup Baking Soda
1/4 cup White Vinegar
1 tsp Dishwashing Detergent (or shampoo will work too)
Mix and apply immediately. Wait five minutes while it bubbles, foams up & froths and LIFTS the stench. Rinse with COLD water.
Repeat as necessary.
If the subject of the washing has hair you are concerned about bleaching (peroxide can do that), you can substitute all to White Vinegar (so 1/2 cup and skip the Peroxide).
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FYI, there is something like over 220+ chemicals in skunk spray and skunks DO NOT like spraying...they will warn by chattering and stamping...it is taxing to them to spray but a last point defence for them. The chemicals in the spray cause red blood cells to EXPLODE and sometimes dogs that get skunked have auto immune responses that can act up MONTHS later...it can cause ongoing lifelong health problems! Avoidance besides it down right stinks is preferred by far.
Best advice is to stop whatever is attracting the skunks...my fault on Fixins' spray as I had left ONE egg in a garbage pail by the garage and Fixins went out and confronted the skunk that I had attracted to make its nightly rounds! Once skunks (any predator in fact) finds some reason to put you on their food rounds...they will be very insistent about coming back time and again.
I am told that if a skunk cannot RAISE its tail, it cannot spray, so anyway to confine them in a small enclosure where the tail up cannot happen, less likely you are to suffer consequences of the spray.
I brood in grocery store bins...shorter and made from a harder plastic. I hatch in a GQF 1266 (nfi) high velocity fanned Sportsman...all species at once--so I have turkeys, ducks, sometimes geese & pheasants, and chickens all as day olds and I like to brood them in separate spaces...even so far as bantams from standard sizes too...size matters.
I noted that I have not been able to purchase these exact bins to replace my older ones and see the grocery store I use to get them at has changed to a vented or gridded bottomed bin. So I looked at an old standby and bought these taller bins because the plastic is more rubberized...might survive here longer.
Keeping in mind, plastic retains contaminants (unlike glass which we can more easily santize)--styra foam and plastic incubators are notoriously likely to get contaminated over time and usage so unless you use something like Potassium Permanganate (not a nice chemical!) to detox the plastics, eventually they too need to be replaced with new ones. People often say that they get great hatch rates initially and over time/use, that drops off because of contaminants that keep building up.
I wipe down the inside of my Buster 'bator after the season with disinfectant (Lysol - nfi) and then dry it out in Alberta sunshine. Sunlight (those chickens are pretty brainy stretched out having dust baths in the sunny spots!) is a proven disinfectant that works to kill lots of nasty nasties! No wonder the birds enjoy feathers being exposed to that glowing globe.
Not sure I will like these for the height (work out nice for turkeys as they get a bit older and taller) but will see. I do have about eight green bins in pretty decent shape still but shall try out these new taller ones in the new hatch building and see. The hatching room is at a decently warm enough temperature, not 99.5F though so the heat lamp suspended over the taller containers might work out quite right (see as a test with a thermometer ON the oat straw litter). I do know one fella that "heats the room" and does not use ANY red heat lights at all. I am not sure I will be attempting to do that but well, new building to try out and new things to figure. Might be wonderful, might bomb...
Nicely coloured co-ordinated BINS but as with most things...function wins over form...pretty is as pretty DOES! LOL
Doggone & Chicken UP!
Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
It had some gigantic legs and feet. And poops.
I do like that sense of humor but many don't get it.
