What did you do in the garden today?

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I've been busy getting chickens outta garden thus far today! WIN for grandson's water gun!

 

[Acre4Me]

Rain today! Possible thunderstorms and damaging winds later - so, hopefully garden is fine. It will like the rain, of course!

Harvested my first few zucchini! Now I know why people get overrun with zucchini. These things flowered and within 1-2 days were already eating size! I have 2 plants, and I am already practicing convincing statements to get others to take some of the zucchini off my hands. I also have 3 yellow squash plants.

Rooster is not endearing himself to me. He isn't going after me, but he seems to have definite ideas on who can eat, and who cannot...who can enter the run, who needs to run. He's creating a bit too much drama for my tastes. Well, kid will show him at fair, then he might need to find another home after that. We have a Speckled Sussex male that is only a few months old, but seems to have possibly matured to want to mate the girls. He is next in line for succession, but would like him to be overseen for a little longer by older hens and the main rooster, so I'll see how long I can tolerate Drama Boy before we re-home him.


<sigh> I have a boring task ahead of me today on the computer. Repetitive, boring, time consuming. I've been putting it off, but REALLY need to get it done like yesterday. So, send good thoughts my way for perseverance through the hours long, boring boring task that awaits.

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

Last day of the record heat here. Tomorrow I'll bleach & fill the waterers & water all the flowers with some alaska fish juice. It's just too hot now. Hopefully we get storms tonight so I don't have to water.

Does anyone have any good tips for mice? We are overrun with them right now, we believe, because the neighbors have seed out for the birds. They eat there & come here to nest. I've never had mice in any of my houses in the middle of summer but we catch them every night. They are destroying our vehicles. They chewed a hole in my gas tank, they got into the actual lights on the trailer & ate all the wiring, the whole thing had to be rewired & it's a brand new 8k trailer. They are destroying everything we own. We have traps everywhere, bucket traps outside which catch multiple mice every night, snap traps & bait traps with chicken friendly poison. Does anyone have anything they use that works really well? We're desperate to save our stuff.

For the record, my chickens don't like worms either & I'm glad because I've also heard the same info.

Sounds like there might also be some rats. I have also had the wire chewing problem on vehicles, and a pack rat that was able to get in my garage kept chewing the drain hose on my washing machine. Flooded the garage and had to replace the same $14 part 4 times! I was so happy to zap that sucker! If you are ok with getting 1 at a time, you might consider an electronic rat/mouse trap. They aren't cheap, but they humanely electrocute them quickly on contact inside the trap and then you just dump them out and flip the switch and re-bait if needed. They catch 50 rats on 1 set of batteries and some also plug in. The little mouse ones are cheaper if that's what you're dealing with, but the rat ones get both. There are also some sachets you can get with herb smells they don't like and put them in the pantry, behind appliances, etc. I can look for a link if you like.

 

[Elyrian1]

Here we go! YouTube is being good for once.

@Sueby give this a shot of you've got a ton of the little disease infested creeps.

With rodents, I have no mercy.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. This is, hopefully, the last day of the heatwave. At 9:15 am it's 81F and steamy humid. Ick! I picked the outer leaves of the kale plants along with some chard and curly endive. The kale totaled out at 1/2 pound. I still need to check on the plants in the front yard, but I needed some time with Mr. AC. I managed to get the door attached to the large wall frame for the coop extension yesterday. I was going to try and cut some wood today, but that can wait until later. We may have thunderstorms this afternoon so any outside work will be "paced" with the weather. I'm just thinking it is the year of the mouse @Sueby. I have had them wander in from time to time but this year has been really bad. I don't have a lot of confidence in cats as a solution because they seem to work well in chasing the mice away. However, the mice then look for other options, such as the homes without cats. Plugging entryways where mice can squeeze in helps. I use MouseX because it won't make your chickens sick if they find and consume a dying rodent. Use plenty of traps too. As for attacking and munching on automotive components. Apparently the auto industry has switched to soy based paint as it is more economical and environmentally friendly. That's all great except that mice find it tasty as well. Lucky for me, the damage my former vehicle sustained was covered by my auto insurance. I now try to keep the mouse poison fresh in the garage. As for the cats: my neighbor who has two cats just called in an exterminator. Just saying!

 

[TJAnonymous]

the same here. I had a fox trying to get into my coop at 2 am. luckily I built a small pen for my 5 guinea fowl (3-4 mo) that were separated from my 2 mo chicks by a small piece of rabbit mesh which luckily I didn't fix well. when my guineas understood that fox was coming they pushed the mesh and all but 1 passed through. that frightend my chicks and they started screaming and woke me up. I think within 10-20 secs I was in the chickens run and fox ran away. all safe and sound. yesterday at about 8 pm I sow 2 foxes in the neighboring (abandoned) plot. I stayed there till I locked my chickens up and left my 1 yo german shepherd girl in a chickens run. she is the only one I can trust. her parents would knock the coop down and killed all the chickens, lol.

Thank goodness fate intervened and you didn't lose anyone.... I have a half Husky-half Great Pyrenees. Unfortuntely she has a very high prey drive due to the Husky in her and she would kill my chickens in a second (she already has once). But our fenced backyard (her play area) adjoins my chicken & duck runs. I have put her outside many times to "guard" the chickens & ducks with her presence in the backyard. If something got into the chicken yard, she wouldn't actually be able to do anything but I think just the sight of her would be a deterrent.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Somehow the squash bugs have gotten inside my hoop house.....

I didn't find any adults but there are eggs and live nymphs EVERYWHERE.... I have about 6 giant squash plants in there. It is going to be very time consuming and difficult to carefully go through each one and make sure there are no more eggs, nymphs, or adults hiding in there. Grrr......I'm so mad.

 

[Acre4Me]

Somehow the squash bugs have gotten inside my hoop house.....

I didn't find any adults but there are eggs and live nymphs EVERYWHERE.... I have about 6 giant squash plants in there. It is going to be very time consuming and difficult to carefully go through each one and make sure there are no more eggs, nymphs, or adults hiding in there. Grrr......I'm so mad.

Squash bugs are terrible!

While monitoring the potato plants for Colorado Potato Beetle, I was needing to scan the underside of the leaves for eggs (luckily those are bright yellow). So, I used a hand mirror to scan under the leaves, without having to turn them all over.

 

[BReeder!]

YIKES! Can you talk to the neighbors? Will they be receptive to trying to keep seed from the ground or feeding the birds further away from you?

Mice like to be able to hid, keep under things. So, keeping grass mowed, removing brush between properties may help by removing all the safety features mice look for.

More poison, and different kinds - I've seen some people have little to no luck with poison #1, but switch to a different brand or type, and all of a sudden the mice are eating it and going away. Of course, if they are full from the neighbor's seed, then they may not be as attracted to your poison, irregardless.

You could try to "fry" the little SOB's with some kind of electric fencing - placed low or in such a way (including baiting) that small mice would touch the wires. Hard to do if there is anything in the way.

Any way an outdoor cat or two could be in your lives? We have a barn cat, she is fixed, she gets her yearly vet appointment for vaccines, and we do feed her (and allow her to live in the barn), but she does live out there in the barn and roams during the day. She's not the greatest hunter (as compared to the neighbors amazing huntress barn cat), but her smell is in and through the barn and we see evidence she goes after any mice that try to get into the barn. We adopted her from the humane society for $15. I've also heard that certain dogs are great at hunting mice/rodents, but cant remember the breed.

Maybe you are SOL....maybe these are mutant mice that can chew into a gas tank and live clearly the fumes didn't bother them, nor any residual gas.

Good Luck with making progress ridding the mice from your property.

So many mice likely have more food sources than just a bird feeder. What else are they eating around the property? Look at your garden, edible plants, fruit and nut trees, etc. Hard to stop them from eating these things, but you'll get an idea where they are feeding and that's where to catch them because they'll keep coming back. As for how to catch them, I personally prefer the multi-traps. If buckets are working, that's great. Multi-traps are similar in that they catch multiple mice, except mine have ground level entry points and are fairly small boxes (maybe 6x10 inches) that can be placed behind and under things and both indoors and outdoors. I have learned that it is necessary to change the bait in the multi-traps too. I was using chicken feed and figured if there still feed in it leave it alone, but this actually was an issue because the mice didn't want it. It likely lost scent after sitting out so long.

 

[Sueby]

Thanks guys, I appreciate ALL the great suggestions! We have tried everything everyone mentioned except peppermint oil, I will get some, & a cat. Outdoor cats don't live long here & it seems cruel to try, unfortunately. The bucket traps work GREAT (except when big critters knock them over). I have the MouseX - it's the only poison I can find safe for the chickens but I'm not sure the mice are eating it since they're so well fed. Oh & electrocuting traps...haven't seen any signs of rats & I'd be afraid to put those traps outside (which is where our main problem is) because I would imagine I'd be killing lots of other critters but I will check into them.

@TJAnonymous I'm frustrated for you! That stinks.

@Acre4Me I had so much yellow squash last year I ended up shredding it & freezing it in 1 cup sizes - I used it all winter in either breads or soups. I also made every single recipe I could find, lol, like soup, fritters, breads, stuffed boats, casseroles, lasagna, dehydrated into chips (my fave), baked into fries, pizza crust, noodles - I could go on & on!