What did you do in the garden today?

[WIchickMama]

Yes, do not prune the first year canes unless they are diseased or look sickly. I only prune after 2nd year canes have fruited. I do my pruning in late winter (Jan-Feb) right before they are about to break out of dormancy.

Just my 2 cents...

Great thanks

 

[Badchickenpun]

I have motion sensor lights around my backyard and one near the chicken coop @Sueby. That and the fencing around the chicken yard seems to help deter most predators. All but one is solar and the solar lights won’t come on in the early morning around 6 am if there’s been activity through the night. The security cameras rarely pick up small predators like a raccoon. But taccoons will trigger the lights and that usually scares them away. We get coyotes, bobcats, raccoons and fishers. The neighbors on one side claim they discovered bear tracks in their yard, but no damage other than a low hanging bird feeder. Most likely it was a raccoon as their bird feeder was about 2 feet away from their poorly constructed chicken run. I hope the bear moves onto easier pickings soon.

I have solar motion light and solar "driveway" alarms around the coop. If anything comes within 20 feet of the coop we know.
We don't have bears, but all sorts of smaller animals.
A group of neighborhood dogs were running around the coop, we didn't catch them in the act, just them leaving the area and they dirty prints in the mud and on the walls.
I bought a solar powered electric fence, but never hooked it up, nothing came back since.

 

[NewBoots]

So.... we might be buying 10ish acres of desert shortly. Yes that came out of nowhere. Lol.

WOW! Do tell! Will you use it or let it stay deserty? A combination of both? I'd love more land and if we ever came into a good bit of land it would likely be left at least partially wild.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Motion lights was another thing DEEP recommended - but we have them all over & it didn't phase the bear. In fact one was pointing directly in its face for some of the damage.

So sorry.

 

[Sueby]

So.... we might be buying 10ish acres of desert shortly. Yes that came out of nowhere. Lol.

How exciting! Congrats!

Wow that is scary as hell! I'm so glad he didn't make it to your girls. We had a bear in our yard once before we had the front fencing up and it really set the spurs to getting that job done. A bear could still get in but they can't just wander in casually anymore.

Here we have the same deal, the state game commission we trap problem bears and they're pretty quick to do so if a bear hits a trash can in the city.

I understand laying a piece of bacon on the wire is a great way to be sure they get a zap to a nose or tongue and so learn fast.


Goats are so tempting for me too. And yeah, if we had the land we'd have either a cow or more likely a couple of goats.


Yeah, the feed prices are killing me. I'm afraid I'm going to have to do some culling and it won't be due to neighbor's complaints. Letting them free range more would cut the costs but they do a lot of damage to the garden when they're out.

I have to go scrub the webs and dust off the garage/barn door. We have a neat lady coming to paint the mural on the door tomorrow. In the meantime, I've got the grill set up and ready to fire up for steaks and veg.

I meant to address the trapping - they do not trap bears here for release. If they trap a bear they euthanize & will only do that when it starts to threaten humans (as in getting in cars & houses). There are just too many bears & no where to release them. DEEP has a saying here - 'a fed bear is a dead bear'.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Hallelujah it's raining!!! Idk how much but starred out good!!!

 

[igorsMistress]

Crap! We had a bear try to get the chickens last night. It tore the sandwiched hardware cloth off & got into the little 'secure' run but thankfully didn't tear the coop apart, which it easily could have. It destroyed about 4 pickets of wooden fence to get in the big run, then tore the hardware cloth to get into the little run. It was so close to getting them but it couldn't figure out the heavy metal pop door, thankfully. I'm surprised it just didn't tear the coop apart instead of all that work.

We're off to get electric fence because I'm sure it'll be back again tonight. I wish I knew ANYTHING about electric fencing! It's going to be a crash course. Thankfully DH is home today.

So glad the bear didn’t get to your flock!

 

[igorsMistress]

It's raining!

View attachment 3288884

Congratulations! We’re supposed have a good chance for some in a few days

 

[igorsMistress]

Congratulations! We’re supposed have a good chance for some in a few days

Spoke too soon, should have read further. Sorry it didn’t last long

 

[igorsMistress]

@pennyJo1960 haven’t seen you post recently, how’s things up your way?