Cutting Back Perennials & Trying to Catch a Chicken Stalker!
video description
They bought some chickens right before they left for vacation and never established a routine with them. (I think that's what you do) All day, the chickens would run free from the barn and then roost in a pine tree nearby at night. We couldn't get them inside for love or money. When the property owners returned, everything was still ok.
That very night, there was a MASSACRE. 7 chickens dead. Blood and feathers everywhere. Those poor birds. And the kids were so distraught when they saw the carnage.
It was terrible but I'll admit that I was relieved that it didn't happen on our watch. The fox laid in wait until the property owners came home, I'm sure of it.
Moral of the story- secure your chickens.
Where we live now, we won't keep them because there's too much of a hazard with coyotes at night and bald eagles in the day.
Date: 2022-07-16
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Comments and reviews: 9
Corrie
Hey Lauren, Im a big fan and I garden down in Fort Worth, TX (zone 8A. I was wondering if you could speak about your thoughts on soil amending and mulching in the Fall? I dont put down fertilizer but I often try to add a layer of fresh compost or soil with things like dry molasses, azomite, and earthworm castings. THEN I usually mulch with something like Hardwood. Is this too much? Should I just wait for the spring to do this or do both? Do you mulch all of your beds before your major frosts come in? Our winters are so mulch milder than yours, but I still try to give most of my beds protection in the fall and additional clean up and mulch in the spring. Although as you well know, its expensive to mulch in both seasons and Im wondering if Im doing too much. My plants have been fine so far with this system but Im new and learning and wondering if its necessary? Thanks and stay well and live fearlessly!
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Hey Lauren, Im a big fan and I garden down in Fort Worth, TX (zone 8A. I was wondering if you could speak about your thoughts on soil amending and mulching in the Fall? I dont put down fertilizer but I often try to add a layer of fresh compost or soil with things like dry molasses, azomite, and earthworm castings. THEN I usually mulch with something like Hardwood. Is this too much? Should I just wait for the spring to do this or do both? Do you mulch all of your beds before your major frosts come in? Our winters are so mulch milder than yours, but I still try to give most of my beds protection in the fall and additional clean up and mulch in the spring. Although as you well know, its expensive to mulch in both seasons and Im wondering if Im doing too much. My plants have been fine so far with this system but Im new and learning and wondering if its necessary? Thanks and stay well and live fearlessly!
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handmade
Does your trap have a door on the opposite end where that half Moon handle is? Read the Have A Heart booklet. It should have a latch outside the bottom of that door where you can put your tuna can inside then it lifts that door up on the opposite side of the trap where you can release the animal miles and miles away. 5 to 10 8d best so they don't return. TIP to release the skunk. Walk up the the trap with a tarp or blanket in front of you. Skunks have poor eyesight and won't spray if they can't see you. I have seen our animal control officers do that when they come to remove them for us. They even put the covered cage in their van with them when they take them to be released! Good luck!
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Does your trap have a door on the opposite end where that half Moon handle is? Read the Have A Heart booklet. It should have a latch outside the bottom of that door where you can put your tuna can inside then it lifts that door up on the opposite side of the trap where you can release the animal miles and miles away. 5 to 10 8d best so they don't return. TIP to release the skunk. Walk up the the trap with a tarp or blanket in front of you. Skunks have poor eyesight and won't spray if they can't see you. I have seen our animal control officers do that when they come to remove them for us. They even put the covered cage in their van with them when they take them to be released! Good luck!
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Andrea
I hope you have another chicken stalker episode! Lol I want to see what goes on behind the scenes too, with you, Benjamin, and Aaron barking at the cats through the Nest cam! Sounds like you all had way too much fun. till it was time to attempt getting a good night sleep! Hope you got your nap! We have been having an issue with skunks around our house too. This summer is when it started. I heard noise on our deck one night, and looked out only to see a little baby skunk wandering around on the deck. Sure would love to know how to get rid of them without harming the little stinkers!
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I hope you have another chicken stalker episode! Lol I want to see what goes on behind the scenes too, with you, Benjamin, and Aaron barking at the cats through the Nest cam! Sounds like you all had way too much fun. till it was time to attempt getting a good night sleep! Hope you got your nap! We have been having an issue with skunks around our house too. This summer is when it started. I heard noise on our deck one night, and looked out only to see a little baby skunk wandering around on the deck. Sure would love to know how to get rid of them without harming the little stinkers!
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Teresa
We caught a skunk in a trap once. We were trying to catch something that was digging under our shed. I had an old shower curtain liner that my husband used to slowly walk up to the trapped skunk making sure to hold the curtain high enough to cover my husbands body just Incase the skunk decided to spray. Then when close enough my husband draped it over the trap making sure all sides of the trap were covered. He was then able to pick up the trap with the skunk inside and put it in the back of his truck. We drove several miles out of town and let the skunk out.
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We caught a skunk in a trap once. We were trying to catch something that was digging under our shed. I had an old shower curtain liner that my husband used to slowly walk up to the trapped skunk making sure to hold the curtain high enough to cover my husbands body just Incase the skunk decided to spray. Then when close enough my husband draped it over the trap making sure all sides of the trap were covered. He was then able to pick up the trap with the skunk inside and put it in the back of his truck. We drove several miles out of town and let the skunk out.
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Wende
I don't see you guys ever putting that camera back wherever it goes, I'd be hooked watching that first thing every morning. My friend has cats at his biz that he feeds an I set a trap to take those to the humane society to have fixed, one girl had kittens that we thought were old enough, so I wanted to take her in asap, she got out of that trap an to this day we'd love to know how she did that, be great to have had a camera like that. side note. what a difference the coast makes, I'm on Maryland's eastern shore an I have 1 Hosta stem about bloom any day.
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I don't see you guys ever putting that camera back wherever it goes, I'd be hooked watching that first thing every morning. My friend has cats at his biz that he feeds an I set a trap to take those to the humane society to have fixed, one girl had kittens that we thought were old enough, so I wanted to take her in asap, she got out of that trap an to this day we'd love to know how she did that, be great to have had a camera like that. side note. what a difference the coast makes, I'm on Maryland's eastern shore an I have 1 Hosta stem about bloom any day.
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Sandra
Oh Laura, ive just thought how you can fix under the door. dig a deepish hole and bury large rocks or pavers and then put the dirt over it juat to cover. fox isnt going to get far if its a rock wasll so to speak. under the doorway i mean. where im from in Tasmania in oz we dont have foxes on our island but we have Tasmanian devils that are so viscious, they got a few of my chooks. hope you have sucess whatever method you choose.
Cheers Sandra xx
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Oh Laura, ive just thought how you can fix under the door. dig a deepish hole and bury large rocks or pavers and then put the dirt over it juat to cover. fox isnt going to get far if its a rock wasll so to speak. under the doorway i mean. where im from in Tasmania in oz we dont have foxes on our island but we have Tasmanian devils that are so viscious, they got a few of my chooks. hope you have sucess whatever method you choose.
Cheers Sandra xx
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Sweet
I've read about an idea of putting down newspaper/cardboard, in the fall, over an area you're planning on making a new bed the following year in spring. It's supposed to help turn the grass into compost basically so you don't have to do the work of removing the sod in the spring when you make the new bed, plus the deteriating grass would be food for the new bed. Do you think this is a good idea? Has anyone tried this with good or bad results?
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I've read about an idea of putting down newspaper/cardboard, in the fall, over an area you're planning on making a new bed the following year in spring. It's supposed to help turn the grass into compost basically so you don't have to do the work of removing the sod in the spring when you make the new bed, plus the deteriating grass would be food for the new bed. Do you think this is a good idea? Has anyone tried this with good or bad results?
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Harold
I heard you say that you loved quilted Christmas ornaments. A lady here in my hometown create ornaments with strips of cloth and pins to attach them over a Styrofoam ball. It is folded tightly and contains about 200 pins but the only one visible is the one on the top with a pearl cap for the hanger strap. You might find these somewhere or learn how to do them. I sure wish I could attach a photo of mine here. But I can't
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I heard you say that you loved quilted Christmas ornaments. A lady here in my hometown create ornaments with strips of cloth and pins to attach them over a Styrofoam ball. It is folded tightly and contains about 200 pins but the only one visible is the one on the top with a pearl cap for the hanger strap. You might find these somewhere or learn how to do them. I sure wish I could attach a photo of mine here. But I can't
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TJ
Lovely video, thank you
When we built our coop, we put the hardware cloth down first, as one big sheet, on the whole floor of the coop run and then extending out a foot on all sides beyond the border. Then we finished the outdoor run overtop. No worries about ANYTHING getting in there, except
for a couple of sparrows when we took the back of the coop off before we installed the back doors.
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Lovely video, thank you
When we built our coop, we put the hardware cloth down first, as one big sheet, on the whole floor of the coop run and then extending out a foot on all sides beyond the border. Then we finished the outdoor run overtop. No worries about ANYTHING getting in there, except
for a couple of sparrows when we took the back of the coop off before we installed the back doors.
reply
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