The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Growing => Vegetables => Topic started by: Fleecewife on March 17, 2020, 09:19:31 pm
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I didn't know MICE love chard :rant:
I didn't know MICE would eat the heart out of planted shallots :rant:
I didn't know MICE would eat the growing tips of onion sets :rant:
I do know that MICE love sultanas as the bait in a MOUSETRAP :roflanim:
We'll see what the morning brings :excited:
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In desperate times - mice and voles will eat anything. They also like peanut butter.
I have my camera on in the goat house to watch for the due girls.... well the rats are coming in for snacks even during the day, and guess what is eaten... the droppings! (as we are very careful with any spilt food and have metal feed bin etc etc).
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They eat dog and cat poo too :poo: :poo: :poo:
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I think rats must eat mice, because since we have got rid of our plague of rats, we now have mice instead ::)
Two traps out last night - two corpses this morning :yippee: :yippee: . Traps reset so we'll see how many we get in total. We are a bit worried about accidentally trapping the wren which has been living in the tunnel over the winter, but she seems to be busy nest building now, so less likely. Our mole catcher got 11 moles, so we'll see if we can beat that with mice. Mr F says we should store them in the freezer for when food gets short, but I think we have enough meat on the hoof in the fields to keep us going.
Our mice are choosy enough that in the past they have rejected peanut butter, and our dogs died so no more :poo: available. We have an almost infinite supply of sultanas though, so mice, be warned :thumbsup:
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We're very careful where we use snap traps now since we killed two robins and had to take a trap off the nose of a toad. Our problem is long haired short tailed field voles. They ate our beetroot, leeks and carrots and won't take peanut butter. They won't go into human traps either, so we're a bit stuck.
'If you have mice you haven't got rats' was what an old country boy told me. So far he's been correct.
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We had a rst coming inside our shop - made nest inside box of knitting wool!
We cleaned everything up. Moved all stuff around and got traps but nothing. We put a commercial plug in noise making device that's scares rats and mice away. So far it's been very good. Not sure if you can put it outside though. You could inside a greenhouse or polytunnel I guess.
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We're very careful where we use snap traps now since we killed two robins and had to take a trap off the nose of a toad. Our problem is long haired short tailed field voles. They ate our beetroot, leeks and carrots and won't take peanut butter. They won't go into human traps either, so we're a bit stuck.
You do know that human traps are illegal?
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In desperate times - mice and voles will eat anything. They also like peanut butter.
In desperate times - we will eat anything. Maybe mice and voles (best hone your rodent trapping). :coat:
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In desperate times - mice and voles will eat anything. They also like peanut butter.
In desperate times - we will eat anything. Maybe mice and voles (best hone your rodent trapping). :coat:
I am not too worried about the situation for the humans just yet, I have about 35 sheep in the field... and the freezers are pretty full. More concerned about animal feed right now...
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Two more corpses this morning :yippee: :yippee: Maybe I could tan the skins and make a pair of gloves ;D
Is there a problem with animal feed? We had bought a load the day before the clamp down was announced, which might be enough to take us through until the situation settles a bit.
Our problem is getting fresh fruit and veg, as it's that lean time in the garden. We broke all the shoots off our stored potatoes, so they'll last a bit longer, and each time I cook some I do a double amount and freeze the rest for once they are over and before the new ones are ready (not planted yet)
Also no eggs ??? . I'm hoping it was caused by the poor wet weather, as our few hens are looking very fit and well so should be laying :chook:
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Oh, since OH is now working from home we have an egg overload here... but the same problems re fresh veg and fruit. As I don't try and store potatoes - so have go out and buy them, etc we are now down to the last bit of kale, but loads of other greens to stirfry and still got quite a few leeks. But having just had a major operation (I just managed to get in before all routine ops got cancelled - phew) I am craving fresh fruit?
Anyway, looks like leek quiche tonight for tea...
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We had egg overload until past weekend -
and now cant keep with the demand! Everyone wants them!
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We get pole cats coming into the byre where the goats and cats live and they steal the dry cat kibble. When we set traps for them we caught a feral kitten and a hedgehog :roflanim:
Before that we were adopted by another feral kitten (now castrated and given the impressive name of Arthur) and had lots of mice - since Arthur came we have very few, but he also catches lots of birds :(
Apparently folk are panic buying animal feed ::)
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Apparently folk are panic buying animal feed ::)
That reminds me I need to busy months with of chicken feed today lol
Which are normally do anyway!
1 bag is normally enough for 2 weeks. So two bags last a month.
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We want to restock with chickens this year but are holding off with pigs. If lots of us are ill at the same time, the herbivores will pretty much be fine left to their own devices on grass, but pigs and chickens need feed brought in and quite a bit of looking after.
I'd thought we might get auto-popholes and if we do run short of bought-in feed, and / or lots of us are ill at the same time, we could just open up the pen and let the choox roam where they will, and they should manage - for week or two at least.
We can't leave the pigs to their own devices, so, no pigs this year.
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One more corpse this morning, with 4 traps set, total tally 5. We will cover the unsprung traps during the day when birds are about.
We had a really thorough search round yesterday for anywhere the hens might be laying away - nothing! But this is the second day of sunshine and they've had a stern talking to ::) , so hopefully eggs will follow.
If not hen eggs, then the geese are about to start too and we no longer let them hatch wee ones (too awful to kill them)
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The total tally to date is six mice and nothing else, with none caught last night.
The PSB is at last growing so we should soon be able to enjoy our favourite spring veg. (it's pretty bad for my INR but I just have to test every day! - no way am I missing out on healthy veg just cos I take warfarin. I've just thought - I could have baited the traps with my tabs :roflanim: )