We have been pretty lucky since the dogs joined our farm a couple years ago. No hawks, no raccoon attacks, no possum attacks, just an occasional hit and run from a fox. Our neighbor has lost several birds due to raccoon attacks despite his Fort Knox type coop. The dogs also keep the deer away and the groundhogs that they can reach. There are a few groundhogs in the woods and orchard area that they can't reach because of fencing. All-in-all, they seem to earn their keep.
A few months ago I noticed some tunnels under the rabbits' poop trays. It was worrisome, but I thought it could be chipmunks and no damage was evident.
Last week 3 healthy rabbit kits were mysteriously eaten while still in their cage. So gross and so sad! I though immediately that it was likely rats. We had been keeping their hoop house closed at night since the ducks sleep on the floor in there. After the baby rabbits were eaten I decided to leave the doors open for a week or so and see how things went. No more problems. With the doors open the dogs and cats could freely roam in there.
Then on Tuesday evening I was cleaning out the poop trays and found a nest of 11 baby rats under one of the trays. This is not an actual picture, I was too worried to run in the house and grab a camera, but it is pretty close to what I saw. They are brown Norway rats. What to do? We started by pulling rabbit cages out and then tried to get the cats to come in and take care of them. The cats and dogs both had no interest. uggh. In the end, we had to shovel them out and drown them. Also sad, but necessary for our farm's safety.
I needed to do a spring cleaning on that hoop house anyway (plus a post chicken dig out). We pulled out all the rabbit cages and I dug down and wheeled out 10 plus wheelbarrows of bedding and good compost. (I dumped all of that in the new raspberry patch). I found a bunch more tunnels, but only 1 additional baby rat that I think must have come from that original nest. That night I left the hoop house empty and open. The next morning when I went out to finish my excavations. There was a big fat rat.
I screamed and it ran around, but couldn't find any tunnels to exit through. In hindsight, I should have hit it with the shovel, but I just called Shark and Icy. They came running and chased it. It got out the door of that hoop house and tried to hide in the other one, but Shark dug it out and killed it! Good girl. I praised her a lot. The dogs are quick learners and I think they are on the job now. I was worried she might try to eat it, but neither the dogs nor the cats seem to have any interest in eating them.
I spread the hoop house floor with diatomaceous earth and left it for 24 hours to make sure we killed most of the bugs that might be in there and then added a thin layer of mulch and put the rabbits back in. That means that I have finished my spring deep clean in 3 of 4 hoop houses. One left!
In the meantime, I ordered this
rat poison dispenser that a bunch of people on Youtube recommended. They said that other traps don't work well for them, but this one is good. You can monitor how much of the poison they have eaten and this container makes it so the other farm animals can't get poisoned. Hopefully, it will help get rid of the remaining adult rats.
As I have pondered on the rat problem and what might have brought it on, I think getting rid of the chickens might have something to do with it. I spotted the first tunnels in February and killed the last chickens around New Year's. We used to dump all of our compostable food waste near the chickens' house and they would eat most of it. The ducks are not as adept at eating compost (can't peck at it the same way). Maybe there was too much residual food composting out there? In any case, I told my helpers that all food waste needs to go in the old compost bin for now. It is far enough away from the hoop houses that I hope it will not cause problems. We shall see.
In other farm news, we are making steady progress on the tree clearing. My helpers are earning lots of money picking up logs and sticks. Here is one cleared section:
And the second half still to go.
Careful observers might have noticed that the trees fell right into my little orchard. The tree guy said that he could bring a bucket truck and cut more carefully to avoid the orchard, but it would cost at least 700$ more. I said that I could replace the little trees for a lot less than that and to just lay them out as best they could. One little apricot tree and one elderberry bush were smashed. I know the elder will recover easily and I will see if I can help this apricot tree along.
Another apricot tree was in the midst of the fray and had no damage! Lucky tree.
All our work moving sticks made a huge pile for the chipper. Hubby worked on that all day yesterday and made a "mountain" of chips according to brother S. Perfect timing for weed control around my new plantings.
The kids and I have been stacking all the wood stove size pieces in our woodshed.
I spent a lot of time transplanting things yesterday and earlier this week. Thyme, lemon balm, horehound, Saint John's wort and a few violas had all come back in this front bed. I filled in more violas, the rainbow yarrow (Colorado mix), and cilantro. And I did some weeding.
The other violas and chervil that I planted are filling in nicely and my comfrey is sprouting in its pots.
Last Fall's planting of comfrey around the front row of orchard trees is coming back nicely too.
Daffodils and tulips are up along the front walk and the Korean viburnum has bloomed. It smells incredible. I thought nothing could smell better than lilacs, but these just might. The perfume fills the air all around it.
A friend from church recently dug out a huge area of hostas and had them all sitting at the end of her driveway. I said that I would take whatever was left after others took what they wanted. I guess the other two gals just took a few. I filled my entire trunk with them! Hundreds! I filled in holes in our other landscaped areas (The geese ate a lot of them). And then I added rings around my daffodils on the front trees.
Around the back garden, peonies, catmint, and valerian came back from last year. I added a back row of hollyhocks.
RH Shumway had a special on black currants, which I loved eating in Russia. The bushes look like they are several years old. I am so very pleased with the quality. I planted those amid the hollyhocks on the right side of the garden gate. Around the corner is my new line of golden and red raspberries - also on special from RH Shumway. Since the big patch of blackberries will be in the front yard the raspberries have to be planted far away, otherwise they give each other diseases.
Perry, one of our Muscovy ducks, has gone broody. I think she finally found a place that is safe from the dogs. She is under the old trailer next to the hoop houses. Close to food, but hard to get at. Maybe she will hatch some ducklings.
The basement ducklings are getting far too big and smart for their brooder. I laughed so hard when I saw this scene. They are helping themselves to the bag of special duckling feed. They have grown to be almost as big as the khakis even though they are only a month old. Silver Appleyard is clearly a much larger breed. The white coop and run is all cleaned out and ready for them. I just want to make sure that their feathers are filled in enough to handle the night time low temperatures.
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