For the past couple of weeks, this has been sitting in our front lawn.
Yes, it's a bear trap....designed to capture and relocate our pesky neighborhood black bear.
This bear has been plaguing us for months, now...
on our decks, destroying our bird feeders, in our garage.
He is obviously one hungry bear.
And if it weren't for our dogs, I wouldn't worry about having his trapped.
After all, this land was his long before it was ours.
Black bears' habitat is shrinking all the time, so I feel quite sorry
for these amazing creatures.
But I love my dogs and farm critters, and would hate to lose one to an angry bear.
Saturday night Hubbs and I were in the family room watching a movie.
Over the sound of the TV, I heard a snorting coming from outside.
"Hrumpf, hrumpf, hrumpf" I heard as he exhaled.
We figure he was checking out the trap....but wary enough to not go into it.
This morning, very early, Hubbs noticed that the trap's door was closed.
Could it be?
Did that pesky bear finally enter the trap?
Here is what we found
when
we
looked
inside......
This poor fellow was scared to death,
and probably sick in the stomach from all of the rotten doughnuts that he had eaten.
After freeing the raccoon, I cleaned out the old hay and the old doughnuts,
in an attempt to "gussy up" the place a bit....new hay, leftover birthday cake...
hopefully we will catch dear Yogi next time.
Thank you for the suggestions you left me with your comments yesterday.
Occasionally I have a quiet day on the farm without excitement,
and it is nice to be able to tell you a little more about things you might enjoy.
I do so enjoy your comments and suggestions...and questions,
so don't hesitate to "ask"!
So, I promise you....Monday will be a house tour.
I will work on it over the weekend.
There was a question about our dear "One Eyed Myrtle" yesterday.
Myrtle is one of our original breeding stock Fainting Goats.
She came to us from Nevada.
Myrtle came to us with two eyes, but was plagued with eye problems...
infections, allergies, constant irritations.
Part of her problem was the fact that both eyes lie within
patches of white. No pigmentation around the eyes can be a problem for goats.
Eventually Myrtle's right eye became so sore that Dr. Becky removed it.
Amazingly, Myrtle has no problems related to the loss of that eye.
She navigates quite well and does not seem to miss it at all.
She is a great Mama, giving birth to a set of triplets this past Spring.
You also commented how you enjoy our chickens.
We enjoy them too!
These are my two largest henhouses.
They share a common yard,
and house about 50 chickens.
Here they are just moments before the gate opens for daily free ranging....
lined up like school kids on the last day of school...
full of excitement and anticipation.
Here they are as soon as the gate opens....
Woo Hooooooo! How we love to be outside!
And of course the turkeys and guineas are never far away.
Our fancy chickens live in a coop by the barn
and free range around the horses all day.
The Roos make their home in a coop close to the farmhouse,
as well as the Cuckoo Marans and Henri.
Soon the Cuckoo Marans will move into the upper henhouses
and a new batch of chicks will arrive the second week of July.
(Gotta keep up with the demand for good fresh farm eggs!)
Have a great weekend....
hope to see you back here on Monday for our video house tour.
PS....
check out last night's garden bounty....
We had a yummy dinner, chock full of garden goodness!
Comments
Di
That poor little raccoon...bet he never goes into that big trap again LOL! Bears are kind of exciting to have around but when you have children and animals to protect it's a different story. When I lived in British Columbia we lived in the country across from the ski hill and every year in late summer a big old male would come around and check our fruit trees to see how close to being ripe they were. It was a real competition to get the fruit off the trees before he could strip it! Then we had a momma bear with two cubs start doing the same thing. We've had them on our porch and we had the momma put her paw prints on a large picture window. We never had the trap out there but we did when we lived in town. I hope you catch your bear soon so you can all rest easy. Have a wonderful day!
Maura :)
I would love to see your home as well as what types of foods you fix with your garden produce. Maybe a recipe or two? Thanks Bev, have a wonderful weekend. Dawn
Beautiful produce! Loved seeing the chickens!
We planted 25 Bluecrop, 25 Elliott, 25 Jersey, and 25 Spartan. We picked these four types because together,.they would give us the longest season....ripening in late June through late July/Aug.
Soil preparation is essential with blueberries. They love an acidic soil, so we tested ours and amended it as needed. As far as chickens go....I do like the Rhode Island Reds and the Ameraucanas. A lot of my chickens were part of a "brown layer mix". I am excited for the Cuckoo Marans to start to lay because of their deep dark chocolate brown eggs. I will let you know how they perform and how they do over the winter.
Have your hens moulted yet? You did not mention that, so I have to say that was my first thought. Is your rooster rough with them. The roos stand on the gals back to mate and I am wondering if this is a factor in their loss of feathers and the soreness as roos can rip feathers out during mating. I might remove the rooster and see if they get better. How attached are you to the roo? Can you sequester him? ( I have also read that you can clip your roos nails with a nail clipper to prevent him from clawing the hens. ) I have found that a good ratio is 1 roo to 25 or more hens. Otherwise, sometimes the hens get stressed by these over sexed boys. Just a thought. As far as diseases......I thought of mites or lice...but it sounds like you are on top of that.
The turkeys names are Tom, Chuck and Edith. Oh, and Edith's middle name is Menot. Edith-Me-Not! HA!
Have a fabulous weekend!
~ Tracy
After I asked about a house tour, I looked at your other blog and found some pictures of your house during holidays. But I would love to see more. Thanks!
But how rewarding too!
I too live where we have bears passing through often. But the only time we had a problem was when our garage was being worked on and the garbage was in the shed. Needless to say, the bear put a big hole in the latticework door escaping!!
I also live in a log home. Probably half the size of yours! Check it out when you have the time. I'm looking forward to the tour of yours. Maybe I'll get some new ideas!