Recently got a small flock of chickens. Very enjoyable and rewarding hobby, with the benefit of all the eggs you could possibly want, and then some, but that's only a side line to this post. As a result, I go out every night when it's pitch black and check that they're all in their house and on their roost before I lock them up against predators. This is almost three weeks now.
Early on, because of this practice, I bought one of those forehead lamps to guide my steps back there (All the automatic lights for the backyard are now turned off so they don't disturb my little pals while they're sleeping). From the start, when I went out there, I'd see reflecting back at me from the grass hundreds of little bright lights. I had assumed they were dew drops, but last night I decided to find out once and for all what they were, so I got down close to the ground and shined the light right at one. It was a set of spider eyes. Every last one of those hundreds of little lights reflecting back the light from my forehead lamp were a spider. Kinda creeped me out.
Recently got a small flock of chickens. Very enjoyable and rewarding hobby, with the benefit of all the eggs you could possibly want, and then some, but that's only a side line to this post. As a result, I go out every night when it's pitch black and check that they're all in their house and on their roost before I lock them up against predators. This is almost three weeks now.
Early on, because of this practice, I bought one of those forehead lamps to guide my steps back there (All the automatic lights for the backyard are now turned off so they don't disturb my little pals while they're sleeping). From the start, when I went out there, I'd see reflecting back at me from the grass hundreds of little bright lights. I had assumed they were dew drops, but last night I decided to find out once and for all what they were, so I got down close to the ground and shined the light right at one. It was a set of spider eyes. Every last one of those hundreds of little lights reflecting back the light from my forehead lamp were a spider. Kinda creeped me out.
Yeah, I noticed all the disgusting spiders we have here in Florida (a bit of a drawback for me, for sure, as I hate the little critters), but that all those little lights were spider eyes is new to me.
They're wolf spiders. I was showing them to my daughter, Melanie, when she was 12-13 years old. She didn't believe they were spiders so I took a hand held spotlight and tracked one down for her across the yard. She marveled at it and then......she realize that she had walked across the yard full of spiders.
She rode back to the house on my back just like a monkey.
Cast a plastic worm out amounst 'em and watch what happens. It'll go through them faster than a cat can lick it butt and another will get it. Give 'em lots of slack and you'll have a string full of chickens...great fun. (Chickens, not spiders.)
They're wolf spiders. I was showing them to my daughter, Melanie, when she was 12-13 years old. She didn't believe they were spiders so I took a hand held spotlight and tracked one down for her across the yard. She marveled at it and then......she realize that she had walked across the yard full of spiders.
She rode back to the house on my back just like a monkey.
Cast a plastic worm out amounst 'em and watch what happens. It'll go through them faster than a cat can lick it butt and another will get it. Give 'em lots of slack and you'll have a string full of chickens...great fun.
I was paid to carry a gun and drive the swamp roads at night south of Jacksonville. Those night got real long after a full day of Navy. I would be driving along getting drowsy when a bright red UFO would streak skyward in a zig zag. It would always cause an instant adrenaline dump what felt like a couple of gallons. Wake me right up. Never in my almost two years of that job did I get use to those whippoorwills in the headlights. Seems like it was a hundred years ago but I still can feel the shock.
We understand you grew up in town...That's OK...You have probably seen spider eyes many times driving down the road at night and did not know what you were seeing...
You oughta head a couple hour west and let me take you on a float trip.
You need to take Pat up on that offer Hawk, it will be fun...
On that note. We should organize a float trip in the NW Arkansas area. I used to float a river(?) called Big Piney Creek up there that flowed through the Ozark National Forect.
We have no shortage of toothy critters in Minnesota. I've had bears in camp and been surrounded by howling wolves. BUT, the thing that always creeps me out is cutting through cornfields at night against the rows. Almost stepping on a skunk blows a heart valve, then a suddenly snarling raccoon ruptures a ventricle, then somethings big that jumps off the ground and crashes away blows the aorta.
Oh yeah, the warm-up for all the above is breaking a few dozen spider webs with your face.
If walking to or from a deer stand in the dark involves a shortcut through a cornfield I go the long way around.
You oughta head a couple hour west and let me take you on a float trip.
You need to take Pat up on that offer Hawk, it will be fun...
On that note. We should organize a float trip in the NW Arkansas area. I used to float a river(?) called Big Piney Creek up there that flowed through the Ozark National Forect.
Me and the redhead are in. Where do we sign up? Have done the Illinois River in N. OK and many other smaller streams. Did part of the Brazos once up pretty high but that country is on fire right now...
We have no shortage of toothy critters in Minnesota. I've had bears in camp and been surrounded by howling wolves. BUT, the thing that always creeps me out is cutting through cornfields at night against the rows. Almost stepping on a skunk blows a heart valve, then a suddenly snarling raccoon ruptures a ventricle, then somethings big that jumps off the ground and crashes away blows the aorta.
Oh yeah, the warm-up for all the above is breaking a few dozen spider webs with your face.
If walking to or from a deer stand in the dark involves a shortcut through a cornfield I go the long way around.
And you would be wrong. I'll vouch for Pat and believe his motives are sincere. No BS. Now all you have to do is find someone to vouch for me. Bart should be along shortly...
You oughta head a couple hour west and let me take you on a float trip.
You need to take Pat up on that offer Hawk, it will be fun...
On that note. We should organize a float trip in the NW Arkansas area. I used to float a river(?) called Big Piney Creek up there that flowed through the Ozark National Forect.
I've never seen the tarantulas in Tx at night, but have seen 'em migrating across a FM (farm-to-market) road. On the main highway, not a one to be seen, but the FM was literally covered with 'em. Had to be a reason for both events, my guess would be mating season, and vibration (or lack thereof).
And you would be wrong. I'll vouch for Pat and believe his motives are sincere. No BS. Now all you have to do is find someone to vouch for me. Bart should be along shortly...
Early on, because of this practice, I bought one of those forehead lamps to guide my steps back there (All the automatic lights for the backyard are now turned off so they don't disturb my little pals while they're sleeping).
I wouldn't worry about that, they'll still sleep fine and the backyard lights wont mess 'em up photoperiod/moult wise, and leaving them on will allow you to get the drop on the raccoon or whatever that comes calling for 'em one night.
Besides which ya wont have to see them spider eyes.
Besides which again you dont got whippoorwills in Florida 'cept passing through on migration.
What Florida has is the bigger version of that night bird, the chuck-will's-widow, same as most of the South. Play the call on the link, if you live in the Piney Woods you might hear it from yer back porch...
And you would be wrong. I'll vouch for Pat and believe his motives are sincere. No BS. Now all you have to do is find someone to vouch for me. Bart should be along shortly...
vouch for you? seriously now..........
Well, uh Teri will vouch for me, no wait she's shaking her head, let me get back with ya on that...grin
Clearly Hawk there's a serious problem, you are in danger of actually getting old and missing all this really cool stuff.
Wrong time of year to start this maybe as its gonna get real warm right shortly, but you need a tent, a simple dome tent will do, but I'd spring $100+ for a decent one with aluminum rather than fiberglass poles.
The reason you need a tent is the 'skeeters, but if you open all the door and window panels and leave the tarp off it'll be about like sleeping out.
Soon as the weather turns cold in the fall all you need is a groundsheet and a blanket. Go sleep out in the woods, most any woods will do. Bring the dog so as to warn you if critters walk up on you in the night (he'll lie down right next to you), and a good flashlight in case they do.
Charles Goodnight, that famous cowboy who provided in part the storyline for Lonesome Dove slept outside on the ground by preference every day of his life, even after he had a mansion. I understand completely, sleeping outside is one of them fundamental pleasures in life.
What Florida has is the bigger version of that night bird, the chuck-will's-widow, same as most of the South. Play the call on the link, if you live in the Piney Woods you might hear it from yer back porch...
Son-of-a-gun! What I've been thinking were whip-poor-wills all my life were not. I heard one just last night. I had never heard of a chuck-will's-widow. I've bookmarked that site. Many, many thanks, Birdie.
Early on, because of this practice, I bought one of those forehead lamps to guide my steps back there (All the automatic lights for the backyard are now turned off so they don't disturb my little pals while they're sleeping).
I wouldn't worry about that, they'll still sleep fine and the backyard lights wont mess 'em up photoperiod/moult wise, and leaving them on will allow you to get the drop on the raccoon or whatever that comes calling for 'em one night.
Besides which ya wont have to see them spider eyes.
Besides which again you dont got whippoorwills in Florida 'cept passing through on migration.
What Florida has is the bigger version of that night bird, the chuck-will's-widow, same as most of the South. Play the call on the link, if you live in the Piney Woods you might hear it from yer back porch...
TRHawk - do/did you get frequent invitations to go snipe hunting?
BTW, what is the skinny on the chickens. Being a some-time chicken herder myself I'd be curious to know the details. Sounds like you got an established brood, eh?
Also, unless your yard lights are beaming directly on the roost I doubt that they'll interfere with the birds sleep.
TRHawk - do/did you get frequent invitations to go snipe hunting?
BTW, what is the skinny on the chickens. Being a some-time chicken herder myself I'd be curious to know the details. Sounds like you got an established brood, eh?
Also, unless your yard lights are beaming directly on the roost I doubt that they'll interfere with the birds sleep.
Monkey, FYI chickens don't "herd", they "flock". That means technically, you ain't a "herder", you're a "flocker".
All he needs to know - if Daffy had showed up along with Porky he'd be packing a .460 S&W.
I kid you not, just yesterday evening I heard the tale of my brother-in-law's mother in law being attacked in her back yard by a "big white bird" early in the morning, to the tune of actual scratches on her scalp.
It seems these birds have been terrorizing the whole street (down here anything with wings in the dark is automatically a "chupacabra" or "lachusa").
Not very often are my birding skills called into play in times of emergency. In fact this is the ONLY time my birding skills have EVER been called into play in times of emergency.
I was supposed to go there this morning, but I forgot, I was on the 'Fire instead.
Whatever it is, if it ain't been shot yet, is probably a protected species, but at least I can tell 'em what it is...
Tomorrow then, and if I don't check back in afterwards, sure.... enjoy a joke at my expense.....
Mickey, I've heard both in Oklahoma, and a whip poor will sounds just like that. Chuck wills widow just like that. I think the whip sounds like it winds up in the beginning and Chuck is a pretty abrupt sound like a turkey putt. If you say Chuck Wills Widow along with the bird, it fits.
Oh well, eyes in the dark. I vote for deer camp in South Carolina where the eyes have fur and go "squeak" when you step on one. I had one on my face one night. I felt the thing on my mouth, opened my eyes, and froze, started shaking, and screamed as I swatted him across the room. "That thing had better not peed in my mouth or I'll kill every last one of them." Everyone laughs. I got a mouse in my boot every day for the rest of the trip. Beady little red eyes.
What Florida has is the bigger version of that night bird, the chuck-will's-widow, same as most of the South. Play the call on the link, if you live in the Piney Woods you might hear it from yer back porch...
Son-of-a-gun! What I've been thinking were whip-poor-wills all my life were not. I heard one just last night. I had never heard of a chuck-will's-widow. I've bookmarked that site. Many, many thanks, Birdie.
Me too. That's what we have. After listening to the audio, I have to admit I've never heard a live whip-poor-will.
Ahhh, the joys of camping in the deep forests!! Try this one Hawk, WAAY back when, my wife and I wuz camping in the Adirondacks, staying in a backcountry state lean-to. We had 2 sleeping bags zipped open one over the other so's we could get some action if we wuz so inclined. Right around false dawn I got hte old elbo in the ribs. Wakey wakey.Me: Whut's up Hon?? She: Are you wearing yer fur socks??? Me: ???I don't have any fur socks.Her: I didn't think so. I turn on flashlight and lo and behold, a fair size raccon wus sitting on her feet. Looking out a mite farther, there is another 'coon sitting upright on a stump drinking beer out of a partly full can (HER beer, I don't leave any beer in cans,bottles etc.) My wife freaked out (quite natcherly) and I laughed so hard I almosr strangled. Ya GOTTA go camping in the deep forest Hawkeye, It is an adventure
Clearly Hawk there's a serious problem, you are in danger of actually getting old and missing all this really cool stuff.
Wrong time of year to start this maybe as its gonna get real warm right shortly, but you need a tent, a simple dome tent will do, but I'd spring $100+ for a decent one with aluminum rather than fiberglass poles.
The reason you need a tent is the 'skeeters, but if you open all the door and window panels and leave the tarp off it'll be about like sleeping out.
Soon as the weather turns cold in the fall all you need is a groundsheet and a blanket. Go sleep out in the woods, most any woods will do. Bring the dog so as to warn you if critters walk up on you in the night (he'll lie down right next to you), and a good flashlight in case they do.
Charles Goodnight, that famous cowboy who provided in part the storyline for Lonesome Dove slept outside on the ground by preference every day of his life, even after he had a mansion. I understand completely, sleeping outside is one of them fundamental pleasures in life.
Birdwatcher
That sounds cool, Birdie. Never done that before. I was on a five day elk hunt in the Rockies, but the tents were semi-permanent, and we had cots and wood burning stoves in them.
TRHawk - do/did you get frequent invitations to go snipe hunting?
BTW, what is the skinny on the chickens. Being a some-time chicken herder myself I'd be curious to know the details. Sounds like you got an established brood, eh?
Also, unless your yard lights are beaming directly on the roost I doubt that they'll interfere with the birds sleep.
OK, I'll turn the auto lights back on, then.
Yeah, I bought a flock of eight eight month old pullets. Rhode Island Reds. Taming them with scratch. Three of them will let me pick them up and carry them around. The others are getting there. Some might never get there, as they're a bit flighty.
Here's my setup. They have a half acre pasture in which, when they're not in their nesting boxes laying eggs or getting a drink of water, they spend the entire day. At night, they get into their house and up on their roost, at which point I shut the chicken door up tight against predators. They lay between six and eight good sized, hard shelled, brown eggs per day right in their straw bedded nesting boxes, which has access ports on the outside. Using dried wood chips for the floor of the house. Inside the house there's a single bulb, chain pull, ceiling light fixture with an electrical outlet on it, and two more outlets outside the house.
Having a blast with them. The work involved is more than made up for by the fun and the eggs ... by a long shot.
PS I've been a consumer of between two and four free-range eggs daily for a long time now (since long before getting the chickens). Usually two for breakfast, then typically one or two more somehow involved in cooking throughout the rest of the day. I'm getting about three times what I consume (I have at least an extra two dozen per week), so have been handing them out to neighbors, but hope that eventually someone will purchase my extra eggs to help support my operation.
I guess your pediatrician, in cooperation with your hypochondriacal mother, had you in leg braces, and restricted to air conditioned interior environs, till you were twenty-one, then. What other conclusion could I possibly draw?
Or spend the night in the deep woods on an overcast night with no light. There are all kinds of things that glow in the dark, and some of them move.
try it in a flooded city with no lights....that'll creep ya out
One of the large buildings I worked in your fair city had a flooded basement. The cockroaches had no place to go but 'up'. The first floor windows had floor length mesh/lace curtains that were the perfect gill net for the spines on cockroach legs...thousands and thousands of 'em...
This post/thread of yours makes me understand just how fundamentally different we are, and I find myself a bit saddened over what you were deprived of as a child.
The outdoor world to you must be a totally foreign realm; almost another planet.
It doesn't have to be.
You wanna learn? No politics, no bullschit, nothing other than just learning what's out there?
This post/thread of yours makes me understand just how fundamentally different we are, and I find myself a bit saddened over what you were deprived of as a child.
The outdoor world to you must be a totally foreign realm; almost another planet.
It doesn't have to be.
You wanna learn? No politics, no bullschit, nothing other than just learning what's out there?
That can be arranged.
Ball's in your court.
I'm certainly no outdoorsman. Always wanted to be, though, so I was thought of as weird for wanting to go hunting, fishing, and camping as a kid. My folks didn't support that sort of thing, but I was outside most of the time with my dogs and friends. When my folks would ask me what I wanted to be, they'd get pissed if I said something like a farmer or cattle rancher, and ask me to be serious, "You know, a doctor, lawyer, that sort of thing."
If the trip is a success, will TRH be a neo-camper or maybe a neo-outdoorsman?
The odd thing is that Va and I are more similar politically than the average two other members picked at random, yet he speaks as though we occupy two opposite ends of the political spectrum. I never could understand that.
This post/thread of yours makes me understand just how fundamentally different we are, and I find myself a bit saddened over what you were deprived of as a child.
The outdoor world to you must be a totally foreign realm; almost another planet.
It doesn't have to be.
You wanna learn? No politics, no bullschit, nothing other than just learning what's out there?
Hawk, that is a decent setup and a good breed of hens. With a 1/2 acre to scratch around on those chickens should scare up enough bugs and plant matter to help with the food bill.
Don't forget to use them as your garbage disposal - they will recycle any sort of veggie residue.
My PC is in bad shape so I may not get this done but I have a link I'd like to share with you that is for a web page dedicated to suburban chicken husbandry. It seems that people build these small mobile coups that can be moved daily to allow access to fresh grass, etc... while still providing a great deal of security. I'll try to post it, if not do a search and see what you find.
I know I poke at you quite a bit but I am sincere when I say that I admire the effort you are making to do something like raising your own chickens. I don't do it every year but I can say that it is down-right therapeutic. Gives one an appreciation for life that others might not understand.
wolf spiders are cool they don't bite. we had a big one that hung in my daughters room. forgot what she named him but he was around for several months before disappearing.
This post/thread of yours makes me understand just how fundamentally different we are, and I find myself a bit saddened over what you were deprived of as a child.
The outdoor world to you must be a totally foreign realm; almost another planet.
It doesn't have to be.
You wanna learn? No politics, no bullschit, nothing other than just learning what's out there?
That can be arranged.
Ball's in your court.
I'm certainly no outdoorsman. Always wanted to be, though, so I was thought of as weird for wanting to go hunting, fishing, and camping as a kid. My folks didn't support that sort of thing, but I was outside most of the time with my dogs and friends. When my folks would ask me what I wanted to be, they'd get pissed if I said something like a farmer or cattle rancher, and ask me to be serious, "You know, a doctor, lawyer, that sort of thing."
Understood.
Seriously, offer stands.
Ball still in your court.
And, yeah, wish I'd have followed through on the what-I-wanted-to-be thing, too, vs the what I ought to have been...
"Dixie, Idaho", ...instead of going back to college post-USMC....
as to being outdoors as a kid and and the like.....
growing up i had a cousin that might as well have been a brother as we did most everything together.....ran into his step dad a couple years back who had chauffeured us to various crick bottoms and the like and let us use half his garage for our mini zoo.....he asked what i was doing for a living and i told him i own two newspapers.....his reply was "Always figured i would hear you were in some god forsaken unexplored jungle catching snakes and lizards for the hell of it."
as to being outdoors as a kid and and the like.....
growing up i had a cousin that might as well have been a brother as we did most everything together.....ran into his step dad a couple years back who had chauffeured us to various crick bottoms and the like and let us use half his garage for our mini zoo.....he asked what i was doing for a living and i told him i own two newspapers.....his reply was "Always figured i would hear you were in some god forsaken unexplored jungle catching snakes and lizards for the hell of it."
why in the hell do you think i convinced the oldest girl the place we should go hunting for her graduation present is the Northern Territories for water buff?....big game hunting, pythons, monitor lizards, venomous snakes, lizards and crocs......no i aint gonna enjoy myself at all......Kate just wants to drop the hammer on something BIG out of the country and doesnt care what
Hawk, that is a decent setup and a good breed of hens. With a 1/2 acre to scratch around on those chickens should scare up enough bugs and plant matter to help with the food bill.
Don't forget to use them as your garbage disposal - they will recycle any sort of veggie residue.
My PC is in bad shape so I may not get this done but I have a link I'd like to share with you that is for a web page dedicated to suburban chicken husbandry. It seems that people build these small mobile coups that can be moved daily to allow access to fresh grass, etc... while still providing a great deal of security. I'll try to post it, if not do a search and see what you find.
I know I poke at you quite a bit but I am sincere when I say that I admire the effort you are making to do something like raising your own chickens. I don't do it every year but I can say that it is down-right therapeutic. Gives one an appreciation for life that others might not understand.
Yes it does. Gives me a good feeling every time I see them out there scratching up their lunch.
And, yeah, wish I'd have followed through on the what-I-wanted-to-be thing, too, vs the what I ought to have been...
"Dixie, Idaho", ...instead of going back to college post-USMC....
I appreciate the offer, Sean. I actually have been turning down a friend of mine in Idaho to go elk hunting. Twice now. Last season and next season. Reason is that my dog is too old to leave at a kennel, and I have no one I trust available to watch him while I go anywhere. Couldn't even visit family this past Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter. Really appreciate the offer, though. Same for ltppowell.
1) Leaving the outdoor lights on didn't work out well. Three of my hens decided to roost on the chain link fence instead of going to bed in their henhouse. Had to carry all three to their roosts. Lights are back off.
2) Found a buyer for my extra eggs. A hippie type store near the University has a customer base that buys only free range, organic, locally produced, eggs from them, so they are happy to buy them from me as many as I can provide them at $4.00 per dozen. That's $32.00 per month that will go a long way towards paying for their organic feed. Probably cover the cost entirely.
1) Leaving the outdoor lights on didn't work out well. Three of my hens decided to roost on the chain link fence instead of going to bed in their henhouse. Had to carry all three to their roosts. Lights are back off.
Turn the lights back on after they go to roost in the henhouse.
1) Leaving the outdoor lights on didn't work out well. Three of my hens decided to roost on the chain link fence instead of going to bed in their henhouse. Had to carry all three to their roosts. Lights are back off.
2) Found a buyer for my extra eggs. A hippie type store near the University has a customer base that buys only free range, organic, locally produced, eggs from them, so they are happy to buy them from me as many as I can provide them at $4.00 per dozen. That's $32.00 per month that will go a long way towards paying for their organic feed. Probably cover the cost entirely.
organic feed = potato peelings, etc ... they are feathered garbage disposals
we call the chuck-will's-widow, bullbats around here.
There's five sifferent kinds in and around Corpus...
First off the Common Nighthawk and Lesser Nighthawk can commonly be seen flying around shopping mall and grocery store parking lot lights at night, they look alike, you can spot em by the white spots on their wings, most of 'em down there will be lessers.
Niether calls from the woods, Common Nighthawks "peent" and swoop in the evening overhead, Lessers fly low in the open and make a high pitched trill, which you have probably heard in town comong from the tops of buildngs, they commonly nest on flat rooftops.
Besides the chuck-will's widow, South Texas also has the paraque, the only one that speaks Spanish, and the coolest one, to my ear. We have 'em all the way up to San Antonio now..
Depending on how much light gets inside the coop, you may want to put a light on a timer inside to ensure sufficient photoperiod for egg production. They need around 13 hours. Perhaps you have researched egg production, but here are some tips: http://freerangereggs.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-hens-stop-laying.html
Depending on how much light gets inside the coop, you may want to put a light on a timer inside to ensure sufficient photoperiod for egg production. They need around 13 hours. Perhaps you have researched egg production, but here are some tips: http://freerangereggs.blogspot.com/2009/03/why-hens-stop-laying.html
Thanks. They're outside in their pasture from around seven AM till around eight PM.
I can relate.
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Other towns allow them, this one doesn't
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