Wednesday November 6, 2019 Guerneville CA.
Drips
When I walked by my van this morning I noticed this wet spot under it. I checked things out and found that the axillary radiator water cooler was leaking a bit. It looks like it’s at a fitting so I need to try tightening it up soon but I didn’t get to it today. I really need to do something about getting a better cooling system in the van as it has some over heating problems on a hot day on long up hills. Right now I’m thinking I might try an aluminum radiator as they are supposed to cool much better than the brass ones.
I fed the chickens in the mulch pen. They are always hungry by the time I get up and get it going.
Store bought rodent stuff is no good
I put some rodent bait in this store bought rodent bat container. I’ve been watching it for activity for a few days and there were no takers. I put some sunflower seeds on the top of it last night and this morning I found a rat poop on top of the sunflower seeds which I think is to warn the other rodents to stay away from it. Rodent’s love sunflower seeds so the poo seems to work as no seeds were eaten.
I’ve been studying the rodents with video cams to my computer to see what they like and don’t like. What I’ve found is they don’t like store bought stuff. They avoid most store bought traps and poisons. The poisons are especially a waste of money so don’t bother buying them. It’s like the rodent’s genes tell them they are bad news.
Here’s the store bought bait box. Useless and a waste of money.
Here’s what seems to work the best for rodent control
So what have I found that is working. One cup of plaster of Paris to one cup of regular wheat flour in a small dish seems to work the best. A little sugar added may also help. I’ve been using it for a few days and the rodents are eating it. I’ll keep watching to see if they start to disappear. I think some of them have disappeared already so maybe it is working. They need some name tags as they are hard to tell apart.They can’t detect the plaster of Paris. It clogs them up and they are supposed to die.
Wire chicken run test
My test on this wire run for the chickens is mostly working out. I’ve moved it a little so they can get new grass. The panels are ten feet long and I think five feet would be better so I can make turns easier and get more grass. The rooster hasn’t used it, maybe as he’s bigger so I might have to make some changes to it as I’d like him to use it too.
The chickens have eaten all the green off the grass where the run goes which is good.
Some fencing work
I needed to finish some fence wire where I removed the failed bulk head so I got his wire out and cut it to size to fit a spot.
Here’s the last spot I had to take care of to finish off the bulk head job.
I installed the short piece there. Looks good and should keep the chickens in.
New bait box in the chicken pen
Since the store bought bait box is no good I needed a safe place to put the bait in the chicken pen so was thinking this nest box might work well. But I have to keep the chickens out of it, especially the little guys.
So I got some more bait and put it in a dish and screwed the board on so there were large enough cracks for mice and rats to enter like this.
Of course I did a bunch of chair hopping and turned the water on the weeds to get them to grow more for the chickens to eat.
That was pretty much it for me today. Sunny and warm for another nice fall day.
