Acreage mowing help

[patandchickens]

What will the rats be looking for in the barn? There is nothing there now and over winter there will be just hay, nothing else. No feed or treats or food of any other kind.

Hay and a place to live is all they necessarily need.

Plus presumably you will have chicken feed on the property, even if not in the barn, also chicken poo which they'll eat too. Chicken feed/poo = tasty, barn = great place to live.

I'm just telling you how it usually works. You don't have to believe me; find out yourself the hard way if you prefer. It may take a few years if you are lucky, but barns plus livestock eventually equals rats, to some degree or another.

They bite and constrict, that means they can kill my chickens. I have very young chicks out in the coop with the adults. I'm not taking the risk. Are you going to tell me next that foxes are good around the farm and hawks, too?

You CAN more or less keep snakes away from chicks and eggs. (Thru appropriate mesh and keeping the area immediately around the coop mowed low and clear of clutter). Rat snakes don't bother healthy adult chickens.

You CANNOT keep snakes out of your pastures no matter how you try, and mowing 3' weeds to 6" won't make much if any difference in that regard either.

(Frankly, you can't do much about foxes or *anything* about hawks, anyway. So I don't see the relevance, just sarcasm. And yes, actually hawks do do some good by helping control rats and in fact sometimes snakes as well, although of course they will also take your chickens when they can)

There is a wood pile/metal pile at the fence line to the barn, I have to cross that to get to the horses.

If you're concerned about snakes, that's a much much bigger threat than tall weeds.

By all means mow your weedy patches of pasture; by all means keep snakes outta your eggs and brooders and growing chicks; the two are just not really related, is all.

Just sayin',

Pat

 

[goodhors]

I know they eat rodents, but they also eat eggs and birds. The field mice aren't an issue. And I'm sure if I or the horse stepped on the snake, it would bite. I'm not wanting to treat a bite and also not trying to keep them at bay.

The reason you have few mice or rats COULD be because the snakes are taking care of the problem for you! I would agree that those rodents will move right into your barn, even without any grain or feed products to eat. The sheltered location, protection from predators like the Hawks, lets them breed and establish healty colonies to take over a place.

If you have birds, you are going to be feeding them something, which will entice the rodents to come and eat. Rats will eat your eggs and grain, mice will spread disease and eat grain. Heck they just take it from the bird feeders.

While you see the snakes as chick eaters, maybe with some modifications to pens, holding areas, you will redirect the snakes into mouse and rat tunnels to WORK FOR YOU in rodent removal. Hawks are top of the food chain, huge hunters because they use so much energy trying to get a meal. Domestic fowl need to have covered pens, places to run if left to free range, so hawks don't hunt them. Without the hawks you would be overun with rodents, rabbits, mice, rats that reproduce constantly. So to allow your domestic birds to do what you want, lay eggs, grow to butchering size, you have to protect them. Having mice and rats among them is not going to be a healthy choice by removing hawks from the eco-system.

Balance of nature is delicate, and if you take out the parts you don't like, other parts go unhindered until they over-run the place. Rats will eat baby chicks if they are hungry and populous. Rodents SURE WILL raise your feed costs by eating the bird feed! MOST chickens probably will not fight the rat for grain. Removing the varmint eaters, non-venomous snakes and hawks will turn the healthy, breeding rodent population loose. They multiply exponentially, in VERY short time spans. Hawks and snakes take a LOT longer to grow up, reproduce enough to be helpful to you by working on rodents. You need to think of Hawks and snakes as "unpaid pest removers" so you give them a positive spin. That really is the reason they exist! Would you rather meet rats that bite, carry disease, or a rat-eating snake who will mostly try to run away if you meet him? Skies belong to the Hawks looking to reduce rodent populations. So domestic fowl need to be covered, protected from them. Chicken tractors, electric fences, other methods allow grazing your birds without having to hurt the Hawks. Big fines if you get caught killing the big predator birds.

I would suggest you add cleaning up any woodpiles, junk piles to your efforts. WEAR GLOVES to move things. Rodents LOVE these kind of shelters, which is partially why snakes hang out there waiting for meals to run by. Without shelter, both rodents and snakes of any kind will find other places to go instead.

 

[carolinagirl]

you know what my husband and I do if we are riding down the road and see a rat snake cross? We jump out and grab it! We take him home and release it in the barn. The barn used to be so overrun with mice it actually stunk in there, like mouse urine. And we only had hay in there, nothing else. But it was a warm dry place for them to spend the winter so the mouse population got out of control FAST. Now...there are NO mice in the barn. I don't ever see the snakes. I know rat snakes will eat chicken eggs, but rats will kill chickens too.

 

[Margali]

Not sure what your budget is, but you might start "looking around" and learn about small tractors. Knowledge is power. Learn the good and bad of older stuff. Easier to fix yourself, simpler design, but may be hard to find older parts. Could be cheaper purchase price. Check out newer machines, learn why do folks like or hate their models? BIG question to ask, "Would you buy another machine just like it?" That REALLY was a deciding factor for us in choices!!

Newer may be easy to find parts for, more dealers, but difficult to work yourself on with computer parts. Prices will probably be a bit higher, may be more common to find in good condition. Have to figure what else you can use it for, so how large of horsepower do you need? What other implements could work on it, be useful around your place, like a flat blade or loader, drag or disc to work your land. Might be awhile before you can afford to buy a machine, but you will probably want one eventually to make your life easier. Our tractor is the hardest working "horsepower" on our place, things are VERY difficult during those periods when it needs a bit of fixing and I can't use it!!

I just got an old IH Cub Cadet 125 for $340. A great deal for a heavy duty steel framed mower in running condition. The new cub cadets are junk but this 1968 model is still running good. Built tough so it can pull a good size plow. Can also modify to have a front-end loader and dozer blade.

Definitely look at older machines. They were built before cheap parts and planned obsolescence was the norm. Research the exact model though before purchasing to see if you can get parts and manual.

Margali

 

[secuono]

The barn only has two short sides, more like just shade than a barn. Chicken, duck & horse feed is kept in the house.
The smaller I had to get rid of, it was half in the coop going for the little chicks. The other was huge going to the dogs. The cats are 6 and 8lbs, I can't be sure the large snake wouldn't try to get them. And they can puncture the skin, maybe the ones you ran into Pam never got in deep, but many many sites say they can and I'm not risking it.
I don't know why all my threads end up not about what I wanted...which is how to trim grass/weeds w/o tractors and other large equipment.
Why do we always have to butt heads, Pam?
I'll try not to go after any other snakes, but those were the only two one day after the other right in the middle of high traffic.



We had a riding mower at the renters house. It broke down and we were able to fix it up. I forget what brand it was, but getting a riding mower is in the plans for one day.

 

[patandchickens]

Chicken, duck & horse feed is kept in the house.

You're missing my point, it's not in the house when they're eating it and when it is out there to be eaten there WILL be some spillage and it DOES attract rodents. It's not a theory issue, it's what actually HAPPENS.

The cats are 6 and 8lbs, I can't be sure the large snake wouldn't try to get them. And they can puncture the skin, maybe the ones you ran into Pam never got in deep, but many many sites say they can and I'm not risking it.

Well, now that you live in the country it would really be worth learning more about snakes, because you cannot avoid or get rid of them and have some major misconceptions about them that are likely to result in poor property- and animal-management decisions.

Note that I never said that nonvenomous snakes can't break human skin. Just that it is inconsequential. Their teeth are literally about a millimeter long. Seriously. Have been bit by MANY snakes over the years, I speak from experience here.

I don't know why all my threads end up not about what I wanted...which is how to trim grass/weeds w/o tractors and other large equipment.

I HAVE answered that in considerable detail, for all the good it seems to have done.

YOU are the one who brought up the snake thing; as a result of which I was just trying to gently explain the reality of the situation as I tend to assume that people actually want to know more about the world they live in.


Pat (not "Pam")