Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

[Baymule]

Don’t like rattlesnakes! Haven’t seen any here, don’t want to! Maybe the feral hogs keep them killed off. Hogs will eat a snake in a heartbeat.

Hope your visitor doesn’t come back.

 

[SageHill]

After planting the beans I almost went inside to relax, but realized I hadn't done night check for the rabbits. I had turned off the misters when we got home during daylight but hadn't given them their feeders back and fed them. I start putting the feeders in and get to the far row when I hear something weird, like rustling dry grass, sounding like it's coming from the garden. I stomp my foot and growl towards it and now it sounds like water. Not good. I scooted back to the middle of the bunny aisle and grabbed the water hose and sprayed towards where I thought the sound was coming from. Definitely sounds like water again.

I call hubby for backup and he came out with a stronger flashlight and a broom. He starts poking around the plant pots and figures out the general area while I go find a shovel. I found the one that's for chopping through roots, which seems perfect for dealing with snakes. I returned to hubby and badgered him into handing me the better flashlight so I could try to spot the snake. We found it curled up between several plant pots; definitely a rattlesnake, probably 2 foot long? I moved the plant pots out of the way one by one after making sure I wasn't going to grab anywhere near the snake.

Hubby jabbed the snake with the shovel but it slithered off very quickly. I don't know how injured it was but it was a lot faster than I thought a snake would be. I'm hoping it's gone off to die. I will be carrying the snake shovel around with me for the foreseeable future and trying to complete all outside chores during daylight hours. Watering the garden will be interesting tomorrow. It might consist of whacking the vegetation several times before attempting to maneuver up to or past it. I'll also be moving more of the plants to the new garden so there's room to move around and not get surprised by slithery critters.

That was a close call. Glad you’re ok but not that the snake got away.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

That was a close call. Glad you’re ok but not that the snake got away.

Me too. This one was bigger than the last snake I saw in the garden 2 years ago. It's possible they are from the same hatching? That one had no rattle so was very young. This one I think had only a smallish rattle. It definitely wasn't super loud.

I'll bet the ground squirrels and rats eating the rabbit food is what brought it into the garden area. Plus there's something smaller digging holes under the plant pots. I bought some Ratx last night, going to put it out and see if that helps with the rodents.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

Don’t like rattlesnakes! Haven’t seen any here, don’t want to! Maybe the feral hogs keep them killed off. Hogs will eat a snake in a heartbeat.

Hope your visitor doesn’t come back.

I'll bet the hogs are a great help with it. They'd probably eat any easily available food, so the rodents can't find a quick meal, and the lack of prey would reduce the snakes in the area. Plus if the hogs know how to kill the snake without getting injured themselves, then there's definitely less snakes in the area. I wonder if the hogs can smell out a snake nest and root out and eat the eggs?

 

[Baymule]

Even if hogs get bit, their fat layer protects them.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

No snakes encountered this morning, two wagon fulls of plants got moved to the big garden and all plants got watered. Hubby says he's going to help me move more plants this evening. I'm hoping I can get some of the ones I already moved repotted too; the plan is to repot now and put in the shade structure, wait till Wednesday then put them out back in full sun. So hopefully they will get a chance to wiggle their roots in their new pot and get used to it before getting full sun again.

The ferns I repotted a week or two ago are doing well, they are actually growing new fronds. The mum I repotted at the same time is trying to bloom. And best of all, the pineapple guava shrub I thought I might have killed has teeny tiny leaves starting to show on its lower branches. It was crispy fried, but I just watered it as if it was still alive and now it might make a comeback! The other one I caught before it got this badly fried and has a lot of greenery.

I tried moving the fan and misters a little farther down the rabbit row to help the buck on the end. He seems to pant more than the others, or earlier. Not sure if he's less hardy or just not getting enough misters/air flow. I'm hoping that it helps. Supposed to get only to 101 today, it started out weirdly cloudy and almost humid. Heat is supposed to decrease the next few days and then start climbing again Thursday for a few days.

 

[Mini Horses]

This heat and animals is hard. Water!! My water tanks get too warm mid day, so I dump and refill. Some have better shade but, still get warm. 30 head of goats drink a LOT.

 

[SageHill]

This heat and animals is hard. Water!! My water tanks get too warm mid day, so I dump and refill. Some have better shade but, still get warm. 30 head of goats drink a LOT.

Water here straight out of the hose is warm - our water comes from the Colorado River (I think). Cold water in the summer straight out of the faucet is warm. No well on the property, and not much of a guarantee we could drill deep enough to find it add in I may not be potable.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

I have to run the water to clear all the hot water from hose and get to the cold water. Otherwise I end up spraying the plants with scalding water or giving the animals water they can't drink.

You could check to see if there are records online for your county of the wells in your area. That would give you an idea of how deep a well may need to be drilled. You can always add a filter system, actually probably smarter to add one anyway.

Our property has city water because the well wasn't producing enough back in 2002 so they were able to add city water. The property still has a well, but I don't know if it's still functioning properly. They checked it when we were going through the buying process but it's not set up for regular use.

 

[Mini Horses]

I have a deep well, into a large aquifer. While water in hose is hot & I run it out, the well water is quite cool from 500' down. Good water, too. At the troughs I have shorter hoses . Saves run off time.