Mouse explosion

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I don't hate all wildlife. But I do hate a few... HATE Black Mexican Buzzards....they kill lambs and will get a calf when first born..... Raccoons that tear into chicken coops and randomly maime the chickens, chicks ....they killed for fun not food.... I collected 17 out of about 25 young show birds that they tore apart and left half alive with legs and wings torn up or half torn off.... ground hogs that tear up a good hay field and you drop a front end in and break a spindle on the tractor... the coyotes that we have killing the sheep and a few calves.... and any small dog or cat they can find around here. The feral cat population gets thinned every fall when there is a new litter of pups the parents bring around to teach to hunt. They went crazy 20 ft from the house, trying to get into my rabbits a few years ago....the bald eagles that carry off my free range hens ... lost 120 one year and gave up on the egg business because being free range, moving around the cattle pasture was what I had them for,,, did a great job of spreading the manure and had half the flies on the cattle and the free range eggs were what sold...
and the overpopulation of deer here.... Got my yearly deer with the truck a week ago on the way to work... busted signal light and lens, and the headlight doesn't work either now.... dented the fender.... over 40 a night in the barley field last fall/winter that we had cover crop seeded....after our sorghum-sudan was cut off.... didn't get enough spring growth to cut it so this fall it is not getting seeded and waste that money... owner says he has guys hunting, but none of them showed up last year... I live right across the road.... but he won't let us hunt.....

I watch the red foxes and they get alot of the mice and stuff... there is a vixen that raises a litter every year near the creek... had 8 a couple years ago... I don't bother them, they don't bother me... see an occasional grey fox. I only trap/shoot possums if they get into the feed or the chickens; same with skunks... don't bother my stuff, I don't bother them...We have a couple of "resident" black bear and they only seem to get into the bird feeders at people's houses...
 
J Hoy said:
we never lost a calf to a coyote or a hawk (LOL)
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I have not lost a calf to a predator either. I was commenting how I have seen more large birds around the last few years. Do you think it is related to my neighbor's dead cow pile?

I am not a bird expert. I used the word "hawk," but I don't know if that is the specific bird in my photo. Maybe you can tell me? Whatever they are, they seemed to have moved on after a couple days.

Pretty sure I saw a Golden Eagle a couple years ago. Like J Hoy mentioned, it was hunting mice in the field. Just doing its thing and not bothering anybody. I was awestruck. That bird makes Bald Eagles look small.

That's neat about the rockets. Is that the same place on RFD-TV The American Rancher?
 
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Hpacres440p said:
Sometimes-they have three test stands. One of them makes our doors and lights rattle, but they are supposed to be doing a mitigation project to be completed by next year. Sounded like a bowling alley when we moved here 5 years ago, now it's more like an F16 with a 2-5 minute flyover at 500 feet when they use the "loud" stand. On the other stands, sometimes we don't hear it at all, my parents 15 miles away ask if we're still standing. Interesting study of sound waves and ground conduction. We averaged 5-6 tests per day this summer, Elon is adding an engine building facility in town-goal of 800-1000 engines per year. Hope they get the rattle solved before then.
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They have a 3 cell horizontal test stand for the Falcon 9 Raptor engines, and at least 2 vertical test stands for the bfr and falcon heavy vac engines.
 
farmerjan said:
Looks like one of those D@#N black mexican buzzards. They will move on if there is nothing they find to kill or eat. They have a sense of smell too, so it is not just by sight....
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I agree they are Mexican Buzzards. SSS, or actually forget the shovel. A dead one warns the others to stay away.
 
greybeard said:
They have a 3 cell horizontal test stand for the Falcon 9 Raptor engines, and at least 2 vertical test stands for the bfr and falcon heavy vac engines.
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The falcon heavy vac is the newer version that started this summer. We thought the Merlin was stout...it's an interesting learning experience for sure. Testing hasn't been as frequent for the past few weeks. Haven't paid attention to the crewed flight schedule, it seems to pick up quite a bit before those.
Not sure if it's the RFD scene-it's possible. A&M has a beef cattle research station nearby-nice herd.
 
KT and Jan are right those &@#% black headed buzzards. Almost every day we try to scare those things away. I said earlier we didn't necessarily hate wildlife, but as others have stated, when you see the carnage of the predations and kills, or the destruction to crops and gardens, then yes those are hated pests. As I mentioned earlier nothing to like about those buzzards when 15-30 of them are surrounding a newborn calf and cow and the cow is wearing her self out fighting them off as long as she can until the eventually move in and tortuously kill the calf, if you aren't there t get them away.
This fall we are seeing more than usual flying around at about any time you look up, I wonder if the county's cow composting project would be drawing them? Folks that live right by it say there are more coyotes and that it is not covered up like it should be and there are dead animals openly visible.
 
Ky hills said:
KT and Jan are right those &@#% black headed buzzards. Almost every day we try to scare those things away. I said earlier we didn't necessarily hate wildlife, but as others have stated, when you see the carnage of the predations and kills, or the destruction to crops and gardens, then yes those are hated pests. As I mentioned earlier nothing to like about those buzzards when 15-30 of them are surrounding a newborn calf and cow and the cow is wearing her self out fighting them off as long as she can until the eventually move in and tortuously kill the calf, if you aren't there t get them away.
This fall we are seeing more than usual flying around at about any time you look up, I wonder if the county's cow composting project would be drawing them? Folks that live right by it say there are more coyotes and that it is not covered up like it should be and there are dead animals openly visible.
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Your county has a cow composting center? Interesting...
 
Hpacres440p said:
Your county has a cow composting center? Interesting...
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We have a county funded ( so far ) dead animal removal service. They used to contract with an outfit that took the carcasses to a rendering plant. Recently, the county changed over to composting, citing cost savings. Not sure how much of a center it is, probably on what was once the landfill/dump, area of the county farm, behind the fairgrounds.
I'm glad we have a service like that, though I am concerned about it drawing coyotes and buzzards being that we are on the same road just about 2 miles from it.
 
Ky hills said:
We have a county funded ( so far ) dead animal removal service. They used to contract with an outfit that took the carcasses to a rendering plant. Recently, the county changed over to composting, citing cost savings. Not sure how much of a center it is, probably on what was once the landfill/dump, area of the county farm, behind the fairgrounds.
I'm glad we have a service like that, though I am concerned about it drawing coyotes and buzzards being that we are on the same road just about 2 miles from it.
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Our county haul-off when I lived in E Texas was a little old man who dumped everything at the back of his property. County got interested when they realized he was dumping next to a creek...😕
 
Hpacres440p said:
Our county haul-off when I lived in E Texas was a little old man who dumped everything at the back of his property. County got interested when they realized he was dumping next to a creek...😕
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I'd say so. That's likely why our county has the service because if not some would just leave them laying and most of the rest would drag them down in a holler.
 
Update-So, all feed is now in galvanized trash cans. We have a small herd, so it isn't tons being stored…anyway, went out to feed this afternoon and these suckers were in the feed bucket. Had 3 in the bucket last week. They're there until death-I have a spare. Have 5 or 6 including rats dead in the yard-cat and dog are doing their jobs. Using the bait that blocks 'em up and kills their kidneys in case the hawks and cat get a hold of them. It was 85 today. Time for the cold.
 

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I have more cats than I need, but zero mice. Feed the cats enough to keep them healthy, but not comfortably full.
 
My mother at onetime had about 50 cats here at the farm, and of course she was feeding them all. Dad decided one day that was enough, and they put advertisement in the paper for free cats. They even had some white cats, most were wild. We had a lady come all the way from Casper for white cats; a two hour drive. Dad was out there with the fishing net catching cats. I would have loved to watched that, because that would of been some good watching. They got rid of most of those cats. Nobody cared that they were wild.
 

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