By Sherman Shifflett
(Ed Note: Farmers and backyard gardeners alike are all at the mercy of the weather, but anymore, we are also at the mercy of varmints. Here is an account of one gentleman farmer’s struggle with the thieving beasts.)
Dealing with varmints during the first six months of 2019 has been a real battle. Squirrels have been the worst. There’s a Bartlett pear tree near the drive-way, and it was already planted when I arrived here in 1977. Every year since then robins have nested in the pear tree. Not this year,
When the pears ripened in August, the squirrels have been getting a few, and that was okay. They bite the flesh off and eat the seeds. This year the tree rats started early, destroying the pears when they were smaller than golf balls. I did not realize it until it was too late.
Not a single pear left. I suspect the squirrels are the reason the robins did not nest in the pear tree. There have been a few years when a late frost killed the buds.
Between the house and the barn, I have a few apple trees. One apple tree, a Summer Rambo, produces fruit in July. It’s a summer apple and excellent for frying. As with the pear tree, squirrels have gotten a few in the past, but generally after the apples matured. I managed to salvage a few apples this year, but had to go on the warpath to do it. I trapped and shot a number of the tree rats. Years ago I had border collies and they patrolled the premises and kept varmints at bay, but I don’t have dogs anymore.
A groundhog dug a hole under one of my sheds, and kept edging closer and closer to my garden. I finally trapped him.
Then, eggs came up missing, and I suspected a snake. I’d get 6-7 eggs one day and maybe 1-2 the next day. The thief was raiding the chicken house every other day. I started checking the chicken house during the day, but no luck, although eggs continued disappearing. One day last week I found a snake skin in the chicken house, the longest snake skin I have ever seen, about 7′ long. That was like adding salt to the wound. I keep a bush ax in the chicken house and I finally caught the snake in the act. He had three large lumps in his body and was going after another egg. That snake has eaten his last egg. Largest black snake I have ever seen, a 7-footer.
The snake frightened the hens because I found where the chickens had started laying eggs in the chicken lot, on the ground, under a bush.
Red foxes have been circling my chicken lot, rushing the fence, trying to get in. The lot is pretty secure, but it scares the chickens. I trapped two red foxes, but released them. They were half grown.
“Something” raided my chicken house one night and killed a young pullet. Only a bite mark on the neck – no feathers scattered. Possibly a weasel.
Hawks, coons and possums have gotten my chickens in the past. Wire cover over the chicken lot solved that problem.
Why are varmints becoming so destructive ? I really do not know. Some folks believe that coyotes are driving animals closer to houses because they feel safer. I’ve noticed that deer are doing that, too. I see deer at night around the house, but so far, they have not raided the garden.
It’s a jungle out here.