animals in your life

[billy rubin]

dammit

im going to have to kill a bunch of raccoons.

im trying to feed my bees for the winter and the coons are chewing up my plasic jugs to get to the syrup.

too late this season so im expecting to lose some hives before the spring bloom. but when i start feedong next im going to have to depopulate the raccoons severely

[Ecurb Noselrub]

dammit

im going to have to kill a bunch of raccoons.

im trying to feed my bees for the winter and the coons are chewing up my plasic jugs to get to the syrup.

too late this season so im expecting to lose some hives before the spring bloom. but when i start feedong next im going to have to depopulate the raccoons severely

So, you can't protect things better?

[billy rubin]

not using the gallon cans. they just sit upside down on the lids and the cap fits through a hole into the hive. they look like this except theyre rectangualar plastic jugs



theres no way to protect them from the raccoons climbing up the beehives and knowcking them over.

its possible i might switch to division board feeders. these are a file-folder-like open top container that firts inside in place of one of the frames. not near as convenient, but its inside the beehive



even then the raccoons can knock the hive over

[Dark Lightning]

Can you build a structure to encompass them, with holes big enough for the bees, and tough enough to fight 'coons? I was at Gatorland in Florida, and there was a 13' gator in a pen. That pen was made of chain link, made from THICK wire. Thick enough to keep a gator captive. Like this, but I didn't price it. You'd probably have to bury some of it and form a cage over the whole magilla. heavy duty chain link

Fun story. A bunch of us naked apes were standing there staring at the gator and it made basso profundo growl. We all jumped, big time! 

[billy rubin]

well, an electric fence could work, but theyre high maintenance. plus i only have around 15 beehives and im on track for maybe 100. im just goi g to keep dividing until i get the bee equipment out of the warehouse and out with bees in it. id need several setups in different places.

i burned up maybe 300 empty hives after the Big Die Off, and abandoned some 300 more because i had no money for petrol to go get them. so my equipment inventory is downsized

i suspect decorating the beeyard with half a dozen dead raccoons might have the most beneficial effect. i have no sense of smell so im ahead of the game.

[billy rubin]

raccoons and possums still  on the porch. theyll geta good feed tonight, as i got up in the morning to make some fried rice for dinner. cooked the rice yesterday, then today boiled some carrots, dropped in some green peas, chopped up some of my sons chilis, added garlic and ginger (lots), did some green onions, separating the roots from the leaves, and opened a can of waterchestnuts. then some soy sauce mixed with sesame oil, mixed in a cup and ready as is. and some snap peas.

is that it? took about fifteen minutes to arrange all the ingredients. when i do fried rice, i have to set it all up in advance, because the wok is hot and cooking time is very quick. mostly just dropping stuff in the oil, searing it for less than a minute, and then adding the nextthing. it goes in order:

--garlic and giner and chilis. and onions

--snap peas, carrots and peas

-- dtaes (i forgot to mention the dates.)

-- and waterchestnuts. (i forgot to mention those too)

--then drop in all the pre-cooked and dried out rice, and stir it in until the rice starts popping.

-- finally stir in the soy sauce and s esame oil, and toss all the stuff in the hot wok over and over.

anyway, all was well, and it looked really good, until i poured in the soy sauce and sesame oil. the laststep.

then i put the cup down and noticed that itwasnt the soy sauce cup, itwas my coffee cup.

i had just poured all my coffee into the fried rice, at the stinking last step.

so i took the almost perfect fried rice out and dumped it into the animal dish on the kitchen porch, and started over. the new rice wont get  to sit all night, but ill make do. the cats were not impressed.

but in the meantime, the possums and raccoons will have a feast tonight.