Arizona Chickens

[EmmaDonovan]

I noticed I'm getting low on grubs so I checked my Amazon deliveries. I order well before I get low on anything. Amazon says a box of grubs was delivered last week and handed to a resident named "Kug."

I am Emma. My roommate's name is Tina. No one else lives here.



Our cameras record in 24 hour cycles so I can't find out what happened. If a thief intercepted an Amazon box thinking he was getting some expensive goodies and took it home and opened it and found eight pounds of grubs, well, he got what he deserved! Wish I'd been able to see his face when he realized all he got was a box of dried worms.

 

[cavemanrich]

I noticed I'm getting low on grubs so I checked my Amazon deliveries. I order well before I get low on anything. Amazon says a box of grubs was delivered last week and handed to a resident named "Kug."

I am Emma. My roommate's name is Tina. No one else lives here.



Our cameras record in 24 hour cycles so I can't find out what happened. If a thief intercepted an Amazon box thinking he was getting some expensive goodies and took it home and opened it and found eight pounds of grubs, well, he got what he deserved! Wish I'd been able to see his face when he realized all he got was a box of dried worms.

Reminds me of this one.

 

[cavemanrich]

We get items from Amazon, and other online places,, like eBay. They always update expected delivery. Since I'm home during day, I watch for the deliveries to arrive. Never lost any packages yet.
I know theft of MAIL, can get you into Sing Sing , or Folsom . Not sure penalty for Amazon packages carries same penalty.
It should

 

[EmmaDonovan]

This was a third-party shipper, not shipped by Amazon, so there was no notification of a delivery time. I bought it from the Scratch and Peck Feeds Store at Amazon so I figured it'd be shipped by Amazon like the other Scratch and Peck products are, but apparently not.

There's an enormous Amazon sorting center near the Tucson airport. We usually get packages very fast - often the same day - but they're not always shipped by Amazon.

I wish they would tell you in the item listing when it is not shipped by Amazon but maybe they don't always know that ahead of time and it just ships from wherever.

Amazon said since it was a third party shipper they couldn't replace it but they did give me a refund, so there's that.

I mean "Kug?" Really? Is that a Klingon name?

 

[cavemanrich]

but they did give me a refund, so there's that.

 

[City farm]

Hay, ya' all our girls are slow in sharing. But.. we are having a fun event here tomorrow about
Learn your seeds. It is for our non-profit organization and all the Garden Exchange Stands in Arizona.
I have a fun new garden bed that will hang from the wall, inside their run.
We have one event here tomorrow afternoon and one potluck the next Sunday.

Check our website or message me for details. (but message me, would be best)
Freeplantngardenstands.org

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Saw a tiny cactus mouse in the coop via the camera. I went in to catch him but he ran out past me.

I poked around the coop and surprise, surprise: there was a comfy little nest in the bricks the waterer sits on, and in that nest was a second little mouse... a very pregnant little mouse.

I would have simply relocated her but she jumped out from the nest and started taking laps around the coop. All the hens and I tried to grab her as she ran past but she was too fast for us.

Finally she climbed up some hardware cloth and a RIR saw her and grabbed her with her beak. The mouse SCREECHED which startled the RIR and she dropped the mouse. The mouse ran and bounced and serpentined right past me out the door.

Well. Time to do some cleaning. I got rid of the nest, cleaned and reconfigured the bricks, removed most of the pine shavings while checking for any other little critters and replaced it with fresh.

I have a severe mouse allergy so this is not good news. I used gloves and an N95 and still ended up with an asthma attack. I was wearing a long sleeved shirt but there was a little bit of a gap between the sleeves and the gloves and I have a nasty bumpy red rash there.

Cactus mice are tiny (they weigh less than an ounce) and cute but they don't belong in the coop!

 

[EmmaDonovan]

Another cactus mouse in the coop today. There isn't any food there but there is water and it's been extremely dry this fall and winter. I guess that's attracting them, plus protection against predators (unless the hens go after them) and lots of soft feathers to line their burrows.

The skull of the cactus mouse has a zygomatic breadth of 11.2 to 13.5 mm (0.44 to 0.53 in) which translated into English means their heads are often small enough to fit through 1/2" hardware cloth, especially the young ones. If they can get their heads through they can get the rest of their bodies through. I chased this one and and watched him go right through it. I guess we're layering 1/4" hardware cloth over it and setting out some traps tonight.