Snakes

Every summer, I find snakes in the chicken tractors.  So far, the only ones I have seen are black rat snakes.  They're fairly ubiquitous here, and since they're black. in the gloom at the back of the tractor, they're hard to see.  They can be long--three feet or more.

Usually they're  in the grass, and I see them when I move the tractor.  This year, they're proving to be more assertive--and numerous.  I have found two in a tractor on a couple of occasions.  Sometimes they have even been in the nest box.

The one pictured above was in the Delawares' tractor.  The egg at the top left is a ceramic one, but you can see that the snake has eaten a real egg--look for the bulge just behind the S-curve near the head.  I don't know how intimidating this is to hens that are trying to lay, but it is also true that on days I find snakes, I find fewer eggs.  The birds are either holding off or the snake is eating them.   This is obviously sub-optimal from my perspective, although it works out well for the snake.  An egg is an easier food source to exploit than rodents, who have to be caught and killed.  I don't think they pose any danger to adult birds; although they might be able to kill one, the birds are far too large to eat.

However, the roosters have a role to play, and they aren't stepping up.  I have never seen any indication that the roosters care about the snakes.  Earlier this week, a snake slithered out of the tractor when I opened the door, and the rooster, who was nearby, glanced at it and kept walking--he stepped on the snake, in fact, not to try to restrain or attack it, but just because it was in his way.  Another rooster looked at a snake that was slithering away in the grass, but made no aggressive moves. 

Snake sightings seem to be grouped, where I'll find a snake (maybe the same one) in a tractor several times on consecutive days, then no snakes for weeks or months.  It's a fairly low-level problem, but one without an obvious solution.  A tractor will always have potential points of entry that a stationary coop might be able to be proofed against.

 

Putting Up Dry Beans

 As I have mentioned before, beans store best in an oxygen-free environment. Buying beans in bulk may work well to hold down costs.

But they obviously can't be stored in the bag for the amount of time it will take most people to go through them, and storing them in a bucket or tub will still allow them to age while they're being slowly used up. Packing them in mylar is fine, but once they're opened, they will start to age again--and they may have aged while in storage.

Therefore, when I buy a big bag, I pack it in five-pound increments.  Five pounds is about right for a gallon-sized mylar bag.

Some mylar bags have a zip lock, but all can be sealed with a heat source (and it makes sense to seal them on top of zipping them, too).  I use a curling iron (it has to be set on high to adequately melt the mylar for a seal).

A five-gallon bucket will hold about four five-pound bags of beans (maybe five with a little bit of work).  A bucket provides extra protection against pests and damage to the mylar bags while they're in storage (although mice can get through a bucket wall--nothing short of a metal can is truly pest-proof).

 

I don't know how long beans will keep in mylar.  I don't plan to hang onto them for too long before opening them up, but as I've mentioned previously, researchers have found that they seem to keep for up to 32 years and possibly longer.  With rotation, it should be possible to keep the storage time well under that in most circumstances.