Hi from Montana!

[gardengirl]

We don't have chickens anymore and right now we don't have a door on the chicken coupe so I guess they figure it's ok to take up residents in there. I'll work on trying to get a picture.

pic.. pic...pic...

 

[callingcolleen1]

I wish I had fresh chicken eggs to collect, miss my old aunties chicken coop....

 

[mtpond]

Yes I miss having fresh eggs too. I would have chickens still but hubby won't have it. He gripes about my tanks holding us back and now hes gripping about my pond .

 

[mtpond]

We have had bats up here for a long time. Before I had my pond they would fly over the deck when we had the light on. After I put in the pond you would see them flying over the pond. I bought a bat house and for two years I never had any occupants. Hubby notice about two weeks ago something flying by the computer room. He went and looked in the bat house and came in and said we had a bat in the house. Love the bats. Not sure what kind I have but a brown bat can eat 1200 mosquitoes an hour.

 

[callingcolleen1]

We have lots of bats too and when we sit down outside on the front step we see them flying about inbetween the trees and stuff. They are fascinating to watch them hunt by radar.

My hubby would complain non stop if I got rid of my fish tanks, never would we every consider the pond a burden and tying us down, but then we don't have a big sailboat and we rarely travel away from home either. Traveling is nice to enjoy as well, but I am a "homebody" and hate the thought of leaving the house or my puppies, or the ponds. Maybe someday we will change our minds, but somehow I doubt it. When my hubby got sick and was in the hospital, I set up more fish tanks for him as he enjoys them and loves to feed the fish. I am the one who was going to get rid of the fish tanks before he got sick, funny how things can change.

 

[j.w]

We are painting our house and when taking the chimney piece off the top of our wooden chimney chase a bat came flying out. Guess he made a home in there as there was evidence of his residue inside. We had to plug up the hole where he got in as too much doo buildup is not good inside there. He will have to find another place to live,sorry Mr or Mrs bat. Guess we need to get a bat box as I see them flying around out here at dusk.

 

[Big Lou]

We are painting our house and when taking the chimney piece off the top of our wooden chimney chase a bat came flying out. Guess he made a home in there as there was evidence of his residue inside. We had to plug up the hole where he got in as too much doo buildup is not good inside there. He will have to find another place to live,sorry Mr or Mrs bat. Guess we need to get a bat box as I see them flying around out here at dusk.

Oh no! Is your "chimney piece" something like this http://www.lowes.com/pd_127455-82862-CBO1818_4294639579__?productId=3615762&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo=

We had one put on our chimney after the great "cat chases bird who flew down the chimney" event. We will never forget that crazy scene.

 

[j.w]

Ours is something like this and then there is this big flat piece of rectangle sheeting thing that fits over the wooden structure that goes around to protect the pipe from the house and the cap fits on top of the pipe coming through that sheeting. In between the wooden structure and the pipe is where the bat came from. He didn't fall down the chimney pipe. Birds have fallen down the pipe tho as there is no screen protection around the cap. I opened the door of the wood stove and the bird flew out and around the rooms...........................yikes the cats were in the house and I grabbed them and put them in another room and proceeded to herd the bird out the door. I agree Lou it was quite the fiasco!

Screen can cause creosote buildup tho so think that is why we don't have it on there.

 

[Big Lou]

Continued luck with those bats as there could be a vampire among them. Just think, you and hubby could star in the next hit reality show "Mr. & Mrs.Vampire".

 

[j.w]

I do hear now and then about a bat being rabid. Guess you don't want to go touching them, just look at them from a distance. They are kind of like flying rats. Good they eat the skeeters tho.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I do like my steaks very,very rare

 

[mtpond]

I'm a homebody too. I do like to go but I worry about leaving things until we get out of town. We have to put the dogs in a kennel and then get someone to come up and take care of the tanks, and now the pond. Needless to say my hubby went a couple times a year over to Seattle and sailed(raced) with out me. Don't much like to race, like to cruise. We use belong to a place at the another end of the lake and I liked it a lot better. There was about 5 small islands that you could anchor close to for the night and we could take the dogs. Just like camping but on the lake!

 

[CountryEscape]

I love bats, but have not yet seen one where I live. Wish they would take up residence in the barns. I have a bat house, but no takers yet. I think saying rats have rabies is the same as saying raccoons, opossums, and any other wild animal could. Our dogs can get rabies, too. Not sure bats are really that more prone to getting rabies, or if it was some grand parents trying to keep kids away from them. :blueflower:
I am very fortunate to have kids in the "neighborhood" (in the country your "neighbor may live 5 miles away!) that come and do my "chores" for me when I go on vacation. I have 2 ponds, 3 dogs, 1 inside cat, 3 outside cats, 2 horses and a mule, and in the summertime, lots of hanging baskets of flowers that have to be watered daily. I pay a whopping $20 per day, which really adds up on vacation costs, but when you think boarding 2 dogs would cost that, I'm really getting off cheap! They love it, as all that they do doesn't take anywhere near an hour. So, $20/hr is pretty good money for them!

 

[callingcolleen1]

I have to drive to the river with the puppies on the outskirts of town to let them run free and wild. Nice to have wide open spaces.
CE maybe you don't have enough big old trees and wooded areas to attract the bats. I see the bats around here and in the flats area lots cause there is lots of big old trees I think.

 

[gardengirl]

We had bats in our house . They would come and go out the vent at the end of our house. It was ok the first year then the next year they had multiplied and it was a little scary. We had to put screening over the opening so they couldn't get in. They still live nearby because I see them every nite when im out with the dogs. They don't eat all the skeeters because I still get bit when im out. They used to fly at me when I would go get sunday paper from mailbox. Just a little scary!

 

[addy1]

We have bats, I see them in the evening. No mosquitoes, think all the pond life eats any that manage to hatch and grow.