#hardware cloth

[vintage-tech]

One of my biggest hopes in life is that someone did order the "enlarged reproduction free on request" and I find it. 1945

Wickwire-Spencer Steel Company is in shambles today.

[inthecityofgoodabode]

May 2024: More Bees Than You'd Think

Sad news. The cardinal egg hatched but the hatchling fell out of the nest & died:

Our asparagus are ferning. It typically takes asparagus 3 to 4 years before it start producing harvestable spears which means growing it requires patience & an eye on future returns:

This is our third planting of these cucumbers because something(tm) keeps eating them to the stem. I took no half measures this time. I caged them with hardware cloth & applied diatomaceous earth:

Saturday dinner:

[geezerwench]

Oh, look! Nasturtium flowers hidden amongst the foliage! 🏵 And behind the ratwire to keep the rabbits out.

The rabbits have been very bold this season.

[shiftythrifting]

I got the clown light switch for my irl professional clown firend

[hexane-nightmares]

It has been a challenge: how to not be read as male while working at Iconic Hardware Store, given the uniform requires: steel cap boots, apron, red polo shirt, and shorts or pants.

I just realised: there is no restriction on socks.

Very powerful concept: Hardware store uniform, booty shorts, trans flag thigh highs.

[tailoringtay]

I might not be around much, I've been battling computer freezing issues for a month and not making any progress so that's been having me pretty down XD

[sybilius]

Back at it again with some bad fencing efforts

[jensownzoo]

Sometimes you get the greatest things in a haul of food waste to feed your chickens:

This was two bags of fresh English peas from Trader Joe's. Roughly 50% are sprouted, some to the extent of getting ready to put out some leaves.

Now I could have just fed these out as is and the chickens would have been delighted.

However.

I had a disappointing experience with some seed peas var. 'Alaska' earlier this spring where they decided just to rot.

So.

I took what the universe had provided, picked out all the sprouted peas (giving the remainder to the chickens), and planted about 20 feet of commercial English peas. If they taste like ass then they'll go to the chickens. If they're good, then I'll have peas and the chickens will get the pods. Win-win. Assuming, of course, I can keep the wildlife from stealing them before they establish.

[machinegrl]

[cleromancy]

steph: its kind of like that one really unethical experiment with the baby monkeys

tim: ........care to elaborate?

steph: like, cloth mother wire mother. the cloth mother provides comfort--

tim: right, but no sustenance

steph: right. and the wire mother provides sustenance, but no comfort.

tim: with you so far

steph: and then you have the *batman* mother,

[kedreeva]

Hi! I've seen all your lovely posts about your mice and I was wondering if you could help me?

I recently came into possession (they were dumped on me, yay! 🙃) of two baby male mice (both from the same litter), and while I've kept females before, I've never had males.

I've seen online that male mice can sometimes fight as they mature, even litter mates that can't see/smell females, and I'm a bit worried. Do you have any advice about how to avoid them falling out? Or is it just one of those things that might happen?

I'm also unsure of what the best option is when it comes to cage size. I have a smaller cage that's 55x39x29cm and a larger one that's 100x50x37cm. I know that bigger is considered better with most rodents, but again, I'm new to male mice, and I don't know if the larger cage might leave them feeling too exposed?

Thanks

I think a lot of people who raise only a small number of mice don't learn the difference between dominance scuffling and actual fighting, or how to tell if a mouse is actually stressed vs just experiencing an acute stress.

Male mice and even some female mice, will scuffle if a cage is ever completely cleaned. A lot of their social hierarchy is determined by scent and when you eliminate all of the scent from the environment, you wreak havoc on whatever social situation they've established and it must be re-established. This can seem like fighting! It can involve loud squeaking, physical scuffling, chasing, etc. However, social hierarchy scuffles should only last for a day or less. They do not typically draw blood. There shouldn't be tail rattling (no pet mouse should ever be a rattler, any ethical breeder will immediately cull a rattler). If all they are doing is squeaking, chasing, and tumbling about, it will calm down once they have figured out who is boss hog and who isn't, and be fine. Many people freak out about any scuffle and immediately separate because they think it's aggression or actual fighting and then they tell everyone else that male mice always fight. They don't. They can! But if they've been raised together and kept without females, the chance is pretty low.

If it lasts longer than a day or two, if blood is drawn (particularly if it's in more than one spot, or at genital locations, or on the fronts of their forelimbs), if they're popping and then freezing (as opposed to popping and then running about), if they are rattling their tail, that's aggression, not social drama. Those males must be separated, as they will almost certainly fight to the death if left together, and it can happen very quickly because aggressor males are relentless.

The other factor here is stress. Stressed mice are more prone to fighting, and even if they aren't fighting, having perpetually stressed mice is bad (it sometimes cannot be helped. Some mice stress about captivity regardless of any conditions which any ethical breeder should be paying attention to and culling/selecting to eliminate, in order to produce mice that are relaxed in a domestic setting). Heavily urine-soaked equipment is a sign of stress (and despite what some people will tell you it's not normal, they will tell you it's just males marking everything... It's not. If they're marking like this, it's because they're stressed. I work with thousands of mice daily and only some of the males do this, and it's always the ones showing other stress signs too, MOST of the male cages are not urine soaked). Food being chewed into dust. Popping and freezing. Tail rattling can also be a sign of acute stress. Frantic, twitchy motion. Poor coat quality, both in scruffy, dull coats but also over grooming. Sometimes this is just temperament from poor breeding, sometimes it's an environmental factor. This is where enclosure size and equipment can feature.

The "bigger is better" is only sort of true for mice. Most mice don't stress in a small cage as long as they have fresh food and water and a warm nest. That's the life! They have everything they need, they feel safe, they aren't stressing about having enough to eat or where to find water. They are simple prey creatures content to sleep and eat and be safe. Extra enrichment, like wheels, scent enrichment, various chews, climbing devices, alternating hides, treats, etc are all good too!

But what happens when most people increase enclosure size is that they don't also proportionally increase a) hides b) food sources c) water sources. So what you end up with is an enclosure where there's open space (bad, scary, stressful) that they have to cross to get to the one food or water source that may be far from their preferred nest. You can keep a mouse or mice in an enclosure the size of a house, provided you can cram it full of hides/equipment and provide enough feed and water locations that they feel as safe as they did in a cage the size of a shoebox. But people don't, so large enclosures end up being stressful as hell. Either of your enclosure sizes would work fine for your mice, it's just a matter of how much stuff you're going to put in. However much you think is enough when you set it up, add several more things. Then add some more.

As for what you can do, again the biggest factor with mice is scent. Never clean all the equipment at the same time. Never change all the bedding at the same time. If you need to clean the actual cage, pull most of the bedding into a bag, clean the cage itself, and put the bedding back. You can change the bedding a different day. Pick yourself up some ZuPreem fruitblend pellets to scatter around the cage as a forage treat after cage changes; they will be busy looking for those long enough they will often forget to even scuffle. You can get some dried lavender to put in the cage, there was a study done that suggested it has a calming effect, and even if it doesn't, it's good enrichment. Watch for signs of stress, and be prepared to separate if necessary, because you don't know their history or if their breeder cared about anything, but honestly it should be alright.

[thirt13n]

pro tip : if share asks if you want to help her put furniture together YOU SAY NO. LIE IF YOU HAVE TO. it will end badly.

[redreadretale]

Who wears short shorts? We do! Fantastic athletic, classic shorts. In my Poshmark listings.

Use my code to sign up & get $10 credit towards your first purchase from any shop:

REDREADRETALE

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

I kind of want to try making mead or ambrosia 👀

Obviously not right now because I have Shit To Do; but maybe during the summer after I’ve moved

[woundedheartwithin]

Middle of the fucking night, I go to the bathroom and hear my fucking chickens screaming???? Go out to their coop and they’re out in the fully fucking enclosed pen with bloody faces and there are feathers everywhere. They’re okay, thankfully, but Jesus Christ can these fucking predators quit trying to kill my birds?????? I keep them cooped now to keep this from happening and something still tries to eat them like STOP IT. So now they’re in an extra large dog crate in my milk room 😑

[kr1g]

Btw I bought blue hair dye on a whim bc I'm tired of downplaying myself, I'm not appealing to cis het perisex people anyway, but I know there's people out there who think my fat butch dyke self is the pinnacle of eroticism and that's who I want the attention of