Risa Sibbitt

great new thoughts. never thought of a roof! they already climb our apple trees so even though a platform could work, it has to be something they can't climb. hhhmmm. will look into the joules and aluminum foil/peanut butter also.
thanks!

Can anyone help explain how to keep bears away from the beehives?

I live in northern Montana and bears frequent my property every october and november. We lost bees this year randomly in the summer (they just left and/or died), but had they lived, the bears would have gotten them as the bears found the empty hives this fall. We already have a double fence 5 feet tall around 2 sides and electric fence around the other 2 sides, but the bear just barreled its way through.  

Any ideas helpful or we may have to nix the bees idea. Thanks.

So we just bought 8 baby chicks. We plan to put them in the coop in a few weeks when they are bigger, and have one adult chicken left (post bear encounter). Is it safe to put the baby chicks in with the adult and lock them all in the coop for a week to acclimatize the babies to the coop, or will the adult hurt the little ones? The adult is about 1.5 years old I think and still laying eggs. Thanks.

it IS the stink bug!! thanks!!! now i can do some research to see if they are harmful. most appreciated.

we had a horrible douglas fir infestation from some insect last summer and many big trees died near the house. we started losing some spruce tops as well, but used an insect killer on the trees before it was too late. now i am bringing in firewood and this insect keeps showing up in the house. is this the same beetle that is killing the trees? i'm pretty sure it's from the woodpile. I'm trying to figure out if i should let it live outside or if it will go on to damage more trees. Thanks in advance.

do you know if it's common to produce all the flowers before the leaves? That was a first for me.

We planted a 7 gallon spruce tree this May and it had been doing well until the last 3 or 4 days. We water every 6 days for 20-30 minutes with a slow flow hose. It gets a ton of sun, and we have had basically no rain this spring and record breaking temps this summer in Montana. But 4 out of 6 of the same trees we planted are doing well, and they are planted in a line on the top of a bank above a private dirt road. No one has added herbicides, and there doesn't seem to be insect infestation (although insects are killing our much older douglas fir nearby with a top-down death as well.)

Is this one dying, as you can see from the wilting new sprigs on the top and can we save it? If so, how? Should we be watering more? As of now, temps are in the 80's day/50's night, but do go into the 90's at times.

Thanks in advance!

So our apricot tree bloomed early this year in zone 3 of montana. A ton of beautiful flowers in May. BUT NO LEAVES THEN. then all the flowers died and it looked like a dead tree, then the tree grew leaves in June. I don't see any fruit. We didn't get fruit last year either. 3 years ago, we received a lot of fruit and it's a mature tree.

Will we ever get fruit? Is this a common thing?
June is our wettest month and we did not even get an inch of rain this june. We also had record breaking heat of 103. Are all these factors? We don't water except for rain/ground water.
Thanks in advance

thanks. will consider feeding to chickens. read they might be poisonous. doing more research. damn caterpillars!

can you feed tent caterpillars to chickens? i'm reading mixed things on the internet. yes vs poisonous vs they won't eat them. not sure what to do. thanks.