The pecans won't start dropping for another 4 to 6 weeks, but the squirrels are already harvesting.

[Arkansas Granny]

I just hope they leave enough for my holiday baking.

[In_The_Wind]

1. Is that nature's way of saying brace-yourself-it's-going-to-be-a-bad-winter?

[Arkansas Granny]

3. No. It's like this every year. If we have a good crop then we all get pecans,

but they always get theirs first.

[In_The_Wind]

9. Great. Happy baking.

[Paladin]

2. We have a TON of green-husked pecans in our back yard.

They're falling from a tree in the lot behind us. And yes, the squirrels are enthusiastic.

[msongs]

5. will squirrels be full up when the pecans ripen? nice of them to clean up nt

[Niagara]

6. My neighbor has 3 large black walnut trees.

There is family of squirrels that live in a large pine tree in close proximity of the walnut trees. One squirrel in particular will harvest a walnut out of one of the walnut trees, runs with the walnut in his or her mouth in the middle of the street and travels 5-6 houses down to bury it. This squirrel does this daily and multiple times a day.


Yesterday, there were 3 houses that held 3 separate yard sales, so our dead-end street was extremely busy around noon. This squirrel was carrying his walnut in the middle of the street and realized there was a car coming straight at him/her, dropped the walnut in another neighbors driveway apron and got out of the street. He still traveled the 5-6 houses down distance without his/her walnut. I picked up the walnut, walked several houses down while making clicking sounds to get the squirrels attention. Once I go "the look", I tossed the walnut underhand and the squirrel grabbed the walnut and took off.


I like to watch the squirrels, especially during this particular season.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. There are several mature pecan trees in a two block area, so we have lots of squirrels.

I love to watch them run around up in the trees.

[Niagara]

8. +1 Absolutely.

It helps take the stress off of current events by watching the squirrels chase each other around and up and down the trees.

[Rhiannon12866]

13. Awwww! Nice.

[Niagara]

15. Thank you.

I didn't want him or her to get hit in the street.

[Rhiannon12866]

16. I know, I always stop for squirrels

And bunnies, skunks, foxes, deer. I'm always on the lookout for them on my way home. Stopped for a squirrel just yesterday when he was examining some small item in the road. We have a lot of them in my rural NE NY neck-of-the-woods.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. Don't they always take their share first?

[csziggy]

11. That's why I gave up on harvesting my own pecans

When we bought this farm, there were several pecan trees. We got them zinc treated (apparently they bear much better with it) and fertilized them. The first year there were few squirrels here - I don't know if the family that had owned it were squirrel hunters or if the hogs they raised kept the squirrels out. Any way every year since, the squirrels get more nuts than we do.

The worst disappointment was the one tree that seemed to be a papershell variety. The nuts were meatier and easier to crack - but the second year nearly every nut had a small hole and when we picked them up, ants swarmed out.

Anyway now we just let the wildlife have the pecans - and the black walnuts - but since pecans are a big local crop, we have access to them without having to pick them up, crack them and clean the nut meats.

The black walnuts see to produce most years but I've broken two nutcrackers trying to get to the nut meats. We let the squirrels scatter and bury them and now instead of the two old trees that were here when we bought the place, we have dozens of black walnuts coming up all over.

[Arkansas Granny]

12. The pecans I have are not paper shell, but they crack pretty easily with a piston type cracker and

I get mostly halves. We've had enough rain this summer that they should be filled out nice. I pick them up with a wire basket device on a stick so I don't have to bend over.

[csziggy]

14. I had one of those wire baskete things

The year or two we got a good pecan crop it was easier and more productive to take the bags of unshelled pecans to the processing plant in Monticello and trade for shelled pecans. They aren't in business anymore but it just isn't worth it to me to shell out my own - I'll eat them as fast as I get the meat out of the shells.