3 banditos showed up outside the run last night

[baronrenfrew]

That being said; I am happy to live on a place where chemicals have never been sprayed and the falcons are welcome. Even the coyotes calling on a run, with the pups yipping their high voices, adds to the fun of living here. (Again they keep their distance...so far. To the south west is a big chunk of forest with houses on an outside ring, and the northwest another big chunk of forest. Deer are less numerous than they were, but i'm not a deer hunter (plus three big bucks with big racks were in the neighbours field last fall (after the season of course)). Plus the yotes seem to keep the coons and beavers in check. Yes less grouse but less coons: its a trade off I can live with.

[Killerbunny]

We have a "not a bobcat" here and a kitten was seen last year. It really keeps to dawn and dusk and keeps the rodent population down.

[windwalkingwolf]

I can see both sides of the coin, Robbie, and I hate killing ANYTHING, even mosquitoes, because they feed bats and dragonflies and I like bats and dragonflies lol. But, a few years ago, I joined the 'dark side' when it comes to raccoons. Here's my 'middle side' of the coin lol.
When I first decided to get back into chickens, and finally had enough land to keep more than a handful, I bought a dozen layer chicks, a dozen pekin ducklings, and a dozen meat turkey poults. I built what I thought was a predator proof, multi-sectioned coop, but unfortunately, said coop wasn't stupid-proof, and one night when they were about 7 weeks old, I forgot to close one of the windows. It was screened with metal screening (I didn't even know about hardware cloth at the time), and that very night a single raccoon went through the screen like it wasn't even there, and proceeded to pull apart every bird in the place except a single untouched duck. Wings, legs, heads ripped off, guts pulled everywhere, some gnawed on, most not. BUT, that was MY fault--I built a coop in a natural clearing in the middle of a forest, so in my mind I was encroaching on the coon's territory and just hadn't done enough to protect my birds. I thought it strange that they would do such a thing while surrounded by so much food, frogs, turtles, mice, bugs, but that thought was put on the back burner for a while, and I never left a window open again unless covered in something raccoons couldn't pull apart (though I've observed several ganging up to try). Fast forward a year or two later. I'm hypervigilant about animals while driving at night, always scanning for things out of the ordinary and/or eyeshine from animals, because I refuse to swerve and would just rather stop safely if I can, and hate hitting them if I can't. Husband has hit enough deer to make me nervous lol. I see a lump in the road ahead, and several little shiny points. and slow to a stop in front of a freshly killed mother coon with three tiny kits surrounding her. Maybe the size of my outstretched hand. The scene in front of me confused me...the kits were silent, looking at me and then going back to the grisly scene in front of them, and at first I thought the poor things were nursing from their dead mother...but something about the dead coon didn't jive with other roadkill I'd seen. I had no doubt she'd been run down, but something was off about the pattern of the blood and entrails. I got out and the tiny kits went to the shoulder and watched. Big, healthy, sleek, nursing mama coon, catastrophic head injury, still hot, deliberately disemboweled. They had been eating her. I went back to my car and kits went back to their grisly deed. At that point, something clicked in my head and I briefly considered backing up 1 km or so and then flooring it. Since that time, I've had them pass through a hundred acres of field corn to ravage my sweet corn, I've had them leave a flock of ducks alone just so they could go after the one sitting on eggs, and I've had them pull birds (or more accurately, PARTS of birds) through fencing, just for fun, and leave the part they grabbed untouched. They've passed by a kitchen scrap bucket with meat trimmings in it, just to rip the skin off a live animal trying to drag it up a tree.
It's now MY yard, not theirs, and they have no place in it. My poultry are my food, they have LOTS of their own, and have no right anywhere near my food. It's not that we're encroaching on their territory, it's that they really have no boundaries, and the more people think they are cute, harmless little critters, the better they eat. The better they eat, the more they breed. To me, now, a raccoon dead is 100 chickens saved. I can only check for holes in my security so many times (if there aren't any, raccoons will eventually make some) before it wears, or I forget. And, time is money, or sleep I'm not getting, or another job that needs done. Now, with the new place, all the animals are housed in an old barn that's impossible to raccoon proof unless I cover the whole thing in steel, so now I count on my dog, my trap, my own vigilance and I know it's not enough, as I've seen fresh coon poo in the loft. So it's time for the raccoon to go, and I don't mean safely into the woods. It's still not easy for me to kill a raccoon. I fight with myself over it every time. But there really isn't a better option.

[ross]

[baronrenfrew]

A lady moved into an apartment in Toronto, 3rd floor with a balcony. She thought it was strange that there was a big heavy bar securing the balcony door. So she decided it wasn't necessary and left it off. At 2am she woke up to noises in the kitchen. She turns on the hall light, puts on her housecoat, and walks to the kitchen to find the fridge open and food pulled out, her garbage strewn about, and the balcony door open. Raccoons! The buggers! So she closes the door, puts the bar across, and goes back to bed as she'd clean the mess in the morn. Not 5 mins after she's in bed the noise starts again. ??? She closed the door! She flicks on the light and heads back out. The fridge is open again and the balcony door is closed! 5 raccoons were hiding in the cupboards. She chased them out with a broom.
The next night, 2am, bang....bang....bang... A big raccoon was running at the door and hitting it like a fullback trying to break it open.
The most popular .22 bullets sold in Ottawa are subsonic (slower than the speed of sound)...hmmmm...slightly slower and much quieter than regular bullets....and inside city limits....hmmmm

[thegawd]

we suffered our worst loss so far last night. 28 dead with 7 surviving extremely beat up and disfigured birds. beaks missing, brains exposed, a few had there crops removed, most were wasted. thats a total of 35 birds, almost all reds, 2 were poults. im so glad my red foundation birds are very securely locked up!

coon tracks all around the pond n in the laneway. plus were missing one of the kittens. :-( Its a very sad day.

the trap has been moved and freshly baited. and well its guna be a late night for me, I sure hope I get the bastard!

if you want to know what 35 dead birds looks like, its an overflowing wheel barrow. BS!!!

Now my mind on them has changed... the only good coon is a dead one. Im hunting them this year!!!

[thegawd]

well guess what... right after I posted Brena our black lab chased it right out in front on me and it met a 3 inch 12 gauge turkey load! GOOD DOG!!!!! I was rolling around on the ground with her telling her how much of a good dog she is, all teary eyed and so friggin happy!

[ross]

Amazing how the stomach turns isn't it & the utter "hell" those prey as someone called them went thru still alive while crops & heads being ripped off & devoured . Yep predators eat prey but we as keepers protect as best we can . Luck Al . Check loft of that old barn probably sleeping there . Luck PS I springle spray lime round my pens & barn burns feet & keeps um at bay .

[ross]

Good stuff man GOOD DOG BRENA . Extra treat . Not sick either good fur for this time of year . luck

[poultry_admin]

Yay. On getting it.

Sorry for all the lost birds!