|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Predators!
At one time or another we all are going to have some type of predator. This page is devoted to finding solutions to the threats they pose.
August 3, 2003 Paradise, Texas
For several days something has been raiding the keet cages at night pulling heads off while leaving the bodies inside the cage. Raccoons, skunks and cats have been discussed. Keets were removed from the cages with larger wire (allowing the heads to poke through) Killing stopped. Two days later traps were set to be sure since neighbors are catching raccoons nearly every night. The following pictures were taken the morning after.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The first picture is of the now empty cage we put our outdoor cat in so it would not get caught in our baited trap. From what we saw, the cat looked as if it was bait. The next two pictures are of the welded wire cage that got bashed in. As you can see the cage is up several feet off the ground so we felt this was not a small cat or dog. The cage on the ground was baited. It has been flipped over and all the bait gone. Something had to go inside to get the bait but was not caught. It must have been too long and the trap did not close on it. The next pictures are of tracks we found on the opposite side of the barn where I have my peafowl housed. Nothing was disturbed there but these and many more tracks were all along the wall of their pen. The cat was found later in the day, safe and sound. :)
My husband and neighbor went and bought a larger cage and set it tonight, along with the one pictured here. This cage is just under the size you would use for a coyote. That is the largest one they had today. I will be up at dawn to see what happen during the night. I also raked smooth the dirt floor where the tracks were this morning. If something comes again we will have clearer tracks. Panthers have been sited in the area before. Dogs, big cats, coyotes, raccoons, skunks and who know what else is possible.
August 4, 2003
Traps bagged a stray cat. There was an armadillo relocated and one possum sited. The BIG CAGE BASHER did not show up last night. We will try again.
August 5, 2003
One less possum to bother my birds. This could have be the head-eater. Possum was relocated. Nothing else caught or any new tracks.
My husband has spent the past two days building. Are we ready now??? Actually this is a transport cage for hauling hogs that have been caught. This might be what we go to next.
 |
 |
 |
 |
August 6th.....empty traps.
The cage basher has not returned so for now....the traps are not being set.
This was checked in Missouri August 12th 2003
This mountain lion, cougar, panther is just what we were thinking we might have. We were expecting a small young cat.
From: "Robert Plamondon"
Newsgroups: sci.agriculture.poultry
"Jay"
news:1061837335.24396.0@damia.uk.clara.net...
I came across low electric fences for chickens in a magazine from around 1960,
talking about how Arbor Acres (which still kept its pullet flocks on range)
stopped predation and kept the chickens reasonably well confined with a single
strand of wire 4-6"off the ground. I came away convinced that this would
work against raccoons, but not against coyotes.
It *did* work against raccoons, and I quickly learned that it worked
against dogs, too! The local dogs are tremendously frightened of electric
fences, much more so than chickens or goats, for instance. Once shocked, they
won't come near it. Later I learned that it worked against coyotes, too. I once
witnessed a coyote, in hot pursuit of a chicken, suddenly screech to a stop to
avoid a fence that it could easily have jumped, and possibly simply stepped over
if it was careful how it placed its feet.
I suspect that starving predators will bull their way right through these
fences, but there is another trick to discourage them. If, once in a while, you
take a dead chicken and wire it to your perimeter fence, any passing scavengers
will get zapped when they come to sniff it, and will come away convinced that
chickens taste REALLY bad! This is, after all, the same kind of learning
experience that causes predators to avoid skunks, toads, and porcupines. Use
whole dead chickens, not pieces, so the predators make the connection to the
living bird.
-- Robert
Helpful links
(HOME)
visit Chic'n Chatter message board to discuss this and other topics
