Predators

Apologies for so many posts. I am attempting to make my site more user friendly, hence all the new pages.

This is a page devoted entirely to predator issues.
Another poultry tragedy
Livestock predators
Livestock predators--update
Well, goodbye ducks 

Predator update

Lusa (my dog) cornered the raccoon last night and it climbed way up in a tree. Ed had to shoot quite a bit to get it, but he got it. Good thing we told the neighbors what was going on or they probably would have thought it was a crime of passion!

Another poultry tragedy

When I  brought down the chickens' bucket of weeds this morning, I discovered another murdered bird. It is really very hard to tell what happened. It looks like it is one of our new birds (thankfully not one of our old birds). So there is one of two scenarios:

a). The old birds have been picking on my new birds. They have areas that they are missing feathers due to the old rooster they were living humping them so much. I didn't think this would be a big deal, but my old birds really do not like that. I thought it was just wounds that chickens will peck at, but they peck at new birds in the flock as well as any large areas of missing feathers. Any time a chicken is bleeding or has a wound the chickens will peck it to death and eat it, most likely so they can deter the smell of fresh blood from predators.

I should remember that I have a hard time introducing new birds in a flock. Many people do it with ease, but I find it to be a violent pain in the ass. Birds are mean to each other, especially if they don't know each other.

But there are signs of struggle in the cage as well as outside.

b). The other scenario: a predator pulled its head through the fencing. The head is gone and the wings are pulled through. There are blood and feathers outside of the cage as well as in. It is possible that a combination of the two happened: the other chickens picked on it, cornered it, and one of the coyotes or something did the rest. I don't know.

Livestock predators -- update

Last night I kept my ears peeled for the predator. I heard something outside our window, near the catfood. I alerted Lusa, and she ran after it, barking her head off. She chased it off into the woods. Lusa started barking again at 2am. Ed let her out, and she chased it around for awhile. Finally she didn't stop barking so Ed went out there with a flashlight. Just as I expected, it was a huge raccoon, and it found shelter underneath our deck. I wonder if it has been living there.

We found an inexpensive trap at one of Ed's favorite man-stores, Harbor Freight. We will try and trap it tonight. I called the county to find out what the requirements are in dealing with them. They referred me to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The person on the phone told me that there is an outbreak of distemper and rabies and the recommendation is to shoot it.

When I think about our sweet little ducks, I don't feel so bad about what we have to do.

The lady also told me that raccoons are native to Oregon, but for some reason their reproductive rates have exploded. She said years ago they used to run around with one or two babies, now she is getting calls with people witnessing momma raccoons with up to twelve babies. Something has changed in the environment to allow the babies to survive.

In the city, she said, raccoons are quite a bit more benign, as they have access to plenty of food source. But in the country they don't have nearly the access to food, and so they will go after livestock.

Livestock predators

Warning, graphic details of animal killings.

We put our turkeys out so they could enjoy the great outdoors. The next morning Ed found them dead. GRRRR! What is eating our livestock?

Well, our last three animal attacks all have similar traits. At first I thought it was our neighbor dog, but now I don't.

When our ducks were killed, they had their necks wrung. And one of ducks had the breast ripped off and missing.

When our duckling was killed, it had been pulled through the chain link fencing, half of its breast and foot ripped off and missing.

And the turkeys: both necks wrung, breasts missing.

All of the killings were at night. I don't think it was during twilight, as the dogs are usually awake enough when the sun is out to bark their head off. But I don't know that for sure.

The fact that the duckling was pulled through the fence tells me it is probably something that hunts with its hands and possibly a thumb. Possibly a coyote snuck up on the duck and pulled it by its feathers with its mouth (I've witnessed my dogs attempting to do this).

And then we have the turkeys. Their fencing wasn't as high as we were going to make it in days to come. It was only about 3 feet tall. So something got in there but couldn't figure out how to take off with the whole animal.

Each time our animals were killed they were mutilated in place. If it were a coyote, or the cougar in the area, I would think the entire animal would be missing. But they weren't. So that tells me it is an animal that is small and possibly cannot carry its prey.

I'm thinking that I am dealing most likely with a raccoon. They are notorious in this area. I had dismissed the idea originally, as the raccoons in our old backyard were no problem. But there probably isn't enough food in this area to keep them so friendly so they have to hunt.

We brought our video cameras from the old house, so we've set up a trap with the old turkey bodies. Well, its not a trap really, but the turkeys are left out and we are recording what happens. Hopefully we will be able to see what is out there.

Well, goodbye ducks

When I went out this morning to check on all our animals, I knew immediately something was amiss when I didn't hear the low "quack quack" sound that my sweet slug eating friends make every time I come near.

Some asshole animal killed them. Found a little opening in my haphazard chicken wire covering and just wrang their necks. Took off with a little bit of breastmeat from the drake, but otherwise just left them whole.

I want to think it was a coyote. But I don't think a coyote would just leave them there. It seems that it would take off with the whole thing. And seems like one of our outdoor cats would have been a more likely target for a coyote. But what do I know.

The other option is that it could have been one of the neighbor's dogs (my dogs, especially my big one, will herd them a bit but otherwise could care less). One dog in particular has killed two of our chickens. We know this because Ed saw the dog leaving our property when they were killed. And that dog just killed the two birds rather than eating them. Unfortunately  it seems that she is the likely culprit.

The bummer is that the neighbor's know that their dog goes after their neighbors' poultry. At first I didn't feel upset when the chickens were killed, as they did warn us that their dog will go after poultry if she knows they are there. And we let our hens out to free range, so it was kind  of our fault as well. And I know dogs have the instinct to do that kind of stuff so I'm understanding. And they were very apologetic when it happened and had been keeping their dog in a crate.

But these were my only pair of these cool animals. They were quiet, shy little creatures. And anytime I threw one of the huuuge slugs in their pen they gobbled it up like candy.

I do have some hatching eggs left, so I will try to hatch them.

So what do I do about the dog? Ask the neighbors if their dog came home last night with blood dripping out of its mouth? Haha. Seriously, though, I feel that I should mention something as I don't want to seem permissive yet I don't want to blame their dog without knowing if it was actually her.

Ugh. I absolutely hate neighbor issues.