what predator am I dealing with

cppeace

Crowing
8 Years
Jul 8, 2014
1,374
2,374
321
Lebanon, Mo
I live in a small town on 3 acres, have lots of neighbors and kept my ducks/geese in my backyard all last summer, fall and winter with no losses. Now spring is here and I've lost entire nests of eggs that the ducks were trying to brood, they've gone into molting and now 3 ducks have vanished. We find no egg shells and no bodies. About 8-10 feet from the yard we found some wet feathers though, but that is all. My best guess is a racoon from what I read but we have smelled a skunk a few times in the past couple weeks. These raids all happened fairly close together, one nest one day, random eggs throughout that week, then second nest dissapeared and then 2 ducks one night and 1 duck the last. I've been locking them up or keeping my shepherd with them since then till I can install hotwire on the fence. It almost 6ft chainlink with chicken wire at the bottom and in the gaps. When it was just eggs I suspected snake, then ducks went missing suspected human but since the 3rd duck has gone and found those few feathers belive I'm dealing with a coon problem. Would appreciate opinions though.
Thanks
 
The missing eggs were probably skunk or opossum.
Those and raccoons aren't likely to carry a bird away. They'll just eat it where it is and leave a lot of residue.
Missing birds is probably a fox, coyote or dog.

A fox can jump a 6' fence with no problem. 'Possums and 'coons can climb most anything.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the info, didn't really consider a fox or two different animals as it was happening in a building pattern.
 
The predators are afoot every night, and sometimes in the day, whether you know it or not.

I'm in the burbs of St. Louis and have had coyotes, fox and mink in my yard in the middle of the day. Those and many other predators every night.

Do you go to Bennett Springs? Ever float the Niangua?
 
almost bought a house with the niangua in the backyard, but just didn't work out. My vehicle isn't currently up to travel much out of the the city limits sadly so no haven't been to Bennett Springs
 
I floated the Niangua a couple times upstream from Bennett. The first time I misjudged the distance and ended up floating till almost midnight. Lots of logjams and I thought I was in trouble but I made it.
 
Have a lot of stray cats in the area so just as likely to catch one of them in a trap outside my fence and inside I'd catch a duck or goose lol, My shepherd and half pyr half st bernard are guarding them for now until I can fix the fence. I know the predator is striking at night because I count them just after dark when I let the dogs out and it's in the morning when they have some go missing.
 
sounds fun , hon. I loved that house with niangua behind it but it was just in a horrible location so had to pass on it.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom