Alternatives to Bullets

[slingshotandLAR]

From my experiences with raccoons, they are a fool me once animal, especially as they get older... If the trap fails the first time, if they see another get caught, or have other experience with traps they become VERY suspicious of traps...

Skunks have horrible vision (they literally can only see a few feet in front of them) but they have a great sense of smell so they are easy to trap, as they mostly ignore visual changes in the surrounding aka the trap all the sudden appearing...

Best way to catch coons is a dog proof trap....

But if you only have A live trap you need a good one, the cheap ones fail so buy one once. With trap smart coons the best way to catch them is make a tunnel, a dark hole to crawl into. Pin the trap between buildings or garage cans so there is only one way in and they cannot approach from the back, they don't realize they are in the trap until it's too late.

 

[enola]

What about the losses when the new preds come into the territory?    Doesn't make sense to me to find 10 dead and missing and then shoot a fox and trap 3 coons...and in 8 months find another bunch missing and shoot another fox and trap another coon.    

Plus, we need these to keep real pests at bay.

Predator proof one way or another and eliminate any predator losses.  Chickens aren't "nature" here in the U.S.

I was simply answering what S S S stands for, so maybe someone else your question........

 

[CrazyTalk]

. You can with your big human brain electrify anything and everything for well under $100. Then you don't have to worry at all. The wildlife is trained very quickly. Once and done, they don't come nosing anymore. Your chickens BITE! ouch.

The best part about this is that the fox that you shocked the crap out of will still hold territory - it'll keep other foxes from coming around,


Trapping just raises pest/prey species numbers, which attracts in more predators.

 

[alibabba]

From my experiences with raccoons, they are a fool me once animal, especially as they get older... If the trap fails the first time, if they see another get caught, or have other experience with traps they become VERY suspicious of traps...

Skunks have horrible vision (they literally can only see a few feet in front of them) but they have a great sense of smell so they are easy to trap, as they mostly ignore visual changes in the surrounding aka the trap all the sudden appearing...

Skunks and Opossums really not even a threat if you lock the coop or have electric.

 

[alibabba]

The best part about this is that the fox that you shocked the crap out of will still hold territory - it'll keep other foxes from coming around,


Trapping just raises pest/prey species numbers, which attracts in more predators.

YES !!!! Clear as Crystal isn't it with animal behavior...? I like my trained predators hanging around.

They don't come to see the chicken stash and come leaping over a fence...they come and sniff around, looking at whatcha got and how to get in...the sneaky not visible way. zapparoo. The real beauty is that they don't think or problem solve that like people would...oh if I climb over here or dig under there...nope. They just go away... in fact, from the videos I have seen and the sounds I have heard in the night, they can not get away fast enough!

 

[MeepBeep]

Skunks and Opossums really not even a threat if you lock the coop or have electric.

They very much a 'threat' to me when they decide to setup house in my barn...

Possums chew on everything, they can cause huge amounts of damage in a short time...

Skunks, well who wants to walk in their barn and be met at that the door by a family of skunks? Not, I... Nor do I want to go out there and find they were startled and sprayed in the barn...

And they both raid any feed supplies...

I had to deal with both possums and skunks this year in my barn not that I would waste my money on electric but it wouldn't work anyway as the barn is open 24/7 to allow the goats and llamas free access to shelter when they choose...

My dogs share the coop with the chickens so their presence is enough to keep most things out of the coop, that and my coop is a full blown building, not a little stand alone structure...

 

[alibabba]

great video....grizzly electric fence video....hope I'm preaching to the choir at this point.


Here is a video just because I am that diplomatic where the bear does breach the electric...this is an extreme situation and a really easy set up...

http://nypost.com/2015/02/02/bear-outsmarts-electric-fence-to-get-deer/


And that you can use critical thinking for proper application to chicken keeping and other predators.

 

[alibabba]

They very much a 'threat' to me when they decide to setup house in my barn...

Possums chew on everything, they can cause huge amounts of damage in a short time...

Skunks, well who wants to walk in their barn and be met at that the door by a family of skunks? Not, I... Nor do I want to go out there and find they were startled and sprayed in the barn...

And they both raid any feed supplies...

I had to deal with both possums and skunks this year in my barn not that I would waste my money on electric but it wouldn't work anyway as the barn is open 24/7 to allow the goats and llamas free access to shelter when they choose...

My dogs share the coop with the chickens so their presence is enough to keep most things out of the coop, that and my coop is a full blown building, not a little stand alone structure...

Possums don't chew into something, they don't dig. It's others handiwork that they take advantage of to get into a space, attic...etc. Block them out. Do skunks typically inhabit the barn? I would think that would be a rare, rare encounter. Esp with those big critters around and the dogs.

This info is for folks who need predator protection, don't have dogs in the coop or llamas.

 

[alibabba]

There will always be those that refuse to kill predators, and those that will kill them, it's a no win argument...

For me if any predator decides to hunt my livestock they will in turn become the hunted... The predator that keeps their distance keeps their life... It's a natural course of nature...

That was not the question. and again, not nature. It can't be explained to indigenous wildlife, unfair.

 

[MeepBeep]

Possums don't chew into something

They do in fact chew thing... There were damaging my feed containers, caught them red handed chewing away at the containers trying to gain access...

Do skunks typically inhabit the barn?  I would think that would be a rare, rare encounter.

A pair tried this year, they are no longer with us so I know they won't be back... Only time will tell if it's a 'rare' occurrence...

Esp with those big critters around and the dogs.

The skunks and possums had no problems with the llamas and goats in the barn, the dogs don't have access to the barn as the llamas have zero K9 tolerance, and only tolerate the dogs when there is a fence and about 10 feet between them...

This info is for folks who need predator protection, don't have dogs in the coop or llamas.  

The topic of the thread is alternatives to bullets for predator protection, why are you suggesting llamas and dogs are not an alternative predator protection? That entire reason I have llamas is for coyote protection for my goats and they have done a fine job... And many people use dogs to guard poultry, in fact there are breeds that were bred for just that purpose...