lorilynn1
In the Brooder
- Jun 4, 2016
- 7
- 0
- 12
Hey All,
So my husband and I bought a 20 acre fenced ranch in North Texas back in December last year. We decided to start out ranch life with fowl to get a hang of this life style so we got five ducks in April and they have been such a joy to have around. We had four girls and one male who was a mallard. Girls-peaking, khaki, kiauga, and a black and white duck, not sure of her breed. In June we grew our bird family with two baby male turkeys. We had no idea how much personality those guys would have! They were like dogs and loved to sit on our laps and follow us around. Anyhow, so hard to talk to people about our recent loss of most of our flock due to a coyote massacre, most don't get it and think we should have been rising them to eat anyhow... I want to warn anyone out there who isn't real familiar to this ranch life style, like me, that it is now coyote season!! They breed in Jan/Feb and have their pups by end of May. By the end of Aug early Sept the pups are ready to go on hunts with mom. About six weeks ago we heard a pup who got separated from the pack. The ducks were in our back yard and were quacking loudly to let us know something wasn't right. Our two dogs also became alarmed and we all went out back to see what was going on. Didn't see the pup or the mom. Well that was about six weeks ago, should have been a warning that a new clan was in reach of our bird family. Night before last a pack of coyotes came about late dawn, they grabbed our two two month old, fairly large turkeys right off the fence where they perched and sleeping in our front yard. I guess our ducks ran out from the back yard to see what was going on. Three female ducks were still in our fenced backyard quacking loudly to alarm us. We jumped out of bed at 6:3o and look out the window and there were only three ducks yelling. We ran out front and there was our Mallard and black kiagua on the ground with their necks snapped. =( We couldn't find our turkeys at first but after walking up our driveway there was one boy eaten to pieces. We found the second dragged out near the pond in same condition. I'm so heart broken and feel so terrible that I didn't protect our birds better. They stayed in our back yard and front and never went more than a 10 yards of the house. So with this I learned that these guys need to be enclosed completely at night. So just want to let everyone out there to be aware of the coyote threat. =(
So my husband and I bought a 20 acre fenced ranch in North Texas back in December last year. We decided to start out ranch life with fowl to get a hang of this life style so we got five ducks in April and they have been such a joy to have around. We had four girls and one male who was a mallard. Girls-peaking, khaki, kiauga, and a black and white duck, not sure of her breed. In June we grew our bird family with two baby male turkeys. We had no idea how much personality those guys would have! They were like dogs and loved to sit on our laps and follow us around. Anyhow, so hard to talk to people about our recent loss of most of our flock due to a coyote massacre, most don't get it and think we should have been rising them to eat anyhow... I want to warn anyone out there who isn't real familiar to this ranch life style, like me, that it is now coyote season!! They breed in Jan/Feb and have their pups by end of May. By the end of Aug early Sept the pups are ready to go on hunts with mom. About six weeks ago we heard a pup who got separated from the pack. The ducks were in our back yard and were quacking loudly to let us know something wasn't right. Our two dogs also became alarmed and we all went out back to see what was going on. Didn't see the pup or the mom. Well that was about six weeks ago, should have been a warning that a new clan was in reach of our bird family. Night before last a pack of coyotes came about late dawn, they grabbed our two two month old, fairly large turkeys right off the fence where they perched and sleeping in our front yard. I guess our ducks ran out from the back yard to see what was going on. Three female ducks were still in our fenced backyard quacking loudly to alarm us. We jumped out of bed at 6:3o and look out the window and there were only three ducks yelling. We ran out front and there was our Mallard and black kiagua on the ground with their necks snapped. =( We couldn't find our turkeys at first but after walking up our driveway there was one boy eaten to pieces. We found the second dragged out near the pond in same condition. I'm so heart broken and feel so terrible that I didn't protect our birds better. They stayed in our back yard and front and never went more than a 10 yards of the house. So with this I learned that these guys need to be enclosed completely at night. So just want to let everyone out there to be aware of the coyote threat. =(
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