2019 Spring Ducklings are here!

[quackiemama]

OK i vow: No more predator jokes ever !!!

Really sad news today:

During the last days i had noticed that something was scratching the food-bags open in the storage, so i decided to set up a Racoon-trap. Unfortunately Rural King was out of Racoon-traps (the advertised as well as the standard-priced), so we had to drive further to TSC and came back home late…
When i walked out of the garage i heart the ducks screaming, dropped the trap and ran around the house only to see a big black Racoon running away with one of the Buff-Orpingtons.
Grabbed the shovel and pursued, but did not stand a chance…
Most terrible, i heart that poor little duck screaming in the woods before everything went silent.
Now i feel like an IDIOT because of my predator-joke from yesterday.

For tonight i covered the chicken-wire of the duck-house with tarps to keep the ducks away and hooked up my 10kV neon-transformer. If the 'coon comes back it is in for a deadly surprise.
Also the newly bought trap is set and if it is stupid enough to go for the apple inside it will become the first customer of my newly founded business: »Frank's Fatal Free-Diving School« -Death-penalty for duck-murder!

OMG I am so sorry to hear that. I have been having nightmares about Raccoons since that our main threat here.

 

[FluffTheDuck]

Yep same here. I have to go to Dallas for the week and I hope I don't come back home to more snow!

The only time I've been in Texas is when I went to visit my family

 

[FluffTheDuck]

Whenever I have nightmares it's about losing my ducks to coyotes or dogs (which I have nightmares at least once a week.) it's so awful because my brain knows I LOVE THOSE DUCKS!

So sorry for your loss

 

[quackiemama]

I actually had to shoot a rabid coon myself last year while the hubs was out of town. I was on the towpath walking along the river in the middle of nowhere by myself when I heard this strange noise and this sucker came running at me. And it was fast. Fortunately I carry as well since I am in the deep woods by myself. Plus I watch way too many crime shows and get paranoid. LOL. Anyway, I hope you catch each and every coon you have hanging around. That horrifies me.

 

[Magnolia Ducks]

I also meant to say so sorry. So much work and attachment. Sorry you had to see and hear that. Funny but my Buffs were always the most susceptible to predators.

 

[CrystaBub]

Ohhhhhh WBHB I'm so so sorry! How did it get in????

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

heeey hoo heeey hooo napolitiy papily pooplily fake Italian speakin. Duck you is not allowd you have to say poop you. What do you think all my 'poops' meant besides having an irregular bowel syndrome?

Due to this forum I learned that some 'cheeky' predators aks for it themselves. I don't have none. I have 40 stray cats roaming. But only 1 is a poopy that asks to be shot. Sorry but not sorry 39 other cats behaved.

You're wrong: This is the Duck forum! Here you can say things like "duck it" or "what the duck?" The forum's name alone implies the allowance…

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Sorry to tell you,but it may not be the same one. If you have one raccoon you have dozens. I caught one every couple of days for a while, then dispatched some. They just keep coming. The only thing I found effective is secure housing. this is the only predator that I have not had daytime problems with. They still come and have climbed the stall looking for a way in when I put the new ducklings out. No one has gotten in since I fortified after I realized I could neither trap nor shoot my way out. Is your wife a citizen? Could she buy the gun for you?

I am pretty sure it is the same racoon. That 'coon is very very black, i have not seen a racoon that dark - not that i have seen a lot of 'em, but the night's before trash-pick-up day in Houston the streets were crawling with them…
And if the keep coming, i will have plenty of new customers for my free-diving school. My pond is large and deep…
My wife is a Romanian citizen, same stupid paperwork applies to her. Legally we can own firearms, practically it is too much paperwork for the stores… (Fun fact: I could buy a tank with a working cannon today and would just have to register it at the ATF. Bureaucrats!)
But owning a gun is one thing: I know on which side the bullets leave the rifle and that you need to pull the trigger but that's about it! I never shot a real gun, only pellet guns and i hit everything but the target, in fact the safest place to be may be behind the target if i am the shooter!
And that paperwork will take ages and i need a quick solution for that problem coon, so the trap and the free-diving school is it for now.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Oh gosh @WannaBeHillBilly that is terrible so sorry . I thought you had the coop good and predator proof now or were they outside still?

Its the truth if you have one coon you have many. And this time of year they will begin to need to feed kits.
Only thing that helped us here is a rabies epidemic about 10 yrs ago It did a good job of wiping out a good portion of the population. But they are making a come back. So if you catch one in your trap do not handle it with out gloves just in case they are big carriers of rabies. Foxes and coyotes too.

As said: We were late and they were still outside. I feel so guilty! The coop is as safe as chicken-wire can be - plus a 10kV neon-transformer…
Yes rabies is one other thing i am afraid of when i comes to foxes and 'coons. There is still no cure for rabies available. If you're beyond a certain stage you're a living dead and death won't come easy with that virus. Another reason to permanently trap and dispose.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

This is excellent advice. Rabies is nothing to mess around with as it is certain death if you don't get prophylactic treatment. If you are ever bitten or scratched, you must have the animal tested immediately. If you can't have the animal tested, get the shots. The only exemption from this rule that I know is opossum. They can not get rabies.

I actually am vaccinated against rabies. As a teenager i was working in the woods in Germany during a time when rabies was decimating the foxes . No clue how long that vaccination will last, must call my doctor.