Florida Bullfrog
Crowing
… for every one you see, there’s a bunch you don’t. You see and kill one at the time, only for more to pop up. But not because new ones are moving in, but because the infestation was already there and hidden.
Here’s what I got: a half acre electric paddock down in a heavily wooded part of my property. About a bit more than half of it is food plot and meadow. The rest is thick woods. Typical Florida brush. Oaks and pines with palmettos and gallberries in the understory. The paddock has been established with electric fence for about a year. I am using Premier 1, 4 foot poultry net. I have rotated chickens in and out of it. There is a deer feeder in the middle of it. Since the last chicken rotation I threw up a crude roosting house to encourage chickens to roost in it and not the trees. When they roost in the trees they often fly down over the net at daylight. The pic below will give you a rough idea what it looks like if you look close.
Likely several weeks ago, after I rotated the last chickens out of it, a limb fell on the far end of the paddock and shorted out the net and left a large area for varmints to ingress and egress. I didn’t find it until last week, not paying mind to the paddock since no chickens were in it.
I’m getting to move my “terrorfowl” to the paddock (oriental gamefowl crosses). I decided to run a live trap and a trail camera in the paddock to see if any varmints moved in. Sure enough, I got two coons and a possum on camera.
I decided to hunt the varmints with a high powered air rifle. Pics show how the paddock is laid out.
You can see the net, the open grass, and the thickness of the woods. I killed two coons that night. Didn’t see the possum. I figured that I’d trap the possum out and that would be the end of the varmint problem. I let the paddock sit quiet a couple of days then armed the trail camera and the live trap.
Yesterday I trapped a third coon. That surprised me that there was a third coon. Then last night I got a fourth coon on camera. No sign of the possum.
Its not impossible that the varmints are crossing in and out of the paddock, but I don’t think they are. I think an entire group of coons and at least one possum got trapped behind the net when I fixed the net. But I’ve seen no more than 2 coons at a time, when in fact at least 2 more have been present. As well as a possum that has barely showed itself. All in a small, closed, system.
This is going to slow down my plans for moving the terrorfowl in, as I’m going to let the camera and traps soak a long time with no activity before I trust the paddock is varmint free. But I figured this could be useful info when considering just how many varmints can be hidden in a wood lot or around a farm. The one you see on trail camera that seems to come and go all night might actually be several similar individuals that are foraging minutes or hours behind the previous one.
Here’s what I got: a half acre electric paddock down in a heavily wooded part of my property. About a bit more than half of it is food plot and meadow. The rest is thick woods. Typical Florida brush. Oaks and pines with palmettos and gallberries in the understory. The paddock has been established with electric fence for about a year. I am using Premier 1, 4 foot poultry net. I have rotated chickens in and out of it. There is a deer feeder in the middle of it. Since the last chicken rotation I threw up a crude roosting house to encourage chickens to roost in it and not the trees. When they roost in the trees they often fly down over the net at daylight. The pic below will give you a rough idea what it looks like if you look close.
Likely several weeks ago, after I rotated the last chickens out of it, a limb fell on the far end of the paddock and shorted out the net and left a large area for varmints to ingress and egress. I didn’t find it until last week, not paying mind to the paddock since no chickens were in it.
I’m getting to move my “terrorfowl” to the paddock (oriental gamefowl crosses). I decided to run a live trap and a trail camera in the paddock to see if any varmints moved in. Sure enough, I got two coons and a possum on camera.
I decided to hunt the varmints with a high powered air rifle. Pics show how the paddock is laid out.
You can see the net, the open grass, and the thickness of the woods. I killed two coons that night. Didn’t see the possum. I figured that I’d trap the possum out and that would be the end of the varmint problem. I let the paddock sit quiet a couple of days then armed the trail camera and the live trap.
Yesterday I trapped a third coon. That surprised me that there was a third coon. Then last night I got a fourth coon on camera. No sign of the possum.
Its not impossible that the varmints are crossing in and out of the paddock, but I don’t think they are. I think an entire group of coons and at least one possum got trapped behind the net when I fixed the net. But I’ve seen no more than 2 coons at a time, when in fact at least 2 more have been present. As well as a possum that has barely showed itself. All in a small, closed, system.
This is going to slow down my plans for moving the terrorfowl in, as I’m going to let the camera and traps soak a long time with no activity before I trust the paddock is varmint free. But I figured this could be useful info when considering just how many varmints can be hidden in a wood lot or around a farm. The one you see on trail camera that seems to come and go all night might actually be several similar individuals that are foraging minutes or hours behind the previous one.
