Bad News

[1MrsMagoo]

First, I am really sorry for your loss. It stinks when something sneaks in and hurts, takes, or kills our birds. I lost one of my favorite Pekins to a fox a few weeks ago: She was sitting in the pasture sunning herself one minute and a few minutes later I heard a ruckus, went to check and all that was left was a pile of white feathers. I followed them into the woods, but lost the trail. The fox had found a break in my fence that I didn't know was there. So, now I walk the fences twice a week without fail to check for breaks or signs of digging.

If you have the room you may consider getting a goose to keep with your ducks: I have 16 of them (they alerted me to the fox invasion). If the noise the ducks make doesn't wake you, I guarantee the noise from a goose would. Also, a lone raccoon would have a really hard time taking down a large breed goose. It sounds like you possibly have a mother with young on your hands (teaching them to hunt). A pack of coons may bring down a goose, but as I said, you would surely hear that attack as the goose would be honking its head off.

Good luck and I hope your new ducks stay safe.

 

[SJUDD]

My husband is an electrician so he has agreed to change the lights out back to motion sensor lights. That will be a help. I was considering a baby monitor but wasn't sure how my husband would feel about it. As it was already we woke up to so many natural noises last night after setting the trap in the yard. We didn't catch any predators but my husband forgot the trap was set and let the dogs out at 4:30 this morning. Needless to say, about 10 minutes later, he was outside rescuing my dog from the trap Thank goodness it was a live trap so it didn't hurt her. The trap was set in the middle of the yard right in between the fish pond and the duck enclosure. We will set it again tonight and see what happens.

 

[SJUDD]

Thank you for the advise. I live in an area that has weird rules... I can have chickens but no roosters (even though a couple of my chickens are louder than any rooster I ever heard) and I can have ducks but not geese... go 1/2 mile down the road and you can have whatever animal you want. My best friend has 3 geese, ducks, chickens, roosters, goats, dogs, cats, and she used to have horses. She also has more predators than I do... I mostly have raccoons and rats (eating my chicken eggs) and possums but she has foxes, hawks (which I am sure must be around my house too but I have never seen any nearby) and all kinds of things. It is surprising to me that a half a mile away makes that much of a difference from "city" and "Rural"

 

[SJUDD]

So far I have caught nothing in the trap and everyone (fish, ducks, chickens) have been safe since this incident. However I have a question... albeit a little odd of a question. Does Racoon Scat look like small dog poo?? I can't think of a way for anything like a fox or a coyote to get in my yard but this morning when I was shoveling the dog poo, there was a smaller, black pile that looked nothing like my dogs poo. (I know, lots of poo talk, sorry). Just trying to figure out what it is. Thanks~!

 

[EmAbTo48]

Any chance you have a feral cat? We our outside of town on 40 acres. We get ferals all the time down in the barn. We had one last year that just killed our chickens and one of our ducks it didn't even eat it just left marks and must have suffocated them to death. Needless to say that poor sick animal is in heaven hubby shot it, it was outside our pheasant pen in broad day light look sicker then anything I have ever seen!

Poor kitty! People need to spay their farm cats!

 

[zooweemama]

So far I have caught nothing in the trap and everyone (fish, ducks, chickens) have been safe since this incident. However I have a question... albeit a little odd of a question. Does Racoon Scat look like small dog poo?? I can't think of a way for anything like a fox or a coyote to get in my yard but this morning when I was shoveling the dog poo, there was a smaller, black pile that looked nothing like my dogs poo. (I know, lots of poo talk, sorry). Just trying to figure out what it is. Thanks~!

Yes it is. My mils dogs ate some once and got deathly ill. Raccoon poop is nasty stuff. But yes looks like black cat poop. I'm so sorry you lost your ducks. You BFF is very sweet to do that though!

 

[zooweemama]

Although I do not know what skunk poo looks like...

Here are some coon poo pics.
http://www.wildlife-removal.com/raccoonpoop.html
(and on the left hand side you can see other animal info too and most that I looked at have poop links in that article too)

 

[downsm75]

I have security flood lights and a dog that I SWEAR can hear a cricket fart... He goes insane when anything comes in the yard. Sorry for your loss, I hope you catch the critter

 

[poultry09]

I have security flood lights and a dog that I SWEAR can hear a cricket fart...

I am sorry to hear about your loss, I recenly lost a momma hen and her chick

all I found was a trail of feathers and her two leggs had been chewed off and left behind, so I took the legs and put them in the live trap along with a frozen turkey leg and put it next to a small animla trail near the kill site. So now the hen will hopefull asist me in trapping and killing of the animal that killed her

 

[rainplace]

There were punture wounds all over the fish but only one mark on each duck.

This makes me think mink. Keep the traps set. Mink hunt a circuit 3-7 miles long, meaning that they do not necessarily hunt the same place everyday, but they do hunt the same places frequently. If it's a mink, it will be back.