Dixie Chicks

[Mahen100]

yeah, Chickat, baby anything loosing a mom makes me sad. Last time I live trapped something...an opossum, I took cage and all to the animal shelter and they took it behind their kennels and turned it out. I have wondered if that place was far enough away from here, and also what other houses nearer by there were plagued by my "mercy." I don't own a gun other than a CO2 Pellet gun, which I can't get to operate correctly most of the time. When it does work...I know it would take 10 or more well placed bullets for it to basically bleed to death... I thought the drowning would be kinder....oh but a long 2.5 f tcage is hard to submerge into even a 55 gallon can....and now that I finally have a deceased predator, I also have a big mess and a can that I cannot easily drain, move or removed the trap and kritter from. Sigh. I do feel bad, but really prefer my birds not be their fodder.

 

[ChicKat]

yeah, Chickat, baby anything loosing a mom makes me sad. Last time I live trapped something...an opossum, I took cage and all to the animal shelter and they took it behind their kennels and turned it out. I have wondered if that place was far enough away from here, and also what other houses nearer by there were plagued by my "mercy." I don't own a gun other than a CO2 Pellet gun, which I can't get to operate correctly most of the time. When it does work...I know it would take 10 or more well placed bullets for it to basically bleed to death... I thought the drowning would be kinder....oh but a long 2.5 f tcage is hard to submerge into even a 55 gallon can....and now that I finally have a deceased predator, I also have a big mess and a can that I cannot easily drain, move or removed the trap and kritter from. Sigh. I do feel bad, but really prefer my birds not be their fodder.

Oh I didn't mean it like that--- I have thought of drowning too -- and then all the logistics problems that the full water source would present. I think that you may end up having to 'bail out' the 55 gallon with smaller pails until you get it low enough to be able to tip over. and hopefully you can pull the trap out and dump the dead critter. Buzzards have young too -- and they are useful to clean up carion.

It really irks me a lot when people who are supposed to be knowledgeable about these animals do the 'release into the wild' thing with them. they are then put into the territory of other animals and a fight for survival ensues -- if they have disease they spread it around...and as you say -- then it becomes the same problem in a different location. Bad for the neighborhood, bad for the critters in the territory it is released into and probably just as leathal for the 'released' animal IMO.

Had a discussion with the wildlife place..." I have a raccoon in a trap - would you like to have it for your nature center if I get a taxidermist to process it?' - them: "oh no just release it". me: "No, -- (for the above reasons plus RABIES) I'm going to shoot it -- do you want it or not?" --

The surprise to me is that they never thought of other territories, causing problems for other flock owners even in a different place and spreading rabies....

 

[Mahen100]

Oh I read my reply and it seemed I was chiding you, heavens no, I appreciated your post. What you said was spot on and I just didn't state my own sorrow over killing any living thing very well.

You wouldn't believe that mess that raccoon fashioned after it was trapped. It had managed to pull an empty plastic bag shavings had been in into the trap....the bag had sat outside the trap door and I wonder how much effort it took her to pull the entire thing into the trap after it was sprung. Then the bag was twisted, woven through the back wall and shredded, and about 4 gallons of used litter that had been on the ground or "had been the ground" she dug trying to dig its way out.....all that went into the water bath. So the water besides being nasty was filled with a dead coon, with pine shavings, hundreds of bits of thick plastic bag, mud....a slurry of awful.

The rolling trash can had a "leaky spot" by a low indenture in the can....and it very slowly drained over the day until I could lift the critter and trap out of the can. I shoved it open-trap-door-first into a black plastic bag....the coon, and about a 8 in. square brick of soaked shavings and slurry of awful.

Then with all my might, I shoved the can over with my foot. Woosh. Now I am at the stage "is it legal here to put a triple bagged raccoon into the garbage can for pickup. (suspect I do not want to know the answer.) Made sure there were no identifying marks on the black plastic bag.

Thanks again for your reply, and forgive me for being about clear as mud sometimes.

 

[ChicKat]

Oh I read my reply and it seemed I was chiding you, heavens no, I appreciated your post. What you said was spot on and I just didn't state my own sorrow over killing any living thing very well.

You wouldn't believe that mess that raccoon fashioned after it was trapped. It had managed to pull an empty plastic bag shavings had been in into the trap....the bag had sat outside the trap door and I wonder how much effort it took her to pull the entire thing into the trap after it was sprung. Then the bag was twisted, woven through the back wall and shredded, and about 4 gallons of used litter that had been on the ground or "had been the ground" she dug trying to dig its way out.....all that went into the water bath. So the water besides being nasty was filled with a dead coon, with pine shavings, hundreds of bits of thick plastic bag, mud....a slurry of awful.

The rolling trash can had a "leaky spot" by a low indenture in the can....and it very slowly drained over the day until I could lift the critter and trap out of the can. I shoved it open-trap-door-first into a black plastic bag....the coon, and about a 8 in. square brick of soaked shavings and slurry of awful.

Then with all my might, I shoved the can over with my foot. Woosh. Now I am at the stage "is it legal here to put a triple bagged raccoon into the garbage can for pickup. (suspect I do not want to know the answer.) Made sure there were no identifying marks on the black plastic bag.

Thanks again for your reply, and forgive me for being about clear as mud sometimes.

You though I thought you were chiding me -- and I thought you thought that I was chiding you. Agreed that it is unfortunate for the young... Used to think that raccoons were cute and sweet and smart -- etc. Even have some old Hallmark Christmas ornaments of cute raccoons... - Now I think they are smart, nasty and chicken killers. Enough said.

New subject - Love your avatar. Is that a Tennessee water lily? Just sent some hatching eggs to TN in today's mail -- to Church Hill -- looks to be East of Knoxville.

 

[Mahen100]

@Chickat.....ah beautiful east Tennessee....where the weather is tolerable, and the mountains are not far away. That is far from me...maybe close to 400 miles from here. I am on the outskirts of Memphis in South West Tennessee.

The pond lily is a tropical one, not a Tennessee native. It has bloomed, though, every year for about five years in the spring, one or two blooms. It is in a pot in a too- shallow and too-small 100 gal. "water feature" which also houses "big fish"...a two foot butterfly koi whose tail fins are like two human hands one on top of the other....so big. Its grown over the 9 years its been in there....since it was a fingerling. Koi do not "grow to the size of the tank" like some fish. My bucket list contains giving big fish a pond 4 times the size of this one.....and two feet deep minimum. He doesn't seem bothered,, since he does not know any better. I have a shubunkin in there with him to keep him company.

 

[perchie.girl]

this is the reason why I have stayed with BYC so long.... for the most part people are understanding and quick to adjust when they think they have offended.

Quote:
this is the reason why I have stayed with BYC so long.... for the most part people are understanding and quick to adjust or clarify when they think they have offended.

deb

 

[perchie.girl]

@Chickat.....ah beautiful east Tennessee....where the weather is tolerable, and the mountains are not far away. That is far from me...maybe close to 400 miles from here. I am on the outskirts of Memphis in South West Tennessee.

The pond lily is a tropical one, not a Tennessee native. It has bloomed, though, every year for about five years in the spring, one or two blooms. It is in a pot in a too- shallow and too-small 100 gal. "water feature" which also houses "big fish"...a two foot butterfly koi whose tail fins are like two human hands one on top of the other....so big. Its grown over the 9 years its been in there....since it was a fingerling. Koi do not "grow to the size of the tank" like some fish. My bucket list contains giving big fish a pond 4 times the size of this one.....and two feet deep minimum. He doesn't seem bothered,, since he does not know any better. I have a shubunkin in there with him to keep him company.

Love love love Koi.... I dont have a pond yet but my neighbor has a big stock pond about nine or ten feet in diameter.... I want to do one like that with water plants and a few Koi. I have seen pictures of Koi that were almost three feet long. and contrary... they do grow to the size of the container... but the limiting factor is not the container size but Hormonal excretions from the fish themselves. Water changes will change that limiting factor.

deb

 

[Mahen100]

Deb, Well, I always thought it was that they continued to grow throughout life. I have a decent water quality kit and I test the water for "kh" and about 5 other parameters. You can imagine a pond that small and a fish that big has to have regular partial water changes to control for ammonia buildup. Each spring I always notice a large discharge of "foam"that I take to be some sort of mating discharge, but I have never seen eggs. I suspect both the fish are of the same sex, but do not know. I have a big bucket that I used to age water in. I don't have expensive equipment...I pump the water into a waterfall and bucket filled with lava rock. I let gravity return it from the bucket to the pond via many holes I have drilled near the base of the bucket. I seed the bucket with DE when I wash the bucket contents in pond water and swish away the mum. (no high tech expensive filter system for me!). Big Fish has been amazingly hearty. The Subunkin is about 7 inches long now...dwarfed next to Big Fish. It has never been ill either. I avoid having to use chemicals unless as last resort. I do have an old ultraviolet light by-pass but have not had to use it to clarify water in two years now. Don't even know if it still works. I do add "good bugs" to the water when I do a partial water change to keep it sparkling. The fish bring me so much pleasure. Two week ago I heard chickens fussing and I went out onto the patio...a large blue heron was in my yard and flew over my wooden fence and away. I have had the wee pond for about 12 years and have never seen a heron. I have seen Coopers hawks fly to the waterfall rocks...but it was a young one and it didn't seem interested in the fish. I know I should net the pond. It is just too hot to do much now. At least for me. Hot and muggy.

 

[perchie.girl]

Deb, Well, I always thought it was that they continued to grow throughout life. I have a decent water quality kit and I test the water for "kh" and about 5 other parameters. You can imagine a pond that small and a fish that big has to have regular partial water changes to control for ammonia buildup. Each spring I always notice a large discharge of "foam"that I take to be some sort of mating discharge, but I have never seen eggs. I suspect both the fish are of the same sex, but do not know. I have a big bucket that I used to age water in. I don't have expensive equipment...I pump the water into a waterfall and bucket filled with lava rock. I let gravity return it from the bucket to the pond via many holes I have drilled near the base of the bucket. I seed the bucket with DE when I wash the bucket contents in pond water and swish away the mum. (no high tech expensive filter system for me!). Big Fish has been amazingly hearty. The Subunkin is about 7 inches long now...dwarfed next to Big Fish. It has never been ill either. I avoid having to use chemicals unless as last resort. I do have an old ultraviolet light by-pass but have not had to use it to clarify water in two years now. Don't even know if it still works. I do add "good bugs" to the water when I do a partial water change to keep it sparkling. The fish bring me so much pleasure. Two week ago I heard chickens fussing and I went out onto the patio...a large blue heron was in my yard and flew over my wooden fence and away. I have had the wee pond for about 12 years and have never seen a heron. I have seen Coopers hawks fly to the waterfall rocks...but it was a young one and it didn't seem interested in the fish. I know I should net the pond. It is just too hot to do much now. At least for me. Hot and muggy.

foam is an indication of protiens in the water.... and good to remove because it displaces oxygen. how many gallons is the pond?

My whole experience with fish has been with Aquariums and very simple filtration....

deb

 

[1kluckychik]

Hope your "out with the old job, in with the new" goes well, JWB.

I had a live trapped raccoon in the trap near my coop when I let the chickens out this am. Something had gotten one of four chicks my big English Orp hen was raising when I was 15 minutes late closing the coop last week. I set the live trap and eggs as bait disappeared from it three days in a row, but the trap was never sprung. (I did catch about four different chickens who seemed to rush in the trap soon as I set it at dusk before they went into the coop to roost). I finally decided I was tired of feeding the predator, and I started setting it empty of bait after the coop was closed up. Finally...after a week, I had a young adult female coon caught this am. From the looks of her, she'd recently nursed young.

Has anyone ever noticed raccoons tend to drown in submerged cages?????? My killed baby chick is avenged. :/

We caught the cutest opossum in a live trap. I couldnt let Bama kll it. He put up a craigslist ad in the free section. 5 hours later it was rehomed. The lady said she was going to try to tame it. Then we noticed her sweet potatoes, onions, herbs, and canned biscuits in the trunk of her car.

Put up a craigslist ad in the free section. See what happens. I bet someone will come get it