Had our first loss to a predator last night. *sad*

[RichnSteph]

One heck of a storm whipped up out here last night and my wife mentioned this morning that she heard one of our ducks going gang busters outside but thought it was just the storm. Nope. Something pulled our Black Bellied Whistling duck, named Dumpling, through the fence and removed his head. No other marks on the body. Everything I've read points to a raccoon. We've been blessed to not have any predators out here at all since we moved in in June and started with the chickens. The only thing I've done differently is that I recently put a pond in the back yard near the chicken run for the ducks and our aquaponics garden and we've added a small fenced area with an individual coop for new arrivals to the flock. The ducks and four new chickens were in that new coop/run area when the dastardly deed was committed. Today I'm increasing the roosting space in the main coop and everyone is going in there tonight so start deciding on pecking order. During the day they all free range together so I don't think there will be any issues. Poor Dumpling however won't be there to comfort his life partner Soju.


Sad day around here.

RichnSteph

 

[MEchickens]

So sorry for your loss. I was devastated and mad as heck when a mother fox and her three babies got all four if our young pullets in one day. I don't know if this will help with raccoons, but I swear by using wolf urine. You can find it directly by googling predator pee or on my pet chickens site. I went from seeing multiple foxes every day to zero in months. I would always lock up every bird at night too. Best of luck and sorry for your duck.

 

[RichnSteph]

Thank you. We have a live trap out at my grandparents house that I'll be bringing home tomorrow to see if I can't catch this rascal and explain to him that he needs to leave our birds alone.



RichnSteph

 

[coonhoundmama87]

Sorry to hear that it got your duck I do hope your explanation to the critter isn't a kind one. Predators are persistent creatures. We had a white opossum show up one night. Decided to let him go since he was so pretty. Took him far far down the road thinking he'd nevet make it back. Few weeks later he did. Or he had a twin, which I doubt since white is so rare! Needless to say he won't be a problem again. Best of luck with yours!

 

[enola]

Disgusting as it sounds, if you use the duck's body as bait your chances will better to catch the coon.

 

[RichnSteph]

Disgusting as it sounds, if you use the duck's body as bait your chances will better to catch the coon.

Not disgusting at all but we already threw it in the trash and now it's too nasty to touch. We haven't seen the critter back and I didn't have time to get out there and set the trap this evening so I'll be doing so tomorrow night. I've gotten a can of sardines to use as bait. If the raccoon likes them half as much as I do he'll end up in there.

 

[enola]

My sister swears marshmallows work very well. She catches a lot of coons. She claims sardines lure in the possums and feral cats.

 

[RichnSteph]

My sister swears marshmallows work very well. She catches a lot of coons. She claims sardines lure in the possums and feral cats.

Oh ick! Well then I'm not using sardines. There are a couple of random cats here and there in the neighborhood and I do not want them to hang out around our house. Thanks for the tip!

 

[coonhoundmama87]

Second marshmallows. My husband uses them to trap all the time. Dont be too shocked if you still get something else tho. My cats have been known to end up in traps with just that as bait. Heck they've gone into ones I forgot to bait lol.