Heritage Large Fowl - Phase II

[gjensen]

I was told use marshmallows with grape jelly. Never had to try it, thank goodness. I've only seen one coon around here in 34 years and it was a sickly, mangy looking thing. There are some places around Tucson that have problems with them, though. I thought bobcats were bad. Now I'm (almost) glad I have them as a problem and not raccoons.

We have a lot of bobcats, but they tend to be shy, keeping their distance. A free range bird in the edge of the woods is more vulnerable. We do not have a lot of trouble with them coming into the yards.

Other than roaming canines, raccoons are our biggest problem. Coyote is a growing problem here in the southeast. It was not long ago, and they were unheard of here.

 

[MagicChicken]

This particular coon is still loose, but they know when you are after them so he hasn't been here for over a month. ...I keep culls out where they can eat them to let me know if one is around. Nothing wants to eat my ugly Silkie. They just walk right by him sitting on my plastic chair. Raccoons are the very best poultry judges.

Walt

 

[finnfur]

This guy will not go anywhere near any kind of trap. I have done whole minefields of leg hold traps and I catch everything except him. I have trapped a lot of predators over the years here and these big guys won't go near a trap...but they do go away when I'm after specifically them. I have even used live bait. He is not going to get any of my good birds, so this is more of a competition between him and me.

Walt

Sounds like he's educated.
Now if you could get him to only remove culls you could hire him as a understudy in a selective breeding program.
Works for chickens LOL

They don't get big by being careless but they all make mistake sooner or later
Good luck

 

[3riverschick]

When I lived in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada

The most beautiful place on earth.

 

[Chris09]

Walt,

I'v had good luck with traps like this,

I'v also used live traps but in order to catch some coons I had to build a cover for it.
Basically a 4 sided box made out of wood/steel that slides over the trap leaving only the trap door exposed.

 

[3riverschick]

Hi,
I have a 32 x 24 dog yard that is made of 6' high panels of 2x4 welded wire on 2x4's. Granted it is 18 years
old but aging just fine. I am thinking of making grow out pens in it. We sure can use them! I want to keep out
the weasels and fishers which I assume we have around here. We are semi rural on 6/10th's acre in a small
unincorporated village at the western base of the Laurel Ridge of the Alleghenies. So we have wildlife, deer, bear ,
opossums, and such. We rarely see any but the rare opossum and the deer who eat the apples in our small
orchard. We do have a larger feral cat population. One big tabby make has been hanging around. All my coops
and yards are fully enclosed with chicken wire. Only break-in we ever had was a young opossum who broke thru
a narrow tightly strung chicken wire panel. The birds were cooped so he didn't get any and was dispatched by
trap and lead the next time he came thru our yard. I closed up the narrow opening with wood. it was a lesson
to me that small tightly strung sections of chicken wire were vulnerable because they didn't have any elasticity
and the animals could get a firm grip to pull at it. No trouble with the firmly secure larger 5' by 6' panels of chicken
wire.
So now we come to this large area. I have 2x4 welded wire around the perimeter. will be adding 1x1 chicken wire
on top of it. I need to fence the partitions and the roof. thinking of using either
1/2" x 1/2" , 19 Gauge - Galvanized(Hot-Dip Galvanized After Welding GAW) or
1" by 1", 20 Gauge(galvanized steel core) - then Vinyl PVC Coated
what do you think? we have only had one opossum here in 20 years.
Best,
Karen

 

[fowlman01]

Hi,
I have a 32 x 24 dog yard that is made of 6' high panels of 2x4 welded wire on 2x4's. Granted it is 18 years
old but aging just fine. I am thinking of making grow out pens in it. We sure can use them! I want to keep out
the weasels and fishers which I assume we have around here. We are semi rural on 6/10th's acre in a small
unincorporated village at the western base of the Laurel Ridge of the Alleghenies. So we have wildlife, deer, bear ,
opossums, and such. We rarely see any but the occasional opossum and the deer who eat the apples in our small
orchard. We do have a larger feral cat population. One big tabby make has been hanging around. All my coops
and yards are fully enclosed with chicken wire.
So now we come to this large area. I have 2x4 welded wire around the perimeter. will be adding 1x1 chicken wire
on top of it. I need to fence the partitions and the roof. thinking of using either
1/2" x 1/2" , 19 Gauge - Galvanized(Hot-Dip Galvanized After Welding GAW) or
1" by 1", 20 Gauge(galvanized steel core) - then Vinyl PVC Coated
what do you think? we have only had one opossum here in 20 years.
Best,
Karen

What I think is that we very seldom know what is working our territory, unless you have camera's like I do. I don't see anything here, I just find the results or movies of them. A mink or weasel can go right through a 2X4 wire fence. I didn't have coyotes here until a year ago and they caused some serious damage and I had to change my mode of protection. After leaving a foot here they haven't come back...yet. Overall this place is pretty secure, but I don't beleive anything is totally secure. Electric fences are good. I have had two mink attacks here and they were devastating .... they kill everything in the pen. They are very curious though, so they are not that hard to catch. The two here were out during the day, so they went to mink heaven very quickly.

Walt

 

[finnfur]

What I think is that we very seldom know what is working our territory, unless you have camera's like I do. I don't see anything here, I just find the results or movies of them. A mink or weasel can go right through a 2X4 wire fence. I didn't have coyotes here until a year ago and they caused some serious damage and I had to change my mode of protection. After leaving a foot here they haven't come back...yet. Overall this place is pretty secure, but I don't beleive anything is totally secure. Electric fences are good. I have had two mink attacks here and they were devastating .... they kill everything in the pen. They are very curious though, so they are not that hard to catch. The two here were out during the day, so they went to mink heaven very quickly.

Walt

I am thankful we don't have mink - if so it would change our protection plan drastically

 

[Lacy Blues]

Karen, I'd use the 1/2 x 1/2 hot dipped galvanized fencing. Not many critters can get paw through a hole that size. Poultry wire is just about useless as it is only sort of wrapped around another wire section and easily gets unwrapped. Be sure you also put some good strong wire with small holes at the ends of your perches so nothing can reach through and grab sleeping birds.

 

[ronott1]

I am thankful we don't have mink - if so it would change our protection plan drastically

They are moving down the east coast so you will need to watch for them. Mink are becoming a nuisance and some places are allowing trapping of them again.