Predator ID problem? SKUNK? Update pg 2

[rufus]

Try electric fencing. And do be careful. Don't run out there with a pathetic 22 and find you have to deal with a cougar.

Rufus

 

[tfpets]

Quote:
I hope its not a cougar then...all I have is a pathetic 22. I've chased whatever it is barefoot and alone, so I'm a little better off than I was without a gun (I think.) The entire pet area is surrounded with electric wire at 6" and most of the area again at 5', except for that stupid 4' chain link entry gait, that I chain shut during the day and night, to keep out the two legged human type predators. The duck area is covered over the top with with netting so no predators come at them from above.

For tonight we set one small(rodent) and one larger (coon size) trap, I had canned catfood, so I'll try that for bait for tonight....to protect the Cuckoo Marans for tonight we lifted the kennel structures and ran metal roofing panels half way under and along the bottoms. Whatever it is has to be able to dig through corrugated sheet metal to get to them now. We reinforced everything else in different ways, locked up the pig, llama and goats for the first time - to keep them from disturbing the traps, and for their safety while we figure it out.

I only had 1/2 pound of flour, so I have to wait til I have more for that idea. I need to know what this is before the goats have their babies, and it's gonna be any day now?? I have to know how to protect them, what I am protecting them from. This is awful, and the first time my pets have been truly unsafe here from outside predators repeatedly in 10 years.

We even brought our favorite little OEGB in the house for the night. She so small, she went into an extra cage under my Cockatiel.

Thank you all for your input, I am going to keep trying the ideas. I am looking into security cameras maybe, so I can see whats going on out there all the time, maybe the internet kind, so when I'm at work, I can still watch my chickens! Its just kind of hard to set up and the weather is hard on them.

Tina/tfpets

 

[drom]

You know, you might want to get a radio with a battery and put it out there and leave it on all night. Someone told me that having a radio turned on all night will keep predators away because they hear human voices and noise and will stay away.

 

[tfpets]

Traps set, everythings secure. 1 a.m. and a hen is fussing. Outside we go. We turn on those bright lights I think I mentioned, and out in one the pens, that PJ was taken from and I sealed against larger predators, there was a skunk inside!! He isnt stinky at all, so he hasnt been mad in a while. We quit running as fast.
I am looking for sane methods to deal with skunks.
Tina

Found this desription in another post, this is exactly what the Delaware (thought it was a Brahma yesterday, didnt recognize her without her head?) looked like: "Skunks will kill everything and eat only organ meat if there is enough birds."

 

[ChanceRider]

Tina, I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your chickens! If you're having big cat problems, even bobcats, do carry more than just a 22. We've had both on our property (El Dorado County) when I used to have Guinea hens. Being the softie that I was (emphasis on WAS), I fired into the ground around and in front of a bobcat that had one of my Guineas in it's mouth. The bobcat didn't scare off at all! It finally dropped my Guinea and then sauntered slowly up our driveway... it was SO bold!

I've been told to get a tube type live trap for skunks. Apparently there's something that's about 2 feet long with a section that's looks like a 8 - 10" diameter "tube". That way the skunk gets in, gets trapped, and then you don't get sprayed when you try to remove the trap. Skunks and coons are constant (nightly) "visitors" to our property. So far we haven't have any get into our coop. Good luck with getting rid of them... I can tolerate the mtn lions and bobcats, but absolutely HATE the skunks and coons!

On a side note: Hope you faired well in the fires earlier this summer. I work with a group that does large animal emergency evacuations in EDC. We got called in to help out at the large animal shelter at CSU during two of the fires, so I spent over a week up there. Ironically, even though we were primarily large animal, we housed some chickens and ducks at the shelter also. It's what prompted me to get chickens and ducks when I returned home from Chico!

 

[tfpets]

Quote:
Off topic, but its my thread so whatever!!
Thank you so much for you support and for your help during the fires! I am sure the fires are a huge source of our problems right now. We are actually on the Doe Mill Ridge, the first fire that started here in Butte County, the Humboldt Fire, and it kept us evacuated off of our ridge for five nights, but we came home during the day to be with the pets we could not get out (Llama, pig, 90+ chickens, 23 Ducks, 2 goats, 1 dog, aviary birds, and 1 big fish.) The brush all around the back of my property up to my fenceline is burned. Down below our neighbors, all around the ridge, everything is burned. The only part of our ridge that is not burned is a 1/4 mile path to the North of us. The strangest animal behaviors are happening here, and wildlife is moving right into our yards, etc....I have an open chicken buffet right now, and the battle is on!! The skunk we got this morning may not be our only predator, but we're getting a start!
Heres a pic of a DC10 dropping fire retardant, photo taken from my driveway towards my neighbors house.

Tina/tfpets

 

[ChanceRider]

Wow, it must have been downright terrifying having the fire get so close to your property! We had people with animals down at CSU who literally woke up in the middle of the night to see flames coming toward their homes. All that I met did manage to get most of their critters out. And no one that I met lost animals to the fires. Being up there for the fires was an experience I won't soon forget. The people whose animals we were caring for were great! Many of the owners came down daily to see/tend to their animals and we got to know them well in a short period of time.

During the two different visits I made up there we had: horses, donkeys, llamas, pigs, cows, lots of goats, mini-horses and mini-donkeys, and chickens and ducks.

I'm sure you'll have to deal with unusual animal behaviors for quite a while. I've told my husband that one of these days I'd like to take a drive up there to show him where I was (while he took care of our critters at home!) and to take a drive through Concow, Magalia, etc.; areas I'm only familiar with because of the fires.

Hope things settle down for you soon and that your predator problems become a distant memory!

 

[drom]

Quote:
Someone in my feed store was telling me a couple months ago that skunks can also collapse their ribs and squeeze through very, very tiny spaces.

I only have a few birds so I don't have a large coop but mine are behind hardware cloth nailed into 2 x 6 frames. Every open space larger than 1 inch is sealed up with boards. The one thing I haven't put down yet is wire on the ground around the coop. And, I need to do that. I think that noise and lights will deter them until you can get things secured. I am also a huge believer in hot wire.

 

[coolchickens]

Good luck with noise & lights! I tried that also, and also live in the Sierra foothills towards Auburn/Coloma area. I put a light in the pen at night so I could see if there was a commotion and had the radio on in the house about 15 ft. from the coop outside and still something was coming in and taking chickens without even leaving a feather behind. Once it came up on my back porch and took the chicken right off the railing next to the "open" sliding door and never heard anything. I went out and slept in my sleeping bag to see what it was and behold... it was a bobcat! I thought I had it solved with more secure pens now but today it came into the yard while I was shopping and took my cochin hen. (found her over the fence in the llama's pasture so they scared it off, I guess) While I was standing there talking on the phone it came back and grabbed my Cochin rooster right there in the backyard. Rooster got away but lost a lot of feathers and that darn bobcat stood there looking at me like, "too bad, I'll be back"... Now I'm going to get a livestock guard dog a friend is getting for me. He has had NO chickens, goats, sheep killed since he added his livestock guard dogs. Try that!

Good luck! Sharon

 

[tfpets]

What breed is a livestock guard dog. That is the advice I hear most, and I am all for it, if I could train it well, but I already have one chicken killing dog, and one dog too old to protect the birds any more.....
Let me know when you get your dog, and what breed it is, or a mix of whatever, and good luck....I am pretty certain we just have part of the problem, but we havent lost anything else yet.
We have a security camera ready to hook up now, and power out to the area that we didnt have before...This has been a real motivator!!
Thanks, and good luck with your bobcat control, I know they have no mercy.
Tina