Raccoons Coming During Rains

[Howard E]

I would imagine by now the sardine mix is getting pretty ripe. At some point, it goes from being attractant to repellent.

I might be tempted to flush that old mix out, and if these are still mostly Dukes, put a full sized marshmallow under the trigger, a few bits of licorice on top, and then scatter a few bits of licorice and mini mallows at the base of the trap. If you have found some DP's with push pull triggers, just the licorice bits....and maybe 1 or 2 mini's. Trigger is never covered with push / pull triggers.

Looks like after today, rain is going to letup, but if not, put a golf ball or little Dixie cup on top of your DP to keep the weather out. Coons will just knock it off.

(Note: OP and I live only 20 miles or so apart, and he has gotten 5X the amount of rain we have in the past week......strange weather).

 

[centrarchid]

I would imagine by now the sardine mix is getting pretty ripe. At some point, it goes from being attractant to repellent.

I might be tempted to flush that old mix out, and if these are still mostly Dukes, put a full sized marshmallow under the trigger, a few bits of licorice on top, and then scatter a few bits of licorice and mini mallows at the base of the trap. If you have found some DP's with push pull triggers, just the licorice bits....and maybe 1 or 2 mini's. Trigger is never covered with push / pull triggers.

Looks like after today, rain is going to letup, but if not, put a golf ball or little Dixie cup on top of your DP to keep the weather out. Coons will just knock it off.

(Note: OP and I live only 20 miles or so apart, and he has gotten 5X the amount of rain we have in the past week......strange weather).

We are doing the licorice and marshmallo bits. Dogs by day and chickens by night are cleaning up the sardines. Something besides chickens getting sardines down the hill.

I was not able to find the push pull DP's. All stores I checked sold out and otherwise have low inventory on trapping side. Our Orshelns crew in town not all that pleasant to deal with anyway when it comes to hunting and trapping supplies. They seem to have issue with me wearing a mask.

Weather is not fun. Now getting really humid with full sun. We are on ridge just north of Missouri River. We almost always get more rain or snow than Jefferson City only 5 miles away. Most of the rains are coming from the small tall clouds that almost touch ground. My lab you have visited has gotten less than half as much rain but gets walloped by winds I am not seeing much of. It would be nice to divert some of the rain your way, especially the crap we got early this morning.

 

[centrarchid]

Kids and I just caught a chicken (pullet) that came into out yard this morning. Came from neighbor to north. Dogs of neighbor further north of them got in killed their rooster, pulled feathers out of another pullets tail and this one dispersed over course of last two days towards us. Daughter and I took pullet back. Outlook not good for long-term survival there. Flock I think for 4H. Not enough invested in up keep / protection.

 

[centrarchid]

Our local world is a mess. Daughter with stray pullet just before we took her back. Neighbor did not seem all that interested in bird being returned.

Rooster attacked the other night. He feels good enough to crow.

Neighbors coop and run that was breached by dog.

Yet another storm that gave us more than an additional inch of rain. @Howard E you certainly got hit by this one.

Rainbow where I was getting rained on hard in full sun.

 

[Howard E]

Yup, had been dodging the bullets, but we got a piece of that one. Only got 1/2" or rain, and it only lasted 10 min or so, but it came with some quarter sized hail and straight line winds from violent downdrafts.....end result.....sweet corn patch that had been looking so promising took a hit....



Have a row of 8' tall miscanthus grass near this to protect from normal wind blasts, which usually come from W or SW. Wind from this storm blew N to S......highly unusual. I think coons have conspired with mother nature to help them out.

Corn had fence grounded out, and some of the netting may have been immersed in standing water, but corn has silked and is at it's most vulnerable to coons right now, so left fencer on last night. It was still on this morning and corn was as it was at dark, except it went ahead and fell on over. Soils are fertile and will support good growth, but also shallow, flat and poorly drained. End result is a tall plant with a poor root structure and vulnerable to wind damage. May get half a crop from what might have been 25 to 30 dozen ears.

BTW, chickens will normally shrug off a lot of rain events. Started out that way with this one, but when the hail started, a river of chickens flowed off in the direction of the Woods house. Pop door isn't that big, but they went through it 3 abreast to get out of the weather. Five min later, were all back out like nothing ever happened.

 

[Howard E]

Looking at your neighbor's flimsy 4H setup, I fear that may be more common than we know. Prospects for long term survival of birds in that are not good. Not IF a predator gets them, only WHEN.

 

[centrarchid]

Most setups I encounter are similar. This neighbor from start not likely to stick with chickens. Fly by night type, high school kid living with grandparents.

Owl had been working site most nights for last month or so. They have a serious rodent / rat issue that I do not have for some reason. I have another neighbor to NE that has at least $10,000 invested in a chukar production setup with overhead netting. HE may be the reason I do not see young of year Great-horned Owls every year. Another neighbor on OO free-ranges chickens late in the day. At least one of their chickens my dogs found, likely cached by a fox. Neighbor to west was confining about 50 hens with just deer netting. Lots of was going on here. Half a dozen other neighbors in 1/2 mile radius have been in and out of chickens in the 10 years I have lived here.

 

[Matejka]

Our local world is a mess. Daughter with stray pullet just before we took her back. Neighbor did not seem all that interested in bird being returned.

You should have kept pullet. It would have a better chance at survival. Beautiful pics.
Send rain our way.

 

[centrarchid]

Nothing again. Will re-bait taps tonight. Rain and ants taking bait big time. It is possible dogs gave raccoons good enough scare they will not come back for a while. We have gone through that before. Still want to off these particular raccoons.

 

[neo71665]

Stinking fire ants around here strip bait almost over night no matter what you use.