Relocate or Retaliate?

[amazondoc]

Quote:
Oh, really?? Kill every burglar? Fry every pickpocket?

I've heard of a guy who set up a bird feeder, then shot every blue jay that showed up to eat out of it. Hey, I guess he was just protecting his food, right?

If you want to protect something, then LOCK IT UP. God gave us big brains so that we could USE them, not so we could blast away at anything that dares to cross our path.

 

[injunjoe]

"5 - What I will most likely do - Cover the run. I have a 25ft by 25ft run with buried wire and an electric fence around the top. This doesn't seem to deter them all. I also have a huge role of chicken wire left over from a nursery run I built when the chicks (before the coon's took them) were young. I just need to design a support structure that will not have me ducking when i am in the run."

Call around to some garage door dealers.
The old doors go to waste. There is a torsion tube that is 17' long and is strong. I have made my run out of them. You may be able to get them free, they just throw them away. You may also be able to use the struts from the door also.

 

[lorieMN]

Quote:
he sure SHOULDNT WANT ANYONE TO FEED WILDLIFE ! I think he just didnt want to be bothered by another coon call,you start feeding coon and you will have nothing but trouble later on,they are mean and nasty and dont be surprised if they decide to take you on one day..

 

[lorieMN]

Quote:
Oh, really?? Kill every burglar? Fry every pickpocket?

I've heard of a guy who set up a bird feeder, then shot every blue jay that showed up to eat out of it. Hey, I guess he was just protecting his food, right?

If you want to protect something, then LOCK IT UP. God gave us big brains so that we could USE them, not so we could blast away at anything that dares to cross our path.

off topic here but I think every burglar and pickpocket should be fair game,they can go out and get a real job like the rest of us and stop their thieving ways

 

[DawnSuiter]

Quote:
That's my philosophy at least if their in MY space

 

[pkeeler]

I've heard of a guy who set up a bird feeder, then shot every blue jay that showed up to eat out of it. Hey, I guess he was just protecting his food, right? roll

If you want to protect something, then LOCK IT UP. God gave us big brains so that we could USE them, not so we could blast away at anything that dares to cross our path.

I think this thread has degenerated. This is not black and white and nobody is doing anything illegal (like baiting and shooting protected songbirds). There is a lot of room between using your chickens as bait to shoot things and having the occasional predator be unstoppable by reasonable means.

There is a cost/benefit to everything and many of us will do that math differently based on how we view the utility of the individual predator versus the cost of totally protecting our flock (if that is even possible). I spent plenty of money on my coop, but I didn't put in concrete floors. 99 of 100 raccoons might take a taste of pressure treated plywood and decide to try the garbage cans. But that 1 could get in. Because I didn't triple the cost of my coop, I can't use a trap or gun to rid myself of that one determined animal?​

 

[dacjohns]

Quote:
These predator threads usually do degenerate. There is a very vocal "kill the predators, SSS" with a bit of a following and there is an equally vocal do not kill anything at any cost group. I suspect most of us fall somewhere near the middle.

You say "nobody is doing anything illegal." I would not be so sure of that. You mention "baiting and shooting protected songbirds." Maybe not but there is a strong possibility that it is being done with protected raptors.

The number of illegal solutions to problems that are proposed in this type of thread always amazes me. I don't know if it is because of ignorance of the local and federal laws or if it is because people don't care to obey the laws unless it benefits them.

As it says in the sticky for the predator section:
"It is the responsibility of the person with the predator to determine the legalities of what they do and that person will take ultimate responsibility. BYC does not condone illegal acts."

 

[ninjapoodles]

Exactly. We learned a lot when we contacted our state's Game & Fish Commission. We now have a depredation permit so that we may legally deal with predators such as fox and raccoons.

I definitely don't fall into the "SSS" camp, but I'm not so naive as to believe we can "all just get along," either. And I don't buy the line that "nature" will balance out the predator load, either. We (humans) have pretty much disrupted the natural balance of wildlife so that it will never be the same. What "natural" predators do raccoons have, in most (I realize that some are living among bears and cougars, but I'm talking "most") places with substantial human population? The only thing that would keep their populations in check without predators of their own would be, mainly, a limited food-source. And if they're supplementing their diets on my livestock, well, even if I don't mind that, doesn't that throw off the whole "natural" balance of prey to predator? By feeding the raccoons, I'm allowing them to increase their population.

I also agree with a previous poster that there isn't much, in the way of livestock housing, that is absolutely 100% predator-proof. You do the best you can, sure, but there's always going to be some weakness to be exploited. And even if you could keep your chickens in a prey animal's version of a bomb-shelter, with concrete floors, cinder-block walls, sealed roofs, artificial light...would you want to? Would THEY prefer it? I kinda doubt it.

To get to the point where we'd wind up gunning for them, raccoons on our property must first show brazen disregard for

boundaries. If they're that desperate, that hungry, then there must be too many of them for our area to support. At that point, I don't see any difference in them being humanely dispatched by my husband, and being messily devoured by any other bigger, badder predator...except that my husband is much easier on them.

 

[chicksinthemachine]

I agree with seedcorn in using the three S's for MOST preds.

 

[Beekissed]

To get to the point where we'd wind up gunning for them, raccoons on our property must first show brazen disregard for

boundaries. If they're that desperate, that hungry, then there must be too many of them for our area to support. At that point, I don't see any difference in them being humanely dispatched by my husband, and being messily devoured by any other bigger, badder predator...except that my husband is much easier on them.

Hear, hear!