Saw a fisher cat today, somebody hand me a gun

[dacjohns]

I don't think it is a good idea to feed any wild animals except for wild songbirds. You open the door to a host of problems if you start feeding deer, raccoons, etc. They can become habituated to humans and dependent. Throwing deer guts and the like out in the woods away from your home is not the same as attracting them intentionally.

 

[little_grey_bantam]

Quote:
I like your approach of feeding them, but I'm worried that in the end wouldn't it just create more predators? I've thought of doing that with the hawk predators we have, but I'm afraid to even mention it to people, because people will think I'm crazier than I am. Should I try to feed them? I know people who have done that with deer and had things go very ,very wrong, as it would cost you 1000's to feed a flock every year. . .

Kay

Well, we live on 600 acres LOL so it's not too hard to deter them FAR away from where the chicken coop is LOL
On the other hand, we used to live in town next to the woods... the little foxes would ALWAYS kill the neighbors birds (which they stole from us!) but they left our birds alone

We'd go out and leave eggs and stuff near their entrance when they had kits - they knew us and they knew our dogs lol they played with one another all the time.
But that was just a freak story lol

I'd have a large animal around that scares them. Our calf does a great job. She bellows at every-freaking-thing!

Some jerk poisoned them (no one else had chickens, the person just didn't like foxes on his property) and threw their bodies just a few feet away from the den (he killed the pups

)