Suspected Striped Skunk Working Breeding Pens Under Oak Tree

[centrarchid]

Scoob is a really cool dog. I'm sure that you are very proud of him.
My dogs chase the barn cats and stare a little too intently at the chickens. They never even noticed the fawn crossing the back yard a few weeks ago and hid on the porch when a raccoon was raiding the bird feeders. Lucky for them they're good at warming feet on cold evenings...

Scoob chases and sleeps with cats, play tag with white-tail deer that eat my rose of sharon and stash their fawns not more than 30 feet behind back door. He used to stare at chickens and still fights with one American dominique cock was raised with. Still proud and getting another shortly so we can whoop up more on roaming dogs.

Work on breaking yours of being a threat. It is not hard. Just a little patience requirered.

 

[centrarchid]

RACCOONS CAN VISIT, CAUSING DAMAGE WITHOUT ACTUALLY TAKING BIRDS


Since getting last coon, there has been no real letup in loss of eggs from breeding pens under oak. Something was coming in each night and quickly getting booty repressent by about 1/2 dozen eggs from perimeter of some pens and then going down the very heavily vegetated ditch back to buried trash heap in woods. Scoob could track but not tree critter that I suspected but was not certain of being a coon. Whatever the the critter's ID, it was wise to live traps and kept stealing even baits. Each night I kept making trap more involved to make it so critter could not steal bait. I also had to hold Scoob back so critter had time to piddle about and actually enter trap. Scoob may have been pushing critter to go after easy stuff and running thus making my trap useless.

Tonight I caught critter. Scoob first got riled by neighbors old female Doberman that comes over I guess every night to sniff around pens and scent mark close to house. The doberman is one of those females that hikes her leg to mark. Scoob has to participate in that so I let him go. They both went around pen closest to house and proceeded to pee on the American Dominique rooster that was actually roosting outside of pen no more than 6" off ground. This among other things makes me think Scoob does not regard chickens as packmates, rather they are territory. Then Scoob shot off growling and barking to oak tree in pasture with breeding pens under it. Normally he tracks his way in with nose to ground which takes longer. He got there and immediately I could hear the beahhhh! sounding growl of a coon and possibly more than one. Scoob had one treed and was barking up a storm. I got rifle and a single round and went see what I suspected would be multiple raccoons. Upon getting there I found one very large female in trap. She was in excess of 20 lbs and Scoob was getting stupid trying to get at her. I had to grab Scoob in one hand and cage with raccoon and rifle in other hand. Cage handle pinched my thumb pretty good as coon struggled now in response to me. I got into more open area, dispatched raccoon and let Scoob make certain it was dispatched. Scoob then went back to pens so I followed with flashlite but could not find anymore coons. Tree canopy is too thick and flashlite batteries were starting to fade. Scoob, then checked pens in other locations before I brought him up to house. Where he focused most of his attention on the pens under oak tree. Based on teats of coon, this is not over.

What I can say is that raccoons can visit repeatedly without taking chickens. Pens holding breeder chickens are far from coon tight but Scoob seems to have kept raccoons from investing effort into actually going after chickens. Eggs on the other hand are easy to get. If coons were to go after chickens, then chickens would squawl causing Scoob to run straight in rather than track his way in with nose to ground. Scoob's tracking in may slow him enough so raccoons can sprint down ditch to safety. Next round, I will again confine Scoob about time raccoons visit and take him down to woods and release so he can come up between coons and their refuge. Hopefully he will put them into a tree I can see into so coon(s) can be shot out. It is getting close to time to start mowing lawn. Want get that done early since temperature is supposed to reach 102 F today. Darn thumb still hurts and Scoob is focusing attention on location of oak tree.