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How do you recommend making chickens undesirable prey? In areas where human encroachment has made prey increasingly unavailable backyard chickens are the only meal around. People are "bent on killing everything that might be a threat to their chickens" because these people have time, money, effort, blood, sweat and tears invested in their birds.
Please consider this before you judge the actions of others.
IMO, skunks are a huge threat because of the rabies issues. I would kill them because of that, not for the sake of my chickens, but for the sake of my children.
I am a huge animal lover, I even sympathize with the hawks that have taken a few of my chickens, they are doing what Nature intended. The only predators I have issues with are humans and stray dogs (again, human error). Skunks are dangerous, albeit cute - but deadly, to us. period.
Well,things have been quiet on my end,traps have been checked daily since and no new activity other than something very light,light enough not to trip the trap,has been eating the bait inside one of the two traps.I imagine it must be a mouse or chipmunk.I'll continue to bait and monitor said traps to see what the results are.I'm actually very surprised myself to have caught so many in one night.
I don't want to count my chickens before they've hatched but I believe I have put a dent in the local population enough to feel confident I won't have to worry about any attacks or spraying in the near future.
As far as peoples views on how I handled my situation,it is completely legal here and I don't have a problem with it.Where I'm located,we have the highest rabies cases in the state,both raccoons and skunks. I'll pass on the chance of me or my neighbors two little boys from coming into contact with that .Period.Every year the state drops rabies vaccines in the surrounding area to combat and try to stop rabies from spreading.
Thank you all for reading my story and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did telling it.While I do not enjoy some of the things in the story,I do feel they were necessary.
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Do not ever feel the need to apologize for doing what you feel is necessary to defend your flock. This section is dedicated to dealing with predators. That includes disposal of them. People who are offended by the views expressed here need to stay out of the P&P section.
Good luck and happy hunting.
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Do not ever feel the need to apologize for doing what you feel is necessary to defend your flock. This section is dedicated to dealing with predators. That includes disposal of them. People who are offended by the views expressed here need to stay out of the P&P section.
Good luck and happy hunting.
Absolutely. You are not the one who owes an apology.
From a sticky in the P&P forum:
*Although some ways are not considered ideal to some, it serves the purpose of removing the offending predator. If you have an idea or a helpful comment, please do reply. If it is a sarcastic comment about the disposal or capture of a predator, please keep your thoughts to yourself. We are not here to judge one another on methods or ways and means.