The Quack Shack

[Magnolia Ducks]

R.I.P. Green Bill Duck!​

Came back home this afternoon and found one of Sunny Sunshine's daughters injured on my deck. She has a wound on her back and her right leg is ripped open, i can see the tendons, no clue if she will survive and if, if she will ever be able to use this leg. I have her in a laundry basket in my office, she is drinking but not eating. Covered the wounds with antibiotic ointment and vaseline to prevent the tissue from drying out... We'll see.

Looked around, counted ducks and Greenbill Duck is nowhere to be found. Blood stains and feathers behind the duck house, plenty of flies and then i found what was left of her… No pictures, it looked gruesome, something ate all of her organs and the meat from her neck. I buried her in the duck cemetery, rest in piece Greeny!

What predator would eat the organs and leave the rest of the carcass behind? Trash-Panda?
I have two large trash-pandas lurking around here, too clever to be trapped, tried for weeks without success…

Could have been a hawk. They roll.the over and eat the tasty bits inside but ducks are too heavy to fly away with. I've never had a daytime trash panda but they do that too.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Could have been a hawk. They roll.the over and eat the tasty bits inside but ducks are too heavy to fly away with. I've never had a daytime trash panda but they do that too.

It was definitely a trash-panda!
After treating the injured ducky with antibiotics ointment i prepared dinner for the ducks and suddenly noticed that they all were running uphill towards the pond, looking back to the duck house.
Went outside and saw a huge trash-panda in the duck run - i have four ducks in the adjacent duck-house sitting on eggs, so i ran over, closed the door behind me, blocked the entrance to the duck house with a pallet and attempted to kill the coon with the kitchen knife i had in my hand. Sadly the knife was not sharp enough and the coon escaped - after biting me in the arm.
Trap is set with a large spoon of peanut butter...

 

[Luv Ducks]

So happy to hear from you Frank and know that you are alright. Thanks for stopping by. I am glad that you are employed and I pray that things get better with your job. So sorry you lost your plants.

Apologies!
I am overwhelmed with my new job!
Since May fifth i am working for the State of West Virginia.
Had planned to post the good news here a month ago, but wasn't able to.
My first day was May fifth and since then i am permanently fighting an uphill battle. Not being a morning person at all i have a hard time to get out of the house early in the morning and then spend a full eight hours in a cubicle without having the opportunity to take a break in the dux-house.
On my very first day, we had a hail-storm that destroyed almost all of my nursery plants i had planned to sell on the market, more than $1000 loss. The cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, zucchinis and melons all smashed. The tomatoes severely damaged...
I had to re-seed new pumpkin-family members and melons plants for myself, the tomatoes were too damaged to sell anymore, so i am now sitting on over 100 tomato plants with no plot to plant those.
So i have started to scalp a larger than planned plot of my pasture for the pumpkin family plus many many tomatoes. I need to set up a fence to keep the duckies out of the tomatoes, they won't touch those hairy zucchinis, pumpkins, ...
My shift is from 8am to 4pm, i need to leave the house at 7am and am back at 5pm which leaves me only a few hours for everything. And i feel permanently exhausted, sometimes i go to be without even eating dinner.
But hey, things will get better, today i found out how to connect to BYC from here, so i will be around more in the future.

Frank how is your flock all doing???? I hope that they have all been safe and sound.

 

[Luv Ducks]

R.I.P. Green Bill Duck!​

Came back home this afternoon and found one of Sunny Sunshine's daughters injured on my deck. She has a wound on her back and her right leg is ripped open, i can see the tendons, no clue if she will survive and if, if she will ever be able to use this leg. I have her in a laundry basket in my office, she is drinking but not eating. Covered the wounds with antibiotic ointment and vaseline to prevent the tissue from drying out... We'll see.

Looked around, counted ducks and Greenbill Duck is nowhere to be found. Blood stains and feathers behind the duck house, plenty of flies and then i found what was left of her… No pictures, it looked gruesome, something ate all of her organs and the meat from her neck. I buried her in the duck cemetery, rest in piece Greeny!

What predator would eat the organs and leave the rest of the carcass behind? Trash-Panda?
I have two large trash-pandas lurking around here, too clever to be trapped, tried for weeks without success…

Yes, trash pandas for sure will do that. That is what they did to my KC and my Wood Duck. It ate the Wood Duck entirely and then left everything of the KC except for the insides. I caught the three responsible and spent almost 4 thousand dollars in pens all connected together to keep the rest of them safe. Since then no more problems. I am sorry you are having these problems Frank.

 

[Luv Ducks]

It was definitely a trash-panda!
After treating the injured ducky with antibiotics ointment i prepared dinner for the ducks and suddenly noticed that they all were running uphill towards the pond, looking back to the duck house.
Went outside and saw a huge trash-panda in the duck run - i have four ducks in the adjacent duck-house sitting on eggs, so i ran over, closed the door behind me, blocked the entrance to the duck house with a pallet and attempted to kill the coon with the kitchen knife i had in my hand. Sadly the knife was not sharp enough and the coon escaped - after biting me in the arm.
Trap is set with a large spoon of peanut butter...

Oh No Frank, that bite can be serious!!! I pray that you get checked out, they can carry rabies. I am so sorry that you got bit. They are vicious!!! A gun or poison or a trap is the only way to deter them. With poison you have to worry about your ducks getting into it but some people do use that even though it is not legal I don't think.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Frank how is your flock all doing???? I hope that they have all been safe and sound.

Well, they were safe during the night, but i have to leave them alone and fend for themselves while i am at work. It was much easier while i was working from home...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Yes, trash pandas for sure will do that. That is what they did to my KC and my Wood Duck. It ate the Wood Duck entirely and then left everything of the KC except for the insides. I caught the three responsible and spent almost 4 thousand dollars in pens all connected together to keep the rest of them safe. Since then no more problems. I am sorry you are having these problems Frank.

My long term plan is to create some kind of perimeter fence around the house, the pond, the garden and some of the pasture.
First objective is to keep the deer out.
Second objective is to deter predators.
I am thinking about deadwood hedges, enforced with electric fencing, but that will take time...
In the meantime i need to trap and shoot.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Oh No Frank, that bite can be serious!!! I pray that you get checked out, they can carry rabies. I am so sorry that you got bit. They are vicious!!! A gun or poison or a trap is the only way to deter them. With poison you have to worry about your ducks getting into it but some people do use that even though it is not legal I don't think.

That trash-coon was not rabid, it was quick and agile and jumped from the ceiling of the duck-run towards me.

 

[Supercow]

If I was a trash panda I'd go and live in a deadwood hedge...

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

If I was a trash panda I'd go and live in a deadwood hedge...

Not my deadwood hedge: I will use the autumn olive shrubs that i have to remove anyways and those have 5cm long thorns…