Turning the tables on Predators? ** don't read if you're squeamish

[TexasTony]

Le Canard de Barbarie,

Widowzilla fed regular Diamond dog food to the pack for years, and a couple of years ago switched to that same Diamond Natural L&R. But these past few months has switched to the Raw feeding. They still get some kibble, but it's more like 10% of their diet. 90% is chicken, emu, beef, pork, etc that we're buying in bulk for $0.30-$2 / lb. Definitely under $1 / lb average, probably closer to $.75 .

Diamond N L&R is what, $25-30 for a 40 lb bag? That's $.6 to .75 / lb. But the dogs eat maybe 50-75% by weight compared to kibbles, so 1 lb of raw meat is the equivalent of 1.5 lbs of kibble. That means that the meat effectively costs $.50 /lb.

But the bigger reason for switching is the impact on them physically. These are 50-80 lb dogs. Top of their breed, national Specialty Winners, Westminister breed winners, Best in Shows, etc. We've had a dog in the top 10 (conformation) every year in our breed for 20+ years. So they're nice dogs. We can see more sheen in their coats, their teeth are cleaner, they have more energy, and meal times are quick! There is more prep time on our part, but much less time in actual eating time. And no begging some dogs to eat! Sorry, off topic but thought I'd mention this.

Oh, Ken H, good idea with the pellet gun. But the smallest gun I have is a 22, & I'm not looking to spend $50 on a pellet gun. If I get one, I'll try it.

Great ongoing discussion. I didn't think this thread would wander into coon recipe's for people!

-tony

 

[cwhit590]

Quote:
I took a parasitology class too...fascinating yet gross! Sometimes ignorance really IS bliss...

If you do feed the carcasses to your birds I think it might be a good idea to gut them (and cook them VERY well). A lot of parasites live in the GI tract and organs like the kidney and liver...and that goes for all species in general.

 

[RedStarDaddy]

Quote:
The Crosman 2260 is a reasonable summertime hunting pellet rifle, since it is about done when the temperature drops below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. It runs about 80 bucks these days.

The Daisy 22SG is a pneumatic rifle and runs about $100.

The Benjamin 392 is another pneumatic, but it's about $130.

The Sheridan Blue and Silver Streaks are 20 caliber/5 mm instead of 22. The Blue Streak is about $150; the Silver Streak, $165.

And they only go up from there.

You can buy a $50 air rifle, but all you're going to do with it is injure the raccoon. Yes, it is a varmint; still, even a varmint deserves a quick and humane death at our hands.

If you are in a location where you can fire your 22, go ahead and use it. It develops much more energy than any air rifle under $400 does, and you already have it.

RSD

 

[TexasTony]

RSD,

I agree, a more expensive pellet gun is much better than the toy junk. Used good ones sell for about $50. And if I'm not going to spend $50, then I don't think I'll be spending $130. I try not to buy new if I can, I'd just as well let somebody else take that initial 75% depreciation in the first 10% of it's usable life.

Oh, an update on the live trap. I spent the better part of today working on the new chicken coop. An hour or two ago I her the click of the trap door. Hey, guess what, I get 2 varmints in 1 shot in the middle of the day.

But I'm facing a dilemna & can use some advice. Is it wrong to make my chickens into cannibals & feed the two trapped hens to the rest of the flock???

At least the rooster can say he wasn't the dumb-dumb this time. Not that he doesn't have many of those moments himself.

A little before the incidental trapping, I drove our ducks down to the pond & found about 20 wild ducks down there. For a while, the two groups were on opposite sides of the pond. My ducks never noticed the 'invaders', but they watched our gang for a while. We rarely get that many wild ducks at one time, it was an interesting time. I finally walked off, & about 1/2 hour later the ducks came back up to their yard.

Oh, one other update. Widowzilla got 80 lbs of raw beef & pork yesterday, & chopped it up for the freezer. There was about 1/2 gallon of blood at the bottom of the box & I put it into a jar. I poured a little out around the live trap, thinking it might attract the possums. Well, I can tell you what it attracted in droves. Flies. I couldn't inhale down there without a fly wanting to jump down my throat (well, maybe not quite that bad). But I can say that blood draws in flies more than anything I have ever seen in my life. Maybe I need to invent a fly trap that uses blood as the attractant? But this does make one thing absolutely clear: I'm not going to be shooting ANY varmints. Can't help but spin blood on the ground doing that, and the flies will be everywhere. Nope, I'm sticking with drowning.

Widowzilla just reminded me of another method of dispatching varmints that I used 10-15 years ago. We were getting big old rats back in my shed. The normal guillotine traps wouldn't catch them, & I had to use the squirrel-sized live traps. My method of killing them was to put the trap into a trash bag, start the car & run it for 10 seconds to fill the bag with motor exhausts (carbon monoxide & carbon dioxide). Again, a quick death. Maybe 20 seconds of struggling, but it was amazingly quick. If I'm going to be skinning the varmints, this might make that task a bit easier.

Tony

An interesting day.

 

[DWH]

After all that protein your chickens should be able to bench what 500 maybe 700 pounds

Just kidding. They run laps. *Rolling on the floor laughing* 9 years later *realizes how bad those jokes were* Um akward.

 

[DWH]

But I wouldn't feed the chickens that after motor exhaust kill.

 

[Ladyhawke1]

Quote:
I who am not finicky about eating anything….and will jump at the chance to try something new...I am just going to stop eating…. period.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

I think drowning them is the most humane way. Everyone is making assumptions that are not accurate. I have drowned twice in my life. Both times being pulled out of the water an revived. I have also revived a few people that drowned an failed to revive a few people to. I have also been around shootings an every other type of death you can think of. There is no such thing as instant death. Drowning way more humane than shooting no matter how well placed the shot.

CO poising is even better. Not that way but low level CO like 20% CO. To much burns the lungs but at something like 20% they just go to sleep an the body shuts down.

An animal put to sleep by CO is harmless to others. Your body produces CO already anyway so getting it in your system by ingestion shouldn't be harmful. The danger of CO is that when it is inhaled it attaches to the hemoglobin in your blood an gets stuck an the hemoglobin cant attach to to Oxygen or CO2 that it needs to to move it threw the body.


When you cook anything in a closed fire grill you turn a lot of the carbon in the food your cooking in to CO an you eat that.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

admittedly i havent read this entire thread (i am trying to eat lunch!!!)

but have you tried an auger to dig a deep hole??? i know you said the vultures dug 'em up but we have had good success with a one man auger and they are just about the right size to drop in a varmint. sometimes we'll put a heavy piece of wood or something over it....

good luck!
(back to trying to finish my chow......)

ps i would NOT feed chickens back to the flock.

 

[NurseNettie]

I haven't had a chance to read through all the posts-- so I could be repeating some of what I'm writing.

If you're live-trapping animals, and thinking you'll get a skunk soon--- make sure you've got a rope on your trap, or good heavy tarp to toss over it-- otherwise you're getting sprayed!

We've been told that shooting skunks cause them to spray, so that's where we joined the ranks of the drowning predators. ( and where we got the rope idea-- after catching a skunk and not knowing how to handle it). Ours get dunked in our pond, then taken to the far edge of the property, into the woods. There are lots of other predators out there, and smell isn't ever an issue.

As far as feeding to the chickens? I don't know that I could find the time to prepare the animal for them-- as it is, I have given away my recent round of roosters because I didn't have time to dress them out for my dinner.. much less for the chickens!! As long as it's "safe" I don't see why not- food is food!