Washingtonians

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
how cute.

 

[Chickielady]

Jean I Love pic # 3127...
and what is this about CHOCOLATE ORPS & AMERAUCANAS ??????????????????????????

I would love a few Choc Am chicks...put me down for 2 ??
Will you have any to bring to the Winter Brisk???

 

[VelvettFog]

Quote:
I'm happy to help. And there's no fee for advice or plans - that's the fun part! Feel free to send a PM, of if you'd rather we can talk on the phone.


Dave

 

[pips&peeps]

Quote:
Where does the new owner of his mom live? I would love to have another baby from her.

I would just be thrilled to bred her to Dun Goin Steady:

I can see the facial resemblence Scottie has to his mommy......

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
I'm happy to help. And there's no fee for advice or plans - that's the fun part! Feel free to send a PM, of if you'd rather we can talk on the phone.


Dave

Sent you a PM...would love to talk.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Yeah, you are right and I know this. I usually stay outside most of the time.
And I figured out why I more of a problem this year than ever before.
The people who used to live behind us moved. They had dogs and so not many predators came through there.
Now I am pretty sure that both times the Bobcat came through, it was through their yard and into our yard.
It was a truly beautiful animal, and I wouldn't want to shoot it.
But I would want to be able to scare it away at the very least.
It was interesting though, when I scared it enough to drop the chicken, he/she went into the pasture and sat there watching me watching it.
It layed down in the grass and it was hard to see if you didn't know where it was.
I know it was waiting for us to go away so it could come back and get another opportunity for dinner.
My DH went in and got his pistol and shot at it, to scare it totally of for the time being.
I am going to put TP out in my shed so I can just pee outside.
Our yard is private and I don't have an issue with using the outdoors.
it's just hard because I have never had a problem before this year.
It just makes me sad.

Having neighbors with dogs is a crucial point, I suspect. I know when I could let my dogs run the place (I live on a 40) we didn't lose cats to coyotes, either, but to do that we'd need to pasture fence the last bits of the boundary and keep the gates closed: there's a couple thousand more automobile trips past my place than there were ten years ago. Not that my current dogs are much use for predator discouragment, since they're old (13 and 14) and getting slower and more frail by the day. I've mentioned getting a guard llama to the committee of the whole, but the objections have been: expensive, and too stupid to distinguish between our dogs and invaders.

I know my crucial issue is that I've got blackberries and plum suckers providing cover for mammalian predators (and the former, food for and bait to rats, raccoons, and possums) but neither my husband nor I are up to clearing the mess and the money's not there to hire someone.

Sorry you lost your beautiful bird; sorry to for Tamara's dog: both losses struck close to home and switched my brain to lecture mode. My bad.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
My question/concern....is why this bobcat so close to people. I know chickens are a easy target...but wouldn't a wild animal prefer more out in the woods? I wonder if it is hurt/old/too young to know better, etc. There have been cougars who came down into Winthrop, hid under porches. One had a face full of porpucpine quills and could not hunt.

One last year came right down by a friend's house and killed a ewe. It was hunted down and killed. It had evidently been hit by a car or something....had horrendous injuries...bone exposed and horrible infection in the leg. It was looking for easy food. Poor thing was in horrible pain.

I think there's three factors at work. One is that people aren't letting dogs run the way they used to*- until I was in my late twenties, opening the door in the morning and letting the dogs out to run loose was pretty much SOP for everyone, and it discouraged other predators from coming close to the house. Second, and hardest to counteract, more people are moving into the woods, or at least into the contact zones with National and State Parks and Forests and the holdings of big private timber companies (that some of these people have unfenced compost piles and leave their petfood on the porch over night adds to the effect). Third, and least popular to mention to certain segments of the population, bans on hunting bears, cougars, and bobcats with hounds and on fur trapping have removed the negative consequences of approaching people, and replaced them with a system which mostly removes the truly stupid from the population- bears and cougars which approach school yards in broad daylight, for instance.

Of course the situation you mention- an injured animal looking for easy prey- is the reason for close contact in the two cases of animals killed for invading human space in my experience (setting aside the time my old boyfriend and I awoke to cougar tracks on the pick-up canopy, because we were way the heck up in the woods and left unhurt): a bear that had been hit by a car and was eventually shot raiding garbage cans in my neighborhood, and a big male cougar that walked into a friend's yard in broad daylight over by Priest Lake and was shot taking a leap at their tethered pony, which had been gut-shot with a .22, had a huge abdominal abcess, and weighed less than 75 pounds.

I really think that for anyone with wild predator exposure, fencing and landscaping mindful of predator access and cover is the only long-term solution.





*Please note that over the years we've lost more cattle, hogs, horses, and chickens to dogs and cats than to anything except a pair of horned owls that moved in and hunted out my Mom's banties. Individual dogs kill calves and drive stock through fences to be hit by cars, and come into the feeder pig pens and kill and eat pigs, dog packs kill cattle and horses dierectly or run them to death. So running dogs is not my solution to anything. They're just other predators which have the unfair advantage of human approval.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
I PMd you about the beef and then realized you also are getting pork? I tink that's still coming up in September.

I think pigs are happening, I don't know for sure, will have to ask my sister when I talk to her later today.

 

[4cats3kids1hubby2many]

Quote:
I think there's three factors at work. One is that people aren't letting dogs run the way they used to*- until I was in my late twenties, opening the door in the morning and letting the dogs out to run loose was pretty much SOP for everyone, and it discouraged other predators from coming close to the house. Second, and hardest to counteract, more people are moving into the woods, or at least into the contact zones with National and State Parks and Forests and the holdings of big private timber companies (that some of these people have unfenced compost piles and leave their petfood on the porch over night adds to the effect). Third, and least popular to mention to certain segments of the population, bans on hunting bears, cougars, and bobcats with hounds and on fur trapping have removed the negative consequences of approaching people, and replaced them with a system which mostly removes the truly stupid from the population- bears and cougars which approach school yards in broad daylight, for instance. Of course the situation you mention- an injured animal looking for easy prey- is the reason for close contact in the two cases of animals killed for invading human space in my experience (setting aside the time my old boyfriend and I awoke to cougar tracks on the pick-up canopy, because we were way the heck up in the woods and left unhurt): a bear that had been hit by a car and was eventually shot raiding garbage cans in my neighborhood, and a big male cougar that walked into a friend's yard in broad daylight over by Priest Lake and was shot taking a leap at their tethered pony, which had been gut-shot with a .22, had a huge abdominal abcess, and weighed less than 75 pounds.

I really think that for anyone with wild predator exposure, fencing and landscaping mindful of predator access and cover is the only long-term solution.

*Please note that over the years we've lost more cattle, hogs, horses, and chickens to dogs and cats than to anything except a pair of horned owls that moved in and hunted out my Mom's banties. Individual dogs kill calves and drive stock through fences to be hit by cars, and come into the feeder pig pens and kill and eat pigs, dog packs kill cattle and horses dierectly or run them to death. So running dogs is not my solution to anything. They're just other predators which have the unfair advantage of human approval.



Actually on our side of the mtns hound hunting still goes on, especially on the reservation....but the friend whose ewe was killed he called in friends with dogs. And I agree with you...not condoning the running loose of dogs and we too have lost many pets and livestock to dog packs. Fido and spot are your freindly house dog and then people (they still do over here) let them out at night to "run" and they cause horrendous (must be my word of the day)damage. I have seen deer hamstrung and then the dogs maul them ...leave them and run off to pull down another deer...just to maul it and go on to the next. Nothing is ever eaten...they are not hungry...they have food at home. They are just running in packs. We had our first flock of birds annialated (sp) some 10 years ago by a pack of dogs. This included my DH's pet 75 lb turkey. We staked out the turkey carcass. When the dogs came back we shot them. They stood their ground and growled at the DH before he even pulled the trigger. Found out later they were causing lots of problems - attacked someone else's dog, ran a person back into their home when they let their "fido" out to go potty, etc. These were not ferral dogs, they had collars on. They were all in good health. We shot and killed 5 huskies. Mind you PLEASE!!!!!! I have dogs and love them. But if I shoot the owner for being STUPID I will go to jail. Usually I go and tell people, hey your dog is harrassing my livestock...never had chance to do this. Glad we killed them before they hurt a person...they were dangerous.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
I have to laugh at the photo with the collapsable rake: one of the great chicken tools, right up there with a salmon net. Mine is living down by the young wyandottes, who play soccer with their food dishes and one of whom bites me if I'm late with water.