Well.... I don't have any shots of the victims on this one, but I can share what happened to these guys....
That would be 4 kits from a family of 6 that killed 7 of our ducks over a 2 month period. In May 2015 we started with ducks. Runners and mallards. We knew we had raccoons around; doesn't just about everybody?
They ripped the door off the duck hut and snagged 2 mallards. We fixed the door and they dug under the side and got 3 more the next night. After much reinforcement, they laid off for a couple weeks while we amassed traps of all sorts and DH staying up all night, hidden in a camper, waiting for them. About a month later, we got careless and she came back and got 2 more, Dinker (our runt Mallard) and one if my runners. That was the last straw. I was outside walking the creek one night, and I heard the mother growling and squawking and I hollered at DH who came running out with the shotgun. 4 of the kits had climbed a tree and mother was calling them back to the creek, but they never made it
Never did get the mother, but this last spring, what we assume was the last kit that we didn't get came back, and we cornered it and it is now deceased as well.
Now the ducks have a concrete embedded duck hut with reinforced walls and a padlock
I'll share a bit about a weasel that got 17 ducks in 2 nights, as well....
This was after fortifying the hut, but it hadn't been embedded in concrete yet. Evidently there was an inch wide gap in the bottom of the hut, and one morning, I opened up the duck hut to find all of our mature ducks beheaded. 4 ducks that night, 3 runners and our Drake Mallard. Idiots that we were, we put a brick in what we assumed was the hole, then proceeded to lock our Mallard and 12 ducklings in that stupid duck hut. The next morning, all dead, and 7 ducklings missing. We found 2 of the ducklings jammed in the side of the hut. The weasel had been attempting to take them back to its den. We had the little stinker trapped under the duck hut, but as soon as we tried to move it to shoot it, the bugger took off and DH missed it by inches.
Haven't had any issues since the weasel, but that was just this spring. We always expect something in spring. It's when they need to feed their babies and they can't resist the ducks for some reason. Never a problem with the chickens, but lost a good 90% of our ducks to predators.
* to add.. We are bordered by cornfields and a creek in the north side of our yard, about 50 feet from the birds. The creek is home to weasels, raccoons, opossums(which have never caused problems), foxes, and maybe an owl or two. We watch the trails along the creek and can tell when they're moving by their track. We have lost a few ducks in the creek too, but not knowing what itcwas, my best guess is the weasels; they're very good at sneak attacks and literally paralyze their victim. We try to keep old cars and trucks cleaned up to keep the coons from nesting in the actual property, but they're crafty little guys, and as long as everybody is locked up tight, they can live to see another day. There's always going to be something with the creek right there.
