and got one of our ducks:wah:
tonight the cat is inside and we have 2 live traps set.
the other 2 ducks seemed pretty freaked out all today.
keep those birds locked up at night ladies, m'kay?

Oh, I am sooo sorry!!! I know from camping (in State Parks where they learn to not fear anything) they will just walk up to a camp and take what they want and fight for it right in front of you!

I used to think they were so cute..... I grew up and learned otherwise!


((HUGSS)) for your loss!!

We have a hut for our chickens at night, but there is a pair of racoons that have been prying the door open, or pulling the stones away from the rooftop, the hut is partially underground, and have killed off 3 of our hens and our rooster. We've had a live trap set for 3 nights in a row, but they are wise and won't go into it. So, tonight, Mark is going to be out there waiting.

My stomach is ill at the thought of it all. I know that they are animals and need to hunt and eat, but if they were to go for other wild animals, I would probably take it a bit better.

I'm sorry for your loss and hope that you are able to keep it from happening again.

Oh, I'm so sorry. :(

We don't have a lot of mature trees in our yard and I think that so far that's kept them in other folks yard. Every morning tho, I hold my breath just a bit when I let the girls out of their coop.

This morning, I was going to move the feed to the garden shack, then I thought again; It can stay in the mud room. No sense adding extra good smells out there I suppose.

Man that stinks.

:hug: So sorry, poor ducky. :(

thanks everyone. This morning we went out there and another one of our ducks was flat out MISSING! :wah: our last duck was very confused looking. We ended up bringing the remaining duck to a duckpond in town where there are lots of ducks and geese and people are always there feeding them. we were a little unsure at first because when we got there she was the only pekin duck around but about 5 minutes later, 2 LOUD pekins come swimming up to her and she immediately teamed up with them and they formed a little team. She seemed really happy to be there so even though she lost 2 of her friends the past couple days, she seems super happy at her new spot.
*sigh* a bittersweet ending i guess.

It's a very kind and sweet ending really. ((hugs))

well we caught the raccoon late last night. dh says to leave it in there till he gets home from work and then he'll drive it out to the woods about 20 miles from here later this evening. i'm thinking of just calling animal control though. i don't want to risk dh getting bit. yeah, i think that's what i'll do.

Awww...glad you found a home for the last duck. I'd call animal control too. Although what I heard is, around here the way to dispense with a raccoon is to stab it through with a pitchfork. :eek: Sorry. But that's apparently the Yankee way.

It may come back. I'm not for certain. My girlfriend's dad took one across the river and through the woods, past grandma's house many miles away and it was back in 3 days. She doesn't think it was a new coon that moved into the porch in that time. I'd suspect the original too in that short of time.

Our friend did a catch and release on squirrels and hit them with a spot of paint, they were back in less than a week too.

tough call.

oh no marlena ~ so sorry about your ducks.

i'd be sure to ask animal control before they come out ~ if they will kill it, or release it. if kill it, i'd let your dh release it.

Awww...glad you found a home for the last duck. I'd call animal control too. Although what I heard is, around here the way to dispense with a raccoon is to stab it through with a pitchfork. :eek: Sorry. But that's apparently the Yankee way.

to be quite honest, we were seriously considering that last night. what happened was this, we set the trap early in the evening and we caught it right after dark. dh was immediately like "should i kill it?" and all of a sudden the vegetarian in my got very sympathetic for this poor trapped animal and i said no, lets drop him off in the woods tomorrow or call animal control in the morning. the trap we used was super crappy (we later learned!) and so dh went looking for some bricks to secure it a little better so he wouldn't be able to push out. while dh had his back turned, the little bugger quickly pushed his/her way under the trap door and made a mad dash outta there :drop: dh was extremely furious at this point because all of a sudden we were back to worrying about the chickens (the poor girls wouldn't even go back in their coop, they were sleeping up in the trees and just scattered all over the yard, sleeping with one eye open on the lookout for the 'coon). he said "aahhh! why didn't you just let me kill it when i had the chance!!" along with a slew of swear words :lol:
so dh was feeling super defeated and basically figured we would never be able to catch it because "raccoons are so smart, he's not coming back to the trap again, he's going straight for the chickens". well i told him to go reset the trap nonetheless because you never know. he reset it and sure enough the dummy was back within an hour! :lol: this time dh was ready and had his bricks and stuff to quickly secure the cage. he secured it and was like "ok this time, i'm killing the thing and there's nothing you can do to stop me". :eyes: well he looked around for something with which to kill it and we seriously couldn't come up with a thing! at least nothing "humane", if you can call it that. so with it still trapped as we speak (i've been giving it water in a bowl that was in the trap and it is mostly just trying to nap during the day anyways, so at least it isn't dying of thirst), we will deal with it when dh gets back (i called stupid animal control and no one was there, i left a message and no one has called me back, ugh! i guess i'll try again a little later).
it's crazy having to deal with the realities of country living sometimes. :eyes:

i should also add that all the chickens are alive and in one piece today! phew!

I have racoon issues too.

One once attacked our dog at midnight when he was going out to do his business. We had to take him to the emergency vet to get cleaned up, stitched and checked out (you could see the flesh ripped out in a couple places).

We also have rabbits who come indoors at night to avoid being terrorized by coons!

The only way I have been able to chase them away is throwing things at them (water, empty juice containers, etc).

I was told by animal control to hose the animal down w/ the hose and yell lost adn they will take off and not come back. ;)

I would be careful about relocating it. I don't know about everywhere, but it's illegal here. We can kill it, but we can't relocate it.

Plus if you think about it, you may be giving another farmer a problem by relocating it to their area. :-(

Ours are literally locked up every night, but we have a huge raccoon population in our backyard and our neighbor has lost several chickens to them.

I would be careful about relocating it. I don't know about everywhere, but it's illegal here. We can kill it, but we can't relocate it.

Plus if you think about it, you may be giving another farmer a problem by relocating it to their area. :-(

Ours are literally locked up every night, but we have a huge raccoon population in our backyard and our neighbor has lost several chickens to them.

where this raccoon went, there are no farms around. it's out in the middle of the woods and i would be extremely surprised if it made it's way to a farm! Seriously it's out there.

I'm not sure about the illegal part though but it's too late now. he's gone and hopefully will make a better life for itself out in the woods!:cuc: