Raccoon Captured!

Even though the chicken/ducks cage is secured but we still fear that the raccoon will try to find a way to go inside. I set a trap last week with marshmallows and cat food but since he had live ducks to feast he didn’t even touch the bait. The last 2 nights he ate the marshmallows around the trap. Bo set a Wildgame camera last night to see if he would come back. The Wildgame camera is really neat, and we’ll need to buy one, this one we borrowed from our neighbor. It captures movement and last night/early this morning it took many photos of the ducks and raccoon in action.

The cat food and marshmallows work wonder for raccoon bait. I set the cat food and a few pieces of marshmallows inside the trap then make a trail of marshmallows around the trap.

These are the photos from the Wildgame camera last night/early this morning.

Notice that you can see the ducks in this image.

Then they all disappeared when the raccoon came around.

He’s looking for a way to get inside the cage.

We knew that he would eventually go inside the trap since he was hungry, notice you don’t see the ducks in this image below or the one above.

Then they all came out when the raccoon was inside the trap, I guess they knew it’s safe now.

He didn’t move when I took his photos this morning.

He’s a beauty and after I took his pictures I went to work. I wasn’t sure what Bo plan to do with him, and if it were me I would have released him far away. Bo took the raccoon to his friend’s land and released him in the wood. As soon as Bo opened the trap door he took off into the wood. I’m just glad that he didn’t kill him.

Safe Zone

I woke up Friday morning to find 2 more killed, one young chick was in a small cage and the raccoon was able to kill it but not get to it to eat, then he killed another duck to eat. At this point I was hopeless, I looked at all the area that I secured at the bottom, and couldn’t find any area that he could get in and out.

I went back to the back area where he normally killed and ate the ducks/chickens and saw his foot trail outside the fence. I looked at the bottom of the fence and it was secured.

I looked up and saw the bent fence, sure enough he got in through the top. When we put up the net, we zip tied the net to the fence but did it 6 to 12 inches apart and it looked tight and secured. I spent 4 hours yesterday zip tied the net to the fence, the top of the fence is now secured.

The photos were taken with the iPhone and it’s not as clear as my camera.  The camera is still on vacation.

I used all 800 cable ties, and this morning I was happy to see that he wasn’t able to get in. It’s such a relief to know that the ducks and chickens are safe at night.

Beware of the Rooster

Not very often that I get to feed Bo’s chickens and ducks, I had to take care of them several weeks back. He feeds them twice a day, morning and afternoon so it was a busy weekend for me. The last time I feed them was during the winter when he had to go out of town for a funeral in Canada. The winter weather was harsh, I was sick but I certainly felt worse for the chickens and ducks having to stay outside in the cold. This time it’s in the Summer so it wasn’t so bad, I had to take care of them for 3 days. The first feed I got attacked by the rooster, it’s almost comical and I went out to get my camera and thought I would take some photos for Bo to see. When I got back he greeted me by the front gate, if looks could kill!

Then he proceeds to come toward me, I’m shaken in my boots at this time but determine to get some photos.

Then he attacked me, he is one mean fighting rooster. He pecked through my jeans and gave me 4 bruises and took out some skin. At this time I was extremely worried, not sure how I would go in and feed the chickens and ducks.

I kept my distance, and he kept his watchful eyes over me, certainly not in a good way.

I called Bo and he was hysterically laughing, he said that he should have warned me about the rooster. It is a fighting rooster bloodline from Thailand. He told me to bring in a net and he will leave me alone. My only weapon at this point is a fishing net, and sure enough he stayed away from me for the rest of the weekend.

The rest of the chickens and ducks are real nice

Even the mean looking ones are nice.

She is nesting, we have some hatched this week.

The rooster is the least of our worry right now, there is something that has been coming into the coop at night and eat the inside organ of the chickens and ducks. It has been killing 1 and sometimes 2 per night, and so far Bo has lost over 10 chickens and ducks and mostly females since they are weaker and couldn’t fight off the predator. The coop is secured, it’s fenced in and has net above so not sure how it got in. At this point, we thought it might be a weasel and have set a trap out for it.