Dragon was Killed EDIT: Pip Killed

[toejam]

I know how you feel mini fox. Last week my ornamental ducks were killed. They were by far my favorites. Only had them in the new pen for a day. Anyhow I'm sorry

 

[doudini2]

Minx, Oh Dear, I am so very sorry to read this, I cannot believe this is the news after not being on BYC for a few days.

I am not alone so I cannot cry, but I am barely holding it in.

I have just few days ago commented, how your Dragon is the most beautiful here, when you told me Henri is the same kind of pied peacock, and how proud I was that he will one day look like your Dragon. I hope you will stop being sad soon, and that his memory and his son will make you happy and proud again one day.

Feel better, Minx and R.I.P Dragon, the coolest peacock in the world of BYC.

Kat

 

[clinton9]

Minx,
I am very SORRY about loss of Dragon

I researched about raccons and I found them very intelligent, with 4 unrelated male raccoons lives in their home while female raccoons and their daughters lives in same area of home. Mother raccoon have 5 baby raccoons per year. Young male raccoons leave parental homes & go looking for homes, up to 20k/ms away. Daughters lives with mothers & grandmothers. Raccoons are social animals.

This may means you have @ 10-15 female raccoons or 3-4 male raccoons in your land.

Only was is to shoot all raccoons at nighttime when they are at bait/traps.

I hope you catch raccoons soon.

Clinton.

 

[Kedreeva]

Bah, I can't even come back to this thread without tearing up

What's the news after the wire traps? Is everyone ok?

 

[MinxFox]

We spent the night at my grandma's so we could hear the peafowl if anything happened. When we pulled up to the pen I got out and saw two eyes shinning next to a big oak tree a few feet away from the pen. When it saw me it turned and I was able to tell that it was an opossum and it ran away before my mom could get out with the gun. We only have one dog, a little miniature poodle named Snowball but she has caught 4 opossums before just in our backyard at night and chases raccoons and squirrels so we let her lose in hopes she would find the opossum but she never got to see it run and I think she is more of a sight dog so she tried to pick up the sent but was too distracted and happy to be running around so she didn't really go far.

This morning we got up at 6 to go and see if we caught anything. All the traps were still set and all the peafowl were safe even Ice on her nest, in fact Ice might hatch her eggs today. The pen looked secure so I am kind of thinking the opossum was just attracted to the smell of the fish, I think I saw that same opossum a few weeks ago when we went over there at night. That opossum and another one were next to an oak tree in the front yard far from the peafowl pen and they ran when they saw us. Even if the opossum didn't do it we still are going to shoot it just to be sure. We don't need predators hanging out around the pen.

 

[clinton9]

Minx,
Yes, you can shoot opussums as they do eat meats as birds & animals. Mother opussum have 10-13 babies per year, and opussums are not intelligent.
They are spreading northward over 100 past years, from South America.

Clinton.

 

[ColbyNTX]

Opossums will kill and eat the same way as a coon. They are a bit easier to trap. Cat food or sardines makes great bait.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Quote:
I am so sorry about the loss of your handsome Dragon. I agree that is was probably a coon who grabbed him and that electric fencing can help. I hope Alto is healed soon and that the hatch goes well.

 

[jimmythechicken]

hope you get him we just say a cat stalking out chicks in a grower pen.it was getting dark an it ran off when it heard me yell to debbie.we snuck out the front door an circled around the house an there he was about 50 yards away in the field i took one shot just missed an he ran right at us then i hit him with the next shot he fell in the tree line.my wife said what if that is the next door nieghbors cat an they call the cops.i said well when they get here i will ask them if the nieghbor is going to pay us 100$ for the 9 lavender an blue orp chicks there cat killed 5 weeks ago.around here if it has four legs an does not belong to me i shot it.good luck on catching what ever got your baby

 

[MinxFox]

We don't have cats come around at my grandma's with the peafowl, but here at our house there are tons of cats! All the neighborhood cats seem to come to our yard because it is big and there are some woods next to us. They fight in our yard and stuff. We got tired of looking out in the backyard and seeing some cat stalking the birdies on our bird feeder. House cats like to kill things and not eat them because they have catfood at home so why bother I guess. A few months ago my dad saw a cat with a rabbit in it's mouth. We ran out to try and save the rabbit but it was too late. It was a very young rabbit not even fully grown poor thing.

We shoot all cats but with a BB gun. We don't want to kill anyone's pet but we hate cats. My friend lives behind us and his cat is so nice though, she stays in her yard and is one of the sweetest cats I have met so I don't dislike them all.

Tonight we will hopefully catch something. Those sardines are really smelling so hopefully something will come.