- Joined
- Jan 23, 2012
- Messages
- 1,216
my old ex neighbor lady spent every night feeding and watching the neighborhood animals. the ones that live somewhere in the wild. she fed deer, raccoons, birds, chipmunks, even skunks. since she has been out of her home / recluse farm the animals have not been fed by humans, at least not with intent. its been over a year now since she left. the skunks disappeared since but the raccoons are a different story.
one night last spring when I went to let my cat in for the night, a small raccoon tried to come in with the cat. . . . . whew, that’d be a interesting saga with the German Shepard in the house.... fortunately I was watching closely and managed to push it back out before it realized what happened. I didn’t see any more of those cute little monsters again.
deer are a different story. last year, mary’s straw bale garden got eaten to the nubbs when it first started growing. this year the straw bale garden is heavily guarded with wire fence, and more wire fence. hopefully this will deter the wild critters from munching on the nice fresh green things. . . . but. . . .
last evening, I noticed one of the bird feeders that mary has being kept full, was laying under the big pine type tree, with the top off and all the lilys of the valley under where it was in the tree. bears ? probably not, but they have been here in the yard before. nope, I just hung it back up, empty.
this morning, went to let the chickens out of their big cage and lo and behold, two other bird feeders wer laying under the big tree, half empty. . . . crap, at least they should eat the stuff if they are going to tear them down. im afraid the coons have come to my house now, can’t say as I blame them. there is always something somewhere for them to eat. so the question is. . . . . short of removing the bird feeders, how can I deter the coons ? I tried many years ago to use gun powder and lead but ended up blowing the hell out of a real nice bird feeder I had built. that feeder has been laying behind the barn, still semi attached to its cedar post. I don’t have the heart to burn it.
besides the coons, yesterday mid day I was loading a step ladder into the back of the truck, and happened to notice a fawn, watching me very intently, from just a couple feet away. . . . it really caught me by surprise. I reached for my phone / camera and by the time I got it out of my pocket, it trotted back to its mom that was about 15 feet from me, and away they went, down the hill and into the deep grass. they are soooo frail looking this time of year. but they will not get mary’s garden this year.
back to the coons, how the heck am I going to keep them from crawling up and over the 6 foot fence that’s around the garden ? I do have a couple electric fencers and could wrap hot wire around the upper part of the fencing, but I hate to do that. or do I ? ? ? (evil grin) is there a good chemical available that anyone has used successfully ?
one night last spring when I went to let my cat in for the night, a small raccoon tried to come in with the cat. . . . . whew, that’d be a interesting saga with the German Shepard in the house.... fortunately I was watching closely and managed to push it back out before it realized what happened. I didn’t see any more of those cute little monsters again.
deer are a different story. last year, mary’s straw bale garden got eaten to the nubbs when it first started growing. this year the straw bale garden is heavily guarded with wire fence, and more wire fence. hopefully this will deter the wild critters from munching on the nice fresh green things. . . . but. . . .
last evening, I noticed one of the bird feeders that mary has being kept full, was laying under the big pine type tree, with the top off and all the lilys of the valley under where it was in the tree. bears ? probably not, but they have been here in the yard before. nope, I just hung it back up, empty.
this morning, went to let the chickens out of their big cage and lo and behold, two other bird feeders wer laying under the big tree, half empty. . . . crap, at least they should eat the stuff if they are going to tear them down. im afraid the coons have come to my house now, can’t say as I blame them. there is always something somewhere for them to eat. so the question is. . . . . short of removing the bird feeders, how can I deter the coons ? I tried many years ago to use gun powder and lead but ended up blowing the hell out of a real nice bird feeder I had built. that feeder has been laying behind the barn, still semi attached to its cedar post. I don’t have the heart to burn it.
besides the coons, yesterday mid day I was loading a step ladder into the back of the truck, and happened to notice a fawn, watching me very intently, from just a couple feet away. . . . it really caught me by surprise. I reached for my phone / camera and by the time I got it out of my pocket, it trotted back to its mom that was about 15 feet from me, and away they went, down the hill and into the deep grass. they are soooo frail looking this time of year. but they will not get mary’s garden this year.
back to the coons, how the heck am I going to keep them from crawling up and over the 6 foot fence that’s around the garden ? I do have a couple electric fencers and could wrap hot wire around the upper part of the fencing, but I hate to do that. or do I ? ? ? (evil grin) is there a good chemical available that anyone has used successfully ?