Setting a fox trap

We spent a little time today setting a live trap for the fox that has been stealing eggs, chickens, and turkeys. The kids had fun helping to camouflage the trap with sticks, grass, etc.  Hopefully we will find a well fed grey fox in it  by morning.

For bait I decided to use fish, a can of sardines in fact. The open can should produce a good aroma to draw the fox in. After all, who can resist the smell of sardines?

Kaelyn brings some collected tall grass for camouflage.

Kaelyn and Hunter place grass and sticks over the trap.

The trap is placed against the wall of the chicken coop housing the baby turkeys. Around the trap I placed some old pine logs.

Hunter adds the finishing touches

Grey fox returns

Even though the tracks in the front yard look exactly like bobcat tracks... This morning I awoke to find a grey fox stalking the turkeys. Chickens were safely tucked away in the coop but turkeys were roosting at the pond. I attempted to meet him outside with the shotgun but I was too late. Tomorrow I might try waiting up for him.

UPDATE: Unfortunately I found a young headless turkey inside the coop today. Apparently the fox tore open a corner of the wire mesh and entered the coop, biting the head of a young turkey. I repaired the wire in the corner and reattached some roof panels that had blown off in the wind. That should make things more secure for the birds.


Also, I noticed that all of the duck eggs are gone off the nest, both the good ones and the bad ones. The nest is completely empty and Jill (the mother duck) had abandoned it. The fox must have had eggs for breakfast.

Garden planting

We managed to get most of the garden planted today. It seems late to be planting on memorial day, but the weather this year did not allow earlier planting.

We all worked together and got all of the definitely outdoor plants in the ground (the non-greenhouse friendly ones). So far we have :

Garlic (from last year)
Cucumbers and squash (started in the greenhouse)
Onions
Radishes
Carrots
Beets
Beans
Corn
Peas
Okra
Turnips


We are trying something new this year. Instead of staking the peas and beans, we planted corn in the same row. Hopefully the corn will provide natural poles for the vining plants to hold to. We also tried the same thing in the cucumber row, planting 3 corn plants around each cucumber plant.

It was great fun with the kids. They both love gardening and did an awesome job today!

Bobcat Attack claims some chickens

This morning brought a new surprise. For the last few weeks we have had occasional  occurrences of piles of feathers here and there. We were unsure what was responsible, until today. The first clue that something was amiss was actually waking up to a quiet morning.... no roosters crowing outside our window at 5am. I remember noticing the quiet and thinking "had I locked the chickens in last night?" The farm was just so quiet.

Around 6:30 I headed out to start on the garden, our chosen project for the morning.  That's when I realized that things were truly not right. Between the pond and the garden lay a dead chicken surrounded by a couple of piles of feathers.  As I surveyed the farm, I found a total of 3 dead chickens and 7 areas of scuffles with feathers left behind. All of the chickens were golden sex links.

The chickens had little to no physical damage until you looked closely. On two of them i found 2 puncture wounds at the base of the neck. There were no signs that the predator responsible had tried to eat them.

What had done this nighttime attack? Well at first I wasn't sure. What and why would something kill all these chickens (we think a total of 6 are missing) and not eat them? Why were the bodies fully intact?  I do know it happened in the early morning hours because at 7am the bodies were still warm even though the temp outside was 50 or so. Time to look for tracks!

Sure enough, I found tracks. Fortunately it had rained just the day before yesterday and there were several mud puddles around with lots of soft mud. In one of hte puddles in the front yard I discovered perfect tracks. The tracks match the shape and size of... a bobcat. That explains it!

Here are some track pictures:

So tonight we have locked the chickens safely away, and readied the shotgun just in case. This does accentuate the need to purchase a better farm protection weapon than a shotgun. a shotgun is going to be difficult to use effectively in a case like this, but is better than nothing.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Anxious turkeys!

These ladies seem anxious to move into their new but unfinished coop. That is a good sign!