It's official: it's a stupid idea letting the girls set on nests outside. Kittywhee is gone, and her nest has a bunch of broken and empty eggs. I thought I was being mean to Kiki when I broke up her nest; I had bruises on my hand from her pecking me. She was mad. But she is alive.
Did you know that the Department of Fish and Game says that it's just fine for me to shoot the raccoons? If they are taking my poultry, I'm fully legal to take care of them. But wait, I don't want to kill them! It's not their fault they live here and find good eats. What about live-capture traps? I can relocate them myself to a nearby park. Noooo, that's illegal! They say it would displace the raccoons where I do the relocation, and the poor raccoon would also be in unfamiliar territory, not able to forage as well. Oh, and the chance of catching some raccoon disease is too risky. Best to shoot it, bang bang! Thanks, Department of Fish and Game. I'm glad you're looking out for me rather than the animals.
That's the goodbye, here's the hello: the Guinea Fowl Breeder's Association had a competition recently and I won. I will take delivery of 30 keets (baby Guineas) sometime by the end of September. That'll put me closer to 100 than 50 birds at the Alpine Estate. I'll be giving some away of course... I think.
1 comment:
night time. handheld spotlight and a 22 scoped rifle.
have your lovely assistant shine the spotlight, it will reflect red in the coon's eyes. and they will look up and STOP when they see the light.
aim between the red dots.
coons are not nice, furry, beautiful woodland creatures. Nasty little bastards, sit out with a spotlight one night, you can probably pop 10 to 15 of them.
leave them till morning.
If you REALLY wanted to imitate a Texas rancher, you'd leave a few of their bodies hung out on the barbed wire at your property line.
Other coons will see them and think "that's a mighty bad place. now lets eat those coons, and move along"
coons = bad. Lemme know when, I'll come up and help you shoot if you want.
Your lovely assistant still has to hold the spotlight. (I recommend dressing warm, this is not the time for thong modelling)
C
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