Today has been a heart wrenching day to say the least.
I woke up to go and feed the chickens and the quail. As you've all seen in a few of my other posts I built the quail a cage which is in my shop area, that I thought was secure from all predators. Sigh....I was wrong - and this is what I walk into.
Four quail - gone, ripped through the chicken wire. Then as Steve (my fiancee) and I are looking around to find out where the animal got in he happens to look above the quail cage anddddd here is the raccoon sleeping in the wall right above the quail cage
Now this is where my moral dilemmas come in. I hate that as a human race our first instinct is to kill anything that causes us trouble. Personally I would have liked to try and trap it and take it away. I called around and everybody has expressed that that wouldn't work and it would just come back and the best thing to do is to exterminate it. I would like some other opinions on this because I don't feel good about the decision that was made today and in the future I'd like to have another alternative.
In the end - we raise these animals and do have the duty to protect them.
On a happier note we did get our first egg out of our Gold Lace
Wyandottes that we got from http://bedrockandbrambles.blogspot.ca/ This may not seem extremely exciting but when you've been going out every day since November it is VERY exciting!
We also chopped some more wood today as we are getting very low, it's amazing how much I took the comforts of living for granted before moving into this place.
.jpg)
Except for the pose the pic of Steve chopping wood would be a great car ad.
ReplyDeleteHe does look a tad.......uncomfortable?
DeleteHi Leasha,
ReplyDeleteI stayed my trigger finger for years when it came to raccoons.
They're so cute and it is their world too.
But after finding a dozen mutilated chickens one morning,
the truce ended.
We place violators under new gardens and amongst our fruit trees .
Now that you have seen it firsthand, chicken-wire isn't effective.
Use one-inch welded wire mesh instead.
It's better to prevent loss rather than punish it.
Hey Andrew
DeleteThanks so much for your reply. I am in the middle of building my chicken run and I will look into the wire mesh you recommend. It really is such a shame to see something you raised killed but then on the other hand I understand that the raccoon is just lookig for a meal as well - such a catch 22. Oh! By the way, we are up to 2 eggs a day now!
Hey Leasha...thought you new that racoons love to put their little arms through the chicken wire and pull out the bird piece by piece...that,s what happened to the crow............poor bastards eh!..I should have used the small squre one.....that is nature........ya you dad told me about the possum....... you piggies look cute and funny....fast fcrs.....your dad said you had a blog...so I googled your name.....and found it.
DeleteBy the by I hope you ate the ribs. Yes Jordan and your dad were talking about all the shows and how such & such was able to get in and film what goes on in many places around the world in the manufacturing of live stock. Ya it is what it is...........70 thousand people are dead in Syria and the world is standing by that civil war and 200 thousand died in Iraq before anybody stopped that slaghter................Uncle mark
Hi Uncle Mark,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. All the war in our world is definitely something that needs to be addressed I will not arguet that. But the difference is, once again those tragities are human caused. When we treat animals badly they have no voice and we exploit them for our own needs. I don't disagree with the killing of animals but I think if we are going to use them then we should at least ensure that they are treated properly for their time on this earth. Hence my thoughts on not eating anything if you don't know where is was raised, how it was raised and what was put into it. This is for both the animals benefit and your own - do you want to be eating something that could contain elements harmful to your health?