lost 300 birds

[Dahitman44]

Copper's training will be done by this weekend either way. The trainer had a skunk KILL 300 of his training birds. I guess the skunk ate one and killed the rest. Nice. Pheasants, partridge and quaile, I think.

How the heck does a skunk do that?

[LABS4ME]

Sounds more like a mink or a weasel... I guy I knew lost 6-10 a night to an owl... Would land on the net flapping it's wings till they started flushing, grab one in it's talons, procede to peck off it's head to eat and repeat...

As for the ground vermin, he had chicken wire buried at a right angle to the pen in the ground 2' and up the sides 2'. Then ran an electric fence 6" off the ground all the way around the pen... pretty rare for him to lose one to any ground predator.

Good Luck!

Ken

[Dahitman44]

Good point I will mention that.

[Gissert]

My father in law had a fair amount of laying hens last spring.

They started to get killed, several each night. When he finally caught the offender, there were almost no birds left. It was a mink. Seems like they will just keep killing for the fun of it. I have heard that weasels can be even worse.

[kentuck_ike]

What it was depends on how clean the killing was, Skunks usaslly make a mess of what they kill, Weasels & mink are very clean, most of the time there is only one bite just below the back of the head.

This year I lost 190 to stray cats that tore the top netting. Last year I lost about 100 to an owl. Next year I am buy adult birds as I need them.

[Dahitman44]

Yeah, when I went out there and moved stuff he was sprayed by a skunk. Either he killed everything or he was picking up the leftovers.

[Fish&Fowl]

That's why I run over anything I can with my truck that is a known predator to birds, especially ducks. I don't care how long my truck stinks I will hit a skunk if I get the chance. Also try to do some varmit hunting in the winter. Predation is a big part of bird loss and I'm all for shooting crows, coyotes, and anything else to help save a few birds. Also a fun way to spend a nice winter day.

[Dahitman44]

Wow.

I think they have medication for that.

[xedge2002]

We found a skunk last week while we were out hunting. It sprayed and got one person but didn't get me. I unloaded on it then put a few more rounds in him just to make sure. Definetly one that won't be eating any more pheasants.

[Dahitman44]

Edge --

Well done.

[Dahitman44]

The trainer told me that it was a mink or something like that instead of a skunk. I thought it was strange that a skunk would kill all of those birds.

I guess the killer lined up all of the birds and tht is what a mink does, so I am told.