I was talking with my friend Jenn on the phone today
while out walking through the duck and goose pens.
While sitting with Dutch, I suddenly noticed that
something tried digging in his pen last night.
Dented fence... a coyote probably did this jumping
up against the wire:
Hole in the ground where it tried to dig its way
inside, but hit the underground predator barrier:
It gave up digging when it hit the wire. It moved
down the fence a bit and tried again, but gave up
much quicker. This first site is where most of the
damage was done and it was hardly any at all:
It was hard to get a close up of the fence, but
take a look at the pvc coated galvanized wire. See
where it is bent. The pvc was stripped off in quite
a few places where it bit at the wire:
And because the pen is built so well, Dutch Boy
is still here with us this morning! I asked him if
he hid in his house when it happened, but he just
said he wasn't even scared. Okay, tough guy...
okay...
I covered the hole with pieces of cement for now.
This weekend I will actually pour some concrete into
the hole and fill it up and then bury it again:
When we see evidence like this that a predator was
here, it's hard to believe that we get adoption
applications where people actually type in:
"We free range our flock because we don't have
predators where we live. We have never lost any of
our ducks to predators."
"How long have you had your ducks?"
"A year."
"Well, I hate to tell you this, but there
is no such thing as a place without predators; you
just don't know they are there. And hopefully you
never will."
And then it never fails, three months later we
get the email that their flock was attacked and they
lost all but one of their ducks. And then they email
us again and ask: "Can we adopt a
replacement duck from you? Our duck is lonely."
"Sorry for your loss, but our ducks are not
'replacement ducks.' Furthermore, we have no
interest in allowing our rescued ducks to be a part
of your predator's menu. Build a safe pen for your
duck and ours and then we may reconsider."
It's so sad that the ducks are the ones who pay
for the shortsightedness of their owners.
