wood at the grocery store Firing Your Oven Discuss wood at the grocery store in the Oven Management forums; I did my part on the raccoons last night. A suicidal one ran out in front of me on the ...

[egalecki]

I did my part on the raccoons last night. A suicidal one ran out in front of me on the way back from taking my daughters to vote for the first time. UGH. I hate that bump-bump.

I don't know if they'll upset your ecosystem, but they'll sure upset your garbage cans!

[staestc]

That bumb-bump is always just horrible. Around here we have a million suicidal bunnies at the moment, and on two lane roads at night you can't always avoid them. Of course they are eating a lot of my plants too, but bunnies are so cute

Edit: I misstyped CAN instead of CAN'T originally!

[egalecki]

couldn't avoid this one if I'd tried- ravine on one side, mountain on the other. I slowed almost to a stop and I swear the idiot thing ran UNDER my wheels! If I'd managed to stop beforehand, I think it would have flung itself over the cliff instead.

[brokencookie]

In my area the racoons are pretty stable, but the possiums are unbalanced. I can see them come into the backyard at night and sniff the dog poop. Then they look around for the dog so he can kill them. I just consider them to be soil amendments.

Bruce

[egalecki]

I'm pretty sure my husband would have me committed if I brought home a dead raccoon for the compost pile. We'll see if it's there tonight when I go back over the mountain for practice...

[Wiley]

I have a friend who says he tried eating raccoon...seems he was tired of the raccoons eating his chickens and thought turn-about was fair play. He said it wasn't particularly tasty but that it was extremely greasy.

My friend is a fairly colorful character who once accidentially ran over a neighbors duck. The neighbor complained, and so he went to their house to settle the situation. He asked what the duck was worth and what it would take to make things right, the neighbor said five bucks, which my friend promptly paid. He then asked for the run over duck which he took home and cooked for dinner.

We are in a fairly constant war with raccoons where I live. If they aren't breaking limbs off our fruit trees in quest for the fruit they are killing our ducks. Over the years they have killed many of my Khaki Campbell ducks and Muscovies but the final draw was when they killed my favorite goose, named Harry. Harry was 18 years old and a grand old fellow. Ever since then all tree'd raccoons are shot and trapped raccoons are transported many miles away, off island.
Wiley

[egalecki]

I'd be PO'd too if they killed a duck. I would love to have a couple of ducks for bug control in the garden. And the eggs. Someday when I don't live in town (livestock bans, ya know) I'm going to have ducks. And bees. (I know I could have them now, but the neighbors have kids and I don't want to rock that boat)

Poor Harry.

[dmun]

I would love to have a couple of ducks for bug control in the garden. And the eggs.

More and more suburban, and even urban areas are allowing backyard chickens. I don't know about ducks, but I've seen them hanging around people's lawns without much encouragement. If you like Canadian geese, we could arrange for you to get a whole bunch of those.

[Wiley]

I would suggest anyone considering ducks to look into Khaki Campbells. They have the record for most eggs laid in a year (well over 300, the record is something like 340) and are very sweet of temperment. They are unlike chickens in that they are very parasite resistant. The Drakes can be noisy but the hens are usually quiet. The drakes sound just like Daffy Duck! They look like a sepia copy of a Mallard only they do not weigh as much nor are as "deep keeled" (that is a term used in describing ducks that means they don't have as big a chest/breasts) and as such are less suited for meat producton, but their eggs are great.

A huge boon is they really enjoy eating slugs although watching them do so is a bit disgusting. And as anyone who has been to the Pacific Northwest we do have slugs! Great liitle fellows who if raised from duckilings will eat from your hand. And Khaki's can pretty much live off the lawn and garden without the need for purchased feed (again very different from chickens).

Wiley

[Frances]

Originally Posted by Wiley

And as anyone who has been to the Pacific Northwest we do have slugs! Great liitle fellows who if raised from

Ok, the next word makes all clear, but for a moment you had me confused there. Do they have them over in Europe I wonder? Ducks, not slugs (we have PLENTY of them)

I assume you'd need to keep several ducks so they don't get lonely. Do they need a pond to swim in or can you keep them on land? Hmmm, that would be very cool....