A. Make their way back to their original territory. This has been documented multiple times with squirrels also.
B. Will be killed by resident family of coons into whose territory you placed relocated coon.
The most humane and effective manner in which to deal with coons is to dispatch them. Scott's method is likely far better than my method of dispatching them inside the cage...very messy and frankly traumatic. Coons don't go quietly, at all.
Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. ~ Henry David Thoreau
Hope you see eggs soon Don! I spotted several egg strands on Thursday March 24 so not the earliest year and not the latest year for sure! But Friday night despite freezing temps, wind and icy rain they were laying eggs again. I have about a dozen clumps of eggs. This year a few more showed up on the east shore but most are SE corner like usual. They are using clumps of strange neon FA and leaves to drape their eggs around and under. I guess since I don't have sticks in this feels like structure to them. Some are draped over a bed of oak leaves in the shallow which is their usual spot.
Today I also took time to make a mallard straw tube nest device. The day after ice out the usual mallard pair showed up. The female is gone and the male stays circling in the pond. I hope she didn't make a nest in the adjacent woods already. The critters often raid the nests when they are under a pine tree etc. I had some welded wire so followed youtube instructions and made a mallard tube. I mounted it to a 2x4 and made a square-ish hole in the middle of the 2x4 and used my wolmanized 2x2 garden stakes to come up through that square hole to act as a mounting post. The orientation I guess is cross wise to any prevailing winds so wind can't blow down the barrel of the tube and about 3-4' off the water. I guess they lay eggs over a few days or a week or more so hopefully if they started a nest they might still find my straw tube attractive?
I may have to try to add PVC around the wood stake as a predator deterrant? Not sure as come to think of it the various videos I watched all make their posts out of steel.
Many said it might take a year for the tubes to be accepted and used by the ducks. Some tubes had 2 female sharing the tube for a double clutch of eggs. Some had an early and late comer using the tube over a longer time frame. All users found a much higher hatch and nearly 100% survival rate of the ducklings in the tubes compared to in 'nature' due to better protection.
A. Make their way back to their original territory. This has been documented multiple times with squirrels also.
B. Will be killed by resident family of coons into whose territory you placed relocated coon.
The most humane and effective manner in which to deal with coons is to dispatch them. Scott's method is likely far better than my method of dispatching them inside the cage...very messy and frankly traumatic. Coons don't go quietly, at all.
That was Dad's method. I just see that they have a lead/copper deficiency so I inject them with some as soon as possible and they quiet down very shortly after that. Anywhere from 17 to 40 grains of lead/copper or 60 grains of lead.
CC do you have a picture of the duck nesting tubes? I’m trying to imagine it, but my imagination is letting me down.
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
Your pond must be in the People's Republic of Boone County.
I had a similar situation come up with nuisance coons starting around this time last year. An acquaintance of mine caught wind of the fact that I was trapping and eliminating the vermin. He offered to relocate any that I caught. I politely declined and explained that relocation would just make a problem animal a problem for a different human. Dude took offense, called the Conservation department, and ratted me out. That didn't work out the way he was hoping it would. I had previously been in touch with the regional office here in CoMO to make them aware of the situation, and was given their blessing to destroy every one I caught until the problems went away. The agent told him thank you for calling, that they were aware, and please don't call us again to rat on Mr. Augie
The property is actually outside the Peoples Republic of Columbia, Boone county, which surprised me a little more, I would have expected that response from Boone county, this is in Randolph county, I had no intentions of relocating these to be anyone else,s problem, and have dispatched a fair amount of them in the recent yrs but I wasn't going to tell the GW that, but then he told me to get rid of them, not relocate after he had turned two of them loose.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
CC do you have a picture of the duck nesting tubes? I’m trying to imagine it, but my imagination is letting me down.
Me too, not picturing it but I may google it and see what I can find, I have a couple duck huts out and a couple of homemade ones mad out of 8" pvc pipe painted khaki colors but don't think I have had any luck yet although I do have them around every spring and even had hatches of them but don't know where the nests were.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
CC do you have a picture of the duck nesting tubes? I’m trying to imagine it, but my imagination is letting me down.
Me too, not picturing it but I may google it and see what I can find, I have a couple duck huts out and a couple of homemade ones mad out of 8" pvc pipe painted khaki colors but don't think I have had any luck yet although I do have them around every spring and even had hatches of them but don't know where the nests were.
Several good videos on this. In the UK they have seen a huge increase in the number of successful hatches and duckling survival with these tubes. I made mine with straw but watching videos they recommend 'grass hay' or Timothy Hay.
[video:google][/video]
or this one:
[video:google][/video]
or at the end of this one with video of ducklings jumping out!! I never knew that mallard ducklings did the jump out of the next like Wood Ducks but sure enough they do!
[video:google][/video]
and they used metal components perhaps as an additional predator guard. I like the design where the tube sits in a cradle which makes it easier to remove the tube to check and refresh the hay and leave the mount in place. In my pond I suspect I'll be taking it down and putting it back out in the pond at ice out. My wife says that it looks silly in the pond, like a wooly sheep without legs floating above the water..
CC, I can only say that my imagination was way off. Thank you for sharing. I’ve got most of the components around the farm, except for the cradle. Plus I’m assuming that needs welded. Got my work cut out for me. Thanks again Jeff
9 yr old pond, 1 ac, 15' deep. RES, YP, GS, FHM (no longer), HBG (going away), SMB, and HSB (only one seen in 5 yrs) Restocked HSB (2020) Have seen one of these. I think that's about all I should put in my little pond. Otter attack in 2023
My design was all wood to make it easy. I laid out about 8 feet (wish I had done 9 feet) of welded wire I had laying around. Mine was a 2x4" weld pattern like in the second video above but you can use hardware cloth or chicken wire whatever you have. Roll a good sized 'inside hoop' I made mine about 18" or more in diameter. Then fasten that with hog wire clips or in my case I fastened it down to a 2x4 with screws and washers to grip the metal. Then pack in the hay/straw and roll up the rest of the way like a pumpkin roll.
I intend to add either a stove pipe over the wooden mounting stake or will split a pvc pipe in half and wrap the wood stake with PVC. Since my wood stake comes up through a square hole in my 2x4 it is pretty easy to lift it off the stake and then take stake out if needed.
It would be interesting to experiment with depth and 'jump height' for the ducklings.
Not getting my hopes up, they say often the ducks need a season to get used to it first.
Looking at bringing in a trackhoe to eliminate cattails while the pond is down three feet.
That sounds like a lot of work. Can you hit them with one of the cattail herbicides while you have that 3' safety gap? I think some of the good ones are glyphosate (RoundUp) based, which is considered "non-persistent" in the soil.
You might be able to hit them hard, without herbicide getting directly into the lake.
OTOH, those types of herbicides work best when the plant is actively growing. I don't know if your cattails will hit their spring growth spurt before you get your spring rains.
Looking at bringing in a trackhoe to eliminate cattails while the pond is down three feet.
That sounds like a lot of work. Can you hit them with one of the cattail herbicides while you have that 3' safety gap? I think some of the good ones are glyphosate (RoundUp) based, which is considered "non-persistent" in the soil.
You might be able to hit them hard, without herbicide getting directly into the lake.
OTOH, those types of herbicides work best when the plant is actively growing. I don't know if your cattails will hit their spring growth spurt before you get your spring rains.
Maybe experiment on a little patch?
No need for a trackhoe if you have a beaver. Boy do they love cattails!
Looking at bringing in a trackhoe to eliminate cattails while the pond is down three feet.
That sounds like a lot of work. Can you hit them with one of the cattail herbicides while you have that 3' safety gap? I think some of the good ones are glyphosate (RoundUp) based, which is considered "non-persistent" in the soil.
You might be able to hit them hard, without herbicide getting directly into the lake.
OTOH, those types of herbicides work best when the plant is actively growing. I don't know if your cattails will hit their spring growth spurt before you get your spring rains.
Maybe experiment on a little patch?
No need for a trackhoe if you have a beaver. Boy do they love cattails!
Looking at bringing in a trackhoe to eliminate cattails while the pond is down three feet.
That sounds like a lot of work. Can you hit them with one of the cattail herbicides while you have that 3' safety gap? I think some of the good ones are glyphosate (RoundUp) based, which is considered "non-persistent" in the soil.
You might be able to hit them hard, without herbicide getting directly into the lake.
OTOH, those types of herbicides work best when the plant is actively growing. I don't know if your cattails will hit their spring growth spurt before you get your spring rains.
Maybe experiment on a little patch?
They are currently not growing. I believe the best way to remove them to completely remove the plant. Results are mixed on getting to the root if using herbicides IIRC from reading here.
Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
I am sure digging is best. I was just going for easier, but still worked.
If you get them 100%, does that give you a longer window before they re-establish in your pond?
Probably. Also makes it manageable to the eliminate the smaller clumps that do reestablish.
It will be a constant battle. I don't have any that I can see within 1/2 mile of here but I am still pulling individual volunteers every year that start to grow in the pond. Maybe seeds on the wind? I honestly don't know.
Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Will he do better than 50% survival to stocking?[/quot
Originally Posted by esshup
[quote=Snipe]Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Will he do better than 50% survival to stocking?
Good, viable eggs properly fertilized and cleaned of fungus will net 75% hatch rate. WAE have to be stocked out in grow outs or lakes 3 days post hatch.
Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Will he do better than 50% survival to stocking?[/quot
Originally Posted by esshup
[quote=Snipe]Got my buddy in CO set up with the first WAE eggs of the year today. Got 328,000 started today which is a great start filling an entire hatching jar with 4qts of eggs!
Will he do better than 50% survival to stocking?
Good, viable eggs properly fertilized and cleaned of fungus will net 75% hatch rate. WAE have to be stocked out in grow outs or lakes 3 days post hatch.
I was talking about what % will get to stocking size, accounting for post hatching mortality and cannibalism.