moxies_ Life on the HHP Ranch....Rain!!!!!!

[moxies_chickennuggets]

It's raining...and raining good. Inch and a half, and more on the way. The ditch is overflowing, the woodshop has a river running through it, the chickens are starting to resemble ducks. We need the rain..the well runs low. But, previous owners on the property have totally screwed up the drainage on the place. I found out why the woodshop is flooding. The heavy rain has no where to go, so it backs up...right into the woodshop. And of course, no drains in the woodshop. It is looking ...not good. And I have no way to siphon or drain it out either.

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

This is right behind the woodshop, when it rained about as much last spring.

And this is out by the garden, further down...about 8 ft wide.....maybe 8" deep.

 

[hqueen13]

YIKES! Water management is so important! I hope you can find a way to deal with it a bit better and help it sink into the soil rather than running off!!
Don't float away!

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

Looked out into the yard...Noahs ark done sank

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

Well...well...something tried to get the chickies last night. 3 places dug out.....under the tractor edges, and chicken wire pulled by teeth. I saw what looked like dog prints...smallish. Not the big black labs, and they would have dug bigger holes I think. Not possum, not spikey raccoon paw prints. Do bobcats dig and pull wire?
Whatever it was, it didn't manage to get in. We can't flip on the porch or carport lights either, if we hear something. The switches are out in the garage, behind the padlocked door. Pffft.

It was either a smallish dog, or a bobcat. Anybody have any other thoughts on that?

 

[Wannabefree]

Can you get pics of the prints? We may be able to tell by that.

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

I took pics....but the prints do look like a dog. 4 toes and a pad..round. We have that younger puppy who likes to chase the chickens...neighbor lady says she wants to shoot it. I had just never seen it digging before, trying to get the chickens. Who knows.

 

[Denim Deb]

Don't know if this link would help or not.

http://www.bear-tracker.com/caninevsfeline.html

 

[moxies_chickennuggets]

Fox is more and more what I am thinking now. I made some pours of the prints, but they aren't set up yet. Too wet and rainy outside. I'll wait till I put the chickens up for the night to retrieve them. I made 3 good ones.
I googled the gray fox information. Like I said, it looked like dog prints, but not dog digging. Hand never seen any dogs dig like that before. Anyway, the print pattern matched grey fox prints.
Chickens will be getting locked upstairs in the coop tonight I think. IF the critter manages to get all the way in, it would still have to get up the ramp, which will be latched higher up. We made it that way in case of predators. A fox, now it could fit up the ramp. The neighborhood dogs are way too big to fit in it.
Oh, and since I found the digging this morning, a neighbor dog has planted scat right by the spot.

3 weeks ago, neighbor lady lost 2 hens that had wandered to the back of their property. They never returned. 2 weeks ago, I smelled faint skunk early in the morning. Google info says grey fox odor smells like skunk. This smelled like skunk, but not near as strong.

 

[hqueen13]

Foxes do have a musk that is very close to skunk, but smells like the skunk is "far away" if that makes sense. It wouldn't surprise me if it were fox, they are very tenacious. We have a LOT of foxes around here (I hear them yowling in the dark of the woods while feeding the horses sometimes... scary sound coming out of the night!!), and that is why I don't have chickens. I am not allowed to shoot things here in the park, so I don't have a way to defend the chickens, and that is not good!

Hope you are able to keep them out and keep your chickens safe!!