Well, it’s official. We are having predator problems again. It seems that some barnyard predators have developed a taste for Guinea. We had several missing, and we spent night after night hunting and setting traps with no further losses. During last week’s freak snowstorm, however, we lost yet another guinea. One of our barn cats has also been missing for over a week now, and we feel certain something got him too.
It was time to stop guessing and find out exactly what we’re up against. Our last game camera had stopped working (due to being left open in the rain. Thanks kids.) but it had come through for us last time we had a problem, so we sucked it up and ordered a new one from Amazon. (Affiliate link)
It only took a couple of days for our enemy to show himself.
Yep. That’s a fox again. Foxes are one of the toughest barnyard predators to trap. They are just way too smart to fall for anything but the most disguised trap. It’s bad news, BUT at least we know what we are up against! We are again considering a livestock guardian dog (LGD) as a way to keep everyone safe and sound. We would gladly get a guard donkey, but with so many grass-eaters on our small property already, I don’t really want to introduce another. I’m open to suggestions.
All that being said, the game camera also serves another purpose. Curious animals take the best selfies with it!
Animal Selfies
Aren’t these a hoot?!? I just love seeing them eyeing the camera and then they sniff it. They all know it’s something new that wasn’t there before, but they can’t decide if it’s friend or foe. Too cute. The game camera is our friend guys. Definitely a friend!
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Do you put the smaller animals away? Do you worry about the fox with cows? We don’t have a barn for our cows, so I’m just curious because if we ran into issues, we too would be considering a livestock guardian dog or donkey. Same issue with not wanting to add another grass eating animal though. (We do have a bull that would do some damage to a predator for sure!)
We do our best to put the birds away. Sometimes they are uncooperative. We lost one very early in the evening before we had even locked the coop. 🙁 So far nothing has bothered goats or cow. The pigs (look for a post about them soon!) are surrounded by electric fence. Goat kids will be locked up at night for awhile to keep them safe (and so I can milk mamas in the morning…) I have found a LGD for sale, very reasonable, but it was raised with sheep and no birds, so I’m nervous. I can’t find any others for sale or I would be picking one up today! Thanks for reading today!
Awe man. I’m thinking I might close our calf in a shed when it comes in March for the nights so that I can milk her momma in the morning too. I wasn’t planning on it, but we’ll see. I love your blog and following you on Facebook. Gotta be one of my favorites!
I didn’t mean to link that… Sorry. I was on a strange comment page and trying to reply to your reply. It asked me if I wanted to link something, but I chose not too… woops.
No worries!
Awwww, thank you so much! Comments like that make my day!
Guardian DONKEY?! Omg, now I have a valid reason to get one instead of just pleading, “But I WANT one?!” I had no idea that they could serve a purpose as a guardian!! I must Google this…
Thanks for sharing on Simple Saturdays. Love the selfies, lol! Keeping animals locked up at night, and a guard animal should help tremendously in deterring predators.