This is kinda frustrating. Still no killer. I went out first thing this morning (armed of course) and found the mess. Something had triggered my traps. Both traps were tripped and wound up together in a knot next to my stake I had driven into the ground. One of the traps had closed on the other traps chain. I had them too close together. Obviously, I need bigger traps. Unfortunately, they are expensive. The traps I am using were free. They were hanging up in the machine shop on a nail. So I reset the traps, stuffed one way into the hole and the other right at the opening so they would not catch each other this time. I covered the hole back up with the two tin shields and hopefully I will have better luck next time. Annmarie and her brother, Matt, have both seen a badger up on the hillside. If I have a badger, I am going to have a hard time catching it with a trap. I may have to smoke it out, but that is gonna cause a whole new set of problems. I will keep trying this for a few days. Maybe, I will just irritate whatever is living under the coop enough that it will go away.
I have also started marking the chicken coop outside fence as mine. Using the age old animal technique understood by all creatures, I pee on it. This sounds like a simple procedure but I have an electric fence running around the outside of the fence, so you do have to pay attention or you will pay the price for your inattention.
Doom, artistic photograph.
