He’s back, dammit
I kept the chicken food inside for six weeks, which was a right royal pain. I thought by now, he would have gravitated to a new neighborhood, but my June badger has returned to pinch chicken food.
That’s the picture from last time. After that, I somehow managed to turn off the recording function on my surveillance cameras. I’m kind of relieved. I always dreaded seeing something awful unfold on video.
So late last night, I spotted an amorphous hump of fur rooting around in the feed bin on the camera last night and I said to Uncle B, “You sure you don’t have raccoons in England?” El baj was so into eating my layers pellets that I walked right up to him and he didn’t notice me until I spoke.
It’s a nearly full 20-kilo bag of chicken feed with a nearly full 20-kilo bag of cracked corn, so I don’t think I can drag them in the house without making a mess. Funny, he’s never been interested in the corn, just the pellets.
I tied the lid of the bin down with a bungee, but I doubt that will stop him and I don’t want to hurt him. Bungee cord-associated ocular trauma is a thing, y’all.
So I put a couple of folded, defunct metal lawn chairs on top of that. It won’t stop him either, but I’m hoping it’ll be loud and that will startle him. Or at least alert me.
I’ll keep you posted. Good weekend, all!
Posted: September 3rd, 2021 under animals, badger house.
Comments: 20
Comments
Comment from homer
Time: September 3, 2021, 8:16 pm
Put a rat trap in it. It won’t do him any damage.
Comment from Uncle Al
Time: September 3, 2021, 8:37 pm
Rather than a bungee, how about something non-stretching? A piece of light rope or a strap? There are knots easy and quick to tie and untie, and straps that adjust in length and hav quick hook/unhook plastic catches. If the bin has a flexible lid you could simply toss a piece of board on top before securing the whole thing.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 3, 2021, 9:07 pm
It’s not very flexible. It’s heavy plastic. There’s a place for a padlock, but it’s busted (I put a clamp on it and I think he busted it).
I don’t really have any rope or strap. I’m hoping the clatter of the chairs spooks him off. They’re very nervous.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 3, 2021, 9:23 pm
I’m watching him on camera now, sniffing around my chicken houses.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 3, 2021, 9:27 pm
I’m not sure this is the same boy. This is a big badger, and he wasn’t interested in my bin. Though I do think he snuffled the area for spilled chicken food.
OF COURSE my cameras are acting up. Not so much the cameras as the wifi connection.
Comment from QuasiModo
Time: September 3, 2021, 9:38 pm
Maybe one of those motion sensor lights?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 3, 2021, 9:44 pm
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 3, 2021, 9:45 pm
He didn’t like those chairs, nosiree. It *is* the same beast, I reckon. I eventually went out and spooked him, but I’m sure he’ll be back tonight. It’s not even 11.
Comment from thefritz
Time: September 3, 2021, 10:03 pm
Good God Swease…that medical abstract was about stupid humans putting an eye out with an oversized rubber band…critters are way too smart to get hit in the eye. Concrete block on the lid and yer problems solved.
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 3, 2021, 10:53 pm
These guys are super strong, Fritz. Any block light enough for me to lift is probably too light to keep them out. They’ve been known – often – to bulldoze down wooden chicken houses like they were nothing.
Which is why I’m sitting up watching.
Comment from Armybrat
Time: September 3, 2021, 11:41 pm
That’s a decent sized badger! And you went out there without something that goes bang?!!
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 4, 2021, 8:18 am
They’re very shy, Armybrat. It’s kind of a weird feeling, but there’s nothing to fear in the English countryside. The worst thing you could possibly find is a human, followed by a domestic dog.
Where I come from, you could run across a bear or a lynx or a catamount or even a rabid coon, but there are just no dangerous mammals here. Or rabies.
Thwarted! He couldn’t get past my chairs. I reckon we’re at the beginning of his nightly rounds and he never came back.
Comment from BJM
Time: September 4, 2021, 5:02 pm
@Stoaty…how about leather belts? Most of us have them laying around unused. You can connect them to get the girth you need…and they are thick enough to ward off chewing through.
I use them for all sorts of tieing-up jobs…I buy a handful at the thrift store for a few bucks.
No wild boars or feral pigs in the woods?
Comment from S. Weasel
Time: September 4, 2021, 6:46 pm
There are feral pigs in parts of Sussex, BJM, but nowhere very near me. There’s an old folks home not far away that is signposted not to go on the grounds after dark on account of angry oinks.
Comment from OldFert
Time: September 4, 2021, 9:54 pm
So “oinks” is what you call old folks there? Oh, never mind. I get it now.
Comment from Pupster
Time: September 5, 2021, 9:46 am
I walked right up to him and he didn’t notice me until I spoke.
What did you say? “wanna rassle?”
Comment from blake
Time: September 6, 2021, 4:03 am
I gots a possum problem.
Possum keeps wandering into the house. Actually, I shouldn’t say wandering: He clearly is scouting out a place to live and loves cat food. (Every creature great and small seems to love the damn cat food.)
So we shut up every night to keep him out. And then all night “meow” cat wants in “meow” cat wants out “meow” but I just let you out!
Comment from durnedyankee
Time: September 6, 2021, 2:13 pm
@Blake – simple, “meow” is looking for the door to summer fields and fat lazy mice with just enough jump in them to make them interesting.
I miss our 4:00 AM “Where are you!” alarm.
Comment from blake
Time: September 8, 2021, 11:31 pm
Oh, yeah, these cats are chatty.
Sometimes they’ll just come up to you and meow for an extended period, like something’s going on and you just gotta know about it, but damn you’re a dumb human, and the night is alive with mice and birds and cat politics…
Comment from blake
Time: September 8, 2021, 11:34 pm
The last cat, may she RIP, was a prison cat. We fetched her from the pound moments before her scheduled denouement.
When she wanted in, she would bang like a mofo on the metal security door. Then get her claw stuck because she was not good at retracting them.
To go out? She would walk out to the front door, and quietly sit down. That would wake me up and I’d let her out. Still not sure how she pulled that one off.
When the chatty kittens first arrived, she started meowing occasionally too. Sounded like she’d been chain-smoking and drinking whisky her whole life.
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