What weird animals have been in your shop

[ggraham]

My roosting friends have moved on for now, maybe not in immediate danger, yet.

[anvil]

I have a 5'x10'x1" layout table and I was in a very small 3 sided shop while building my more permanent space. I found  bear "berries" on my tabletop.

And the changes he/she made to my drawings were spot on.   

[Rl69]

I have 11 chickens we free range. When I get time to work in the shop, they will come out and sit with me for a wile.

[Frosty]

Stick around till lunch? We call that delivery. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Rl69]

If it wasn't for the eggs they would go good over the charcoal   

[Frosty]

 Like BBQ chicken doesn't go with eggs?!  Go ahead pull the other one Texican guy.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Rl69]

We hatched out 8 this spring, we lost 3. Out of the 5 left we have 4 hens and a rooster. I already had 2 roosters, George  and George so the new guy is looking mighty good for the pit  

 

    

[Frosty]

Two roosters and only 8 hatched eggs?  Might keep the youngster and think stew and pot pies . . . by George. Smoked and braised roast rooster is yummy fare you know. Leftovers make excellent quiche. Smoked braised chicken, onion, green pepper, EGGS, 1/2&1/2 and spinach in a pie crust. Feta cheese brings a nice touch of salty acidity that goes well with smoked meats. Cilantro added with a generous hand is always a nice addition. I always add a healthy dollop of rubbed sage to beaten eggs the flavors go well together. To my tongue anyway.

Bear in mind I'd much rather cook and eat chicken than keep them. The Mat Su valley is getting over run by feral rabbits. Idiot folk buy them and think free range is the way to good happy rabbits. One guy actually put together investors and tried to start a commercial free range rabbit farm. Anyway, I keep hoping the infestation starts showing up here, I love hasenpfeffer!

Don't want to keep rabbits either. Potting them out the back door though? Mmmmmmmm.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

 

[Rl69]

The hen was on siting on 12. I have never cared for birds nasty little critters. But I have to say I've grown fond of them. Big George and little George stand gaurd over the flock. They set up on the premier and herd the girls in. When they come into the shop the girls will gather under the table and big George will stand between me and them. 

 

Rabits !!! now now your talking. I prefer wild rabbit to anything. 

[iron woodrow]

Funny how as soon as you mention chickens as pets, someone talks about eating them.

Every time someone mentions dogs, horses or cats, i like to mention eating them just to keep things fair.

[ThomasPowers]

Well I've had horse in Tyrolea; very tasty; and I have friends who have had dog and cat in the Far East, (and in Oklahoma for the dog as well---Native American food source.) 

[Ranchmanben]

Was working making hammer handles tonight and hanging them and after 9:15 I had to run off a pair of young raccoons every 15 minutes or so. Lots of yelling, waving my arms and running at them took place. It was getting close to gun play when I finished and got the hammers into the oil bath for a couple days. No animals were harmed in the telling of this story. The same can’t be said for a rattle snake just inside the door a month ago. 

[SLAG]

Have you considered a water pistol before resorting to gun play?

It would shorten the time for cleaning up the gore after the deed.

Just sayyin,

SLAG.

[Ranchmanben]

Nope, don’t have a water gun. Rat shot from a .22 isn’t going to do more than sting and be scary anyways. I suspect something was wrong with the raccoons, possibly rabid. There have been a few cases of rabies in my county. It’s odd for raccoons to be so persistent when a large beast is clearly visible, moving around and making noise. Couple that with the facts that I had to run one of them off at 2 in the afternoon last Thursday and they look unhealthy. The plan is to trap them and give them to the state labratory. 

[Frosty]

Aggressive raccoons can be very dangerous, they're all claws and teeth very strong and agile. A well placed .22 short doesn't make much of a mess and isn't likely to penetrate through a wooden wall. I have a 5 mm. air rifle that would do the job but it's not a repeating rifle so not so good if you need a second shot.

I don't encourage people to shoot pests unless they're dangerous, Rabid raccoons, even maybe rabid is enough of a threat to qualify.

Here it's feral dogs that are the main threat to people and livestock. Not counting moose that is but they're a different thing, if you see one in the shop take a couple pictures to get on the evening news, then slip out quietly. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[SLAG]

 Rabid racoons?

Did you say rabid racoons?

Forget the water pistol idea. Waayy  inappropriate.  Bad concept even.

SLAG suggests a cut-down pump shot gun.  I'll help with the mess.

And if its a moose, HEAD FOR THE HILLS.

SLAG.

[Ranchmanben]

Gonna set the traps tonight and see what turns up. This morning when I stopped at the barn to grab my truck I noticed that they might have gotten the tub of rat poison blocks open which was right by the overhead door. This isn’t the first time I’ve noticed something amiss with that tub. The last time I thought I’d knocked it over with the air hose but now I suspect vermin tampered with it. I’m now wondering if one or both coons might be in the throws of kidney failure. The tub got moved to a cabinet this time. 

[Glenn]

Let me start off by saying I usually look for a reasonable excuse to put the off the task of weeding the flower bed the wife planted near the shop. Today I was fresh out of anything that sounded reasonable, so I pulled weeds. 

As I was pulling the weeds down to dirt level in preparation for the mulch, I ran across this fellow.

From an earlier post you will recognize it as a baby corn snake. Yes it looks like a copperhead until you get close enough to introduce yourself and get to know each other.

Then this happened.

Well, they do have a mouth and teeth, and they use it for self defense when threatened. I did not feel I was a threat but the snake felt otherwise, so I got nailed. Good thing I read the post earlier on this thread and had identified him as nonvenomous.  Although he tried, he was no match for the tough hide of a blacksmith and did not break the skin. I will admit the bite did increase the heart rate a bit. (grin)

He was returned to the weeded and mulched flower bed.

 

[ThomasPowers]

Had a young'un sitting by the postboxes yesterday soaking up heat from the communal driveway---looked like a rattler but did NOT have the button's or the black and white stripes near the tail. I admonished it not to play New Mexican Roulette and drove around it.

[Frosty]

Red next to black is a friend of Jack. Any snake bite that breaks the skin is subject to infection sometimes almost instantly. I believe it's seratonin in the saliva that makes reptile bites that break the skin so painful.

Not threatening Glenn? Look at it from his/er perspective it'd be like the Sears Tower picking you up for a cuddle and most animals have simple decision making criteria. Smaller? it's food. Larger? I'm food, flee, fight, freeze!!!

There was a program on the Animal Planet(?) channel recently, about folks who survived animal attacks. The fellow who survived the Puma attack decided he was going to die anyway so he fought back, ended up getting free enough he got a thumb in it's eye and removed it bit a chunk of it's ear off. Torn to heck and back but made it.

The other story that episode was about a lady who was attacked by a raccoon in her front yard. She said it was nothing but: claws, teeth, fast, Fast, FAST and big enough to knock her down and pin her while it went berserk. 

I wasn't able to watch it all but assumed it was rabid. The lady survived she was telling the story. I know raccoons can be dangerous like a cat can be dangerous but I didn't realize they got large enough to just knock a person over. How big do they get?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Glenn]

A full grown adult male will weigh up to 35 pounds and be about 3 feet long from tip of the nose to the end of their tail. Full grown females are slightly smaller. The largest raccoon on record weighed 50 pounds! Raccoons are easily recognized by their black facial mask and bushy striped tail. A raccoon can kill a dog in a fight, just ask any coon hunter.

Raccoons are noted for their intelligence, with studies showing that they are able to remember the solution to tasks for at least three years.

[CrazyGoatLady]

Never underestimate a rabbit either...they aren't all cuddly, little bunny foo foo

[ThomasPowers]

Not to forget Bun-Bun from Sluggy Freelance...

Angora rabbits are bred for docility as to harvest their fiber (to make angora sweaters...) they need to sit quietly while you run your fingers over them collecting what sheds.  Any of them that acted up was designated for the stew pot! 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

17 hours ago, Glenn said:

adult male will weigh up to 35 pounds

We caught one about that weight in the live trap last Sunday. We take them about five miles away and release them at a creek, where they can get water & food, instead of tearing up the bird feeders and eating the fish in our pond. Last winter we caught one much larger and he destroyed the HF live trap so we had to buy a better one. In the past year we have trapped 9 or 10 of the critters. It's fun to watch the game camera pictures when we have the trap set and one shows up on the deck. This guy stole the bacon but didn't trip the trap, pretty sneaky but the second time he wasn't so lucky.

[arkie]

I had set a Havahart trap like yours for coons, using a tuna fish can with a little left over tuna and some peanut butter in it.  Got up the next morning and had a BIG coon trapped.  When I dumped him out near a creek about 3 miles away, I noticed that he had all but eaten the can!!  It was torn to shreds, looked like a power can opener had gotten hold of it.  I'll bet his mouth was cut to shreds like the can.  I would have never guessed they could cut up metal like that.