baby raccoons

[BjornBee]

These are the beekeeping partners I spoke about last week. They were gone for two days, but they are back now.

Seems the mother likes to sleep during the day, but the young ones like to play... ;)


http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x236/BjornBee/Babyraccoons.jpg

[peggjam]

Their're so cute.......bet my hounds would enjoy taking them for a run:D.

[Ann]

They are cute...and they seem to like to be photographed! They're regular hams! ;)

[Jeffzhear]

Beautiful picture....thanks for sharing...they really are a pretty animal.

[honeyman46408]

Killem before they get into your bees

[Barry Digman]

They are cute.

For those going to Bjorns picnic, be careful about accepting a door prize.

[Soilman]

I have a link to a taxidermy forum where you can sell them for 30-40$ a piece :D

[honeyman46408]

Soilman send the link!

[Hobie]

I had a coon family in a tree here a few years back. I went to look at them, and the "kids" wanted to look at ME, but Momma kept yelling at them to hide.

[Ross]

They can eat their weight in dry cat food almost every night.

[ScadsOBees]

And destroy 400x their weight in unripe sweet corn a night. :(

[BULLSEYE BILL]

>you can sell them for 30-40$ a piece

Not a bad little profit, but I would do it quick before they start costing you damages.

[Parke County Queen]

I used to think they were cute. Now I cringe at the sight of them. Every night they dig up my flowers, take the rocks out of my bee waterers, eat my bird seed - I could go on & on. I threw a rock at one the other day and it went over and picked it up and looked at it. I thought for a minute it was going to throw it back at me. They are incredibly smart.

[honeyman46408]

I used to think they were cute. Now I cringe at the sight of them. Every night they dig up my flowers, take the rocks out of my bee waterers, eat my bird seed - I could go on & on. I threw a rock at one the other day and it went over and picked it up and looked at it. I thought for a minute it was going to throw it back at me. They are incredibly smart.

Indiana Coons BEEE tuff

They are cute but when they get into your attic or distroy bee hives they aint so cute any more :(

[BjornBee]

Dig in your flower bed, eat your bird feed...my oh my! For goodness sakes.

The only solution I see, is if each landowner on earth just simply sanitized their property of such wildlife. Get rid of all wildlife. Such things should probably be left for zoo's and places with thick glass.

Birds crapping on my car, insects eating some of my vegetables, raccoons ravaging the countryside. Lets just Kill them all.

What do you say about starting with those pesky bees that roam all over the place, place fear on nieghbors that don't keep such items, and generally are a nuisance to the general public.

As the supposed higher intelligent lifeform on earth, I think that humans in general use little of that intelligence on such matters. Just as easy to spray the insects, take out the natural habitat for birds, and shoot anything that crosses our property line.

I remember a few years back, I talked with a person that had shot a big buck right before season. It layed across the street from where he shot it. Nice 8 point. What a waste. I asked why? He said it ate one of his head of cabbage.

Did he have a fence? Use a deterrant? Did he use any of the things that could of been tried PRIOR to shooting the buck? Nope. First thing that came to mind...SHOOT IT! Over a head of cabbage.

Its not going to kill me to lose a flower, a head of cabbage, or some bird seed. I think they are small sacrifices for letting some of nature have some additional habitat other then the posted game lands. If my raccoons eat my fish in the pond, which does happen, the kids love going to the pet store and buying the cheap feeder fish for about a dollar a dozen. They love letting them go in the pond. But not as much as seeing the raccoons!

I often wonder what would happen if every homeowner or landowner just sprayed every bug off the earth, shot or trapped every animal, and had a "not on my property" attitude.

Got to end now. I need to fill the bird feeders. Yeah I know, feeding the same birds that crap on my car. What craziness....... ;)

PCQ, I know you did not mention shooting or killing. My comments are just for thought consideration as many would not tolerate such matters as you commented. I am just trying to balance out the tolerating wildlife part with the enjoyment that comes with it. I love seeing deer and other wildlife in my backyard. If losing a flower, or a head of cabbage is the price to pay...I'll pay it.

[iddee]

AMEN

I like my wildlife, including my large blacksnake in my central air unit. Let them be, and the damage will be minuscule compared to the good they do.

[Barry Digman]

"I often wonder what would happen if every homeowner or landowner just sprayed every bug off the earth, shot or trapped every animal, and had a "not on my property" attitude."

Check out the news today from the Audubon Society regarding the decline of "common" birds.

http://www.audubon.org/bird/stateofthebirds/CBID/

[JohnK and Sheri]

Every year we get a family of coons with youngins at our bird feeders, they DO eat a lot, will finish off the suet in one sitting if you let them, and dry cat food is their favorite, lol. But they are fun to watch, especially when they are tiny. They can't see too well so you can go right out where they are and they don't run unless you make noise then they panic in slow motion, it is pretty amusing. I'd bring them in the house but John would kill me.:eek:

Ed, our raccoons, at least, never bother the hives. And they have plenty of opportunity. I think they'd be tempted to fool with external feeders, we have even had one knock over a mating nuc once but they must know about bees.:)
My main gripe is if they manage to pull down a hummingbird feeder, they have chewed off the spigots to get to the syrup, those little bandits. I just put them up higher next time.

Mike, I so agree with you, enjoying the wildlife is worth all the time and money spent undoing the damage. I expect the deer to take out every third or forth tree or shrub, I plant with that in mind. If the deer don't get them the rabbits will, lol.
I figure if I don't have wildlife on the property here I am doing something wrong.
Sheri

[Parke County Queen]

BjornBee,

I would not kill the raccoons or anything else. I even take spiders outside. I was just saying how much they aggravate me.

[BjornBee]

PCQ, I know. I did not want the post to come across against you, thats why I added the last sentence.

[balhanapi]

I totally agree with you Bjorn, I'd love to have wildlife(except bears;) ) roam my backyard. what an opportunity to observe their behavior..

and I agree that every possible method should be used and shooting/killing should be the absolute last resort.

[honeyman46408]

"Ed, our raccoons, at least, never bother the hives"

Well I have a verry different experance, I lost 12 hives to coons 4 years ago this spring. I had to bee away from home most of 2 months and when I got back the coons had had their way with the hives (oh a good way to tell if the hives was dead is the coons didnt bother it) A friend told me it wasnt coons it was skunks but when I ask how come I killed 22 coons and 2 possums and no skunks he had no coment.

I like wild life in its place but man has messed up the ballance and hardley anyone traps for fur any more but I will this winter (10 bux per coon ) and I did do away with a ground hog this week but it will become Hawk food along with several tree rats.

As long as I am on a rant I have told people that I need to devolep a tast for deer meat so I can harvest something from my garden!!

[JohnK and Sheri]

Gosh Ed how bout telling us how you really feel.:D

I can certainly understand being angry at whatever got in your hives. It gives you a real sick feeling to walk into the yard and see it torn all apart, equipment strewn and broken all over. Our problem here is bear. We put up fences for the bears, it might keep coons out also, but at our home yard we have lots of coons and the fence is only back towards the woods, the coons are already in, lol.


>>>A friend told me it wasnt coons it was skunks but when I ask how come I killed 22 coons and 2 possums and no skunks he had no coment.<<<
We have had trouble with skunks too but they have never knocked a hive over, they just scratch at the entrance and when the bees come out they eat them. And who says skunks are stupid!?
IMO not seeing them is no proof one way or another. We could probably kill 22 coons too even 1 possum if we were of a killing mind. But what gets our hives if we aren't careful with fencing is bear, which you rarely see unless you are at the beeyard when they get in. Most people in Wisconsin have never even seen a bear and there are a ton of them here. About the only skunks most see are dead on the road. Coons and possum are both so tame they come right up to the screen door asking for handouts.:rolleyes:
Do you know if there are bear in your area? I am surprised that a coon could knock over a heavy colony, you must have some pretty big tuff coons, ours just climb up on top......
These coons will get in the barn if we forget to close the door and will tear a box apart to get at the sweet extracted comb, they sure make a mess but never have gotten in a live colony.

You mention doing in the "tree rats", you are talking squirrels here right? (Not sure since you have these monster bee eating coons maybe you have some sort of hybrid rat :) ). Just curious, what is the gripe with them? Do they bother your bees too?
Sheri

[honeyman46408]

Tree rat=squirrel

SQs dont eat bees just Tulips and Lillys, or any bulb plants, I have the bird feeders fixed so they cant get the bird feed

Bears are about the only thing we don`t have YET

The coons didnt knock the hives over they just pulled the mouse guards off and depopulated the hives

What do I realy think=DEATH TO THE VARMETS !!

[JohnK and Sheri]

>>>DEATH TO THE VARMETS !!<<<

LOL, now Ed, they gotta eat too, don't ya know.:D

I'd make you a bet it is skunks, whether you saw them or not. Some people put out a little poison bait (I know, all those about to slam this idea, I am just relaying info not endorsing!) and in the morning you will have a dead skunk, or a very sick coon. I don't think either would be much fun to deal with. You can spread flour on the ground in front to see what kind of tracks are left also. You don't seem to care what kind of critter it is as long as it is dead but it would be kinda ironic if you killed every coon, possum and sq in the county and it was skunks all the time.:o

Oh, and while you are acquiring that taste for venison you better start getting used to the taste of bear meat. You may not have them yet, but if they continue on their southward spread it wouldn't surprise me if you had them soon.
Sheri

[Soilman]

Sorry for the delay on the response.. If your serious, heres the link (http://www.taxidermy.net/forum/index.php?board=5.0). I dont know how much you would get for them honestly just making a joke. But as far as loving wildlife I am a naturalist, a hobby naturalist because I dont/cant make a living from it and have a "real job", but nature is my life. I believe the natural life hold all the questions and answers for man, If we would just observe and shut up once in a while. But on the other hand I am a hunting, fish catching, meat eating carnavore who sometimes like to skin nature and place its pelt on a form and nail it to my wall. So if they are pests to you live-catch them and remove them to someone elses back yard or check out the website and follow the taxidermist's instruction on how to take them. I have never killed anything to mount it, My wife and I drove around for days looking for prime roadkill to use in a small taxidermy class, and I still swerved to miss animals!

In any case those are some pretty critters, and some taxidermist might pay good money to make them into a large life sized mount for a conference or something.

[peggjam]

I'd rather let the hounds run'em. Nothing like the music of a hound on full track breaking up the stillness of the night. Coon gets up a tree, I leash the dogs and head fer home.....nothing like it:).

[CWBees]

Since I started beekeeping I have planted all types of native flowering plants for the bees and now I have all sorts of butterflys in the yard to watch. I have also put up numerous bird feeders and houses which has made my property a real nature preserve. I would like to have a rat snake around for rodent control and have only seen garter snakes. I try and plant deer resistant plants so I don't have to fence them in.

What I reall dislike in NJ is property owners with McMansions who fence in their whole property with deer fencing. Shutting out wildlife and often horse trails.

I have nothing against hunting deer just people who want shut off their property from nature. They should move to the concrete jungle if they feel this way.

[BjornBee]

The other day, I counted 5 baby raccoons. I never had seen more than 3 at one time. But sure enough, five were eating and running around the porch last week.

But wait, now this morning, I counted 6!

I tried to take a picture through the back door but it was dark and the flash made it impossible. Everytime I opened the door to sneak a shot, the mother would send them scattering. As soon as I can get all of them in one picture I'll post it.

Not sure how many babies a raccoon can have but I find 6 amazing. Just goes to show what nature allows when an animal has unlimited resources...such as my cats food bowl.