Kitchen Garden Forum

We had mysterious burrowing into our polytunnels, too small for a rabbit, nothing eaten.It so happens that our neighbour found a polecat attempting to get at their rabbit, having had two guinea fowl and a chicken. They are a protected species but are spreading from the Welsh mountains. Beware.
Allan

luckily we are a long way away from the Welsh mountains, but we do have a problem with mink in Bedforshire.

cant you make nice coats from them OH?

(just kidding in case i offend!)

i once saw a polecat on holiday years ago-i think seeing things like that is just so exciting

oldherbaceous wrote:luckily we are a long way away from the Welsh mountains, but we do have a problem with mink in Bedforshire.

Sad result of idiots "liberating" an animal alien to our ecology, not forgetting escapees who did it themselves.

Hello Allan
I didn't know that polecats did any burrowing. I thought that they lived in other animals burrows. They are much more widespread than you think because they are so elusive and mainly nocturnal. They are good at keeping down the numbers of small rodents, rabbits and other pests. I have at least one in the rough ground at the bottom of my garden and they've never bothered my chickens!

John

Hoover - the Springer Spaniel we had (previous to our Brittany) emerged from a barn one day with a pole cat firmly fixed to her nose. Fortunately OH was there and recognised the offender, cleanly despatching him with a spade.

Haven't seen once since, but that doesn't mean they aren't around.

The NZ flatworm business has gone quiet, and I hope that the Colorado Beetle stays out. I wish that the mink could be finally dispatched, it's probably too much to hope that the grey squirrel will ever be reduced now so one hopes that what is left of red squirrels can be preserved.
We have a tame blackbird with a damaged wing living on the ground, it would not have survived if next door hadn't moved out and taken her cats with her.
I would much rather have birds than cats.
Allan

Allan

I totally agree with you, it is a great shame that the grey squirrel does not attract a bounty on its tail as it used to in a more enlightened age. Cats are an absolute menace and should also be controlled from trespassing on other peoples gardens by any effective method.

The birds have returned to my garden since my very nice neighbours moved away taking their two cruel killing machines with them.

Unfortunately the law backed down from making cat owners responsible for their foul excreta (and the cats’ mess is not much better) in the same way as dog owners are.

Watch where you are treading!

Barney

Barney
The trouble with bounties for killing wild animals is: who decides what to get rid of? As a poultry keeper (and cat owner) I prefer foxes out of the way, but how many people like watching the little dears at play?
What about the red kite, which we have got back in Wales? Or hedgehogs? Or badgers which our farmers want exterminated (polite word:- "culled")?

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conse ... 40,00.html is an interesting article from the Observer of 7 January this year - it makes you think.

I've got 6 cats who live in the barns. they're not allowed in the house and they're fed half rations to encourage them to hunt. They're a fit, healthy bunch.

They spend many hours following the sunshine around my front garden where I have 15 bird feeders. They never go after the birds. and can often be seen sitting on the swing, either end of which are feeders with queues of birds hovering about.

They don't harass the chickens either. My neighbour doesn't have any cats so they keep her shed vermin free too and they don't use her garden as a toilet. Like any pet - they need to be trained by a responsible owner.

Alan thanks for a very interesting and thought provoking link but regarding the squirrel it was accepted that it was doing much harm and their numbers should be controlled and by placing a reward on each tail taken to a local Post Office a bounty was paid. This method was very successful in controlling the grey squirrel numbers when it was in use.

Naturally, as I would expect Tigger, your cats are responsible looked after and like you say, so should any pet be looked after responsibly. However many pets are not so fortunate. I have near neighbours whose cats regularly wake us up with constant squabbling and also defecate on my and other neighbours front lawns. I do not find it particularly pleasant when using my Flymo on a Sunday morning to happen upon these unpleasant deposits. If it were from a dog then the owners would be responsible but cat owners are exempt from this law.

Many neighbours have gone to some expense in buying sonic scarers, repellents and other useless gimmicks to help keep their open plan lawns free from this evil mess.

I myself constructed an electric fence around my front garden using a vehicle ignition coil and electronic pulsing switch to give the cats a 25,000v jolt. This did prove very effective as the shrieks from the cats confirmed. It also happened to kill a number of wandering pheasants that got caught in the wires that did prove very tasty. However both the Postman and Milkman were not too impressed with my electric fence idea! I now have a net placed over the lawn that does help deter the cats. Why do some cat owners think it acceptable to let their cats out at night to become a nuisance to others, should these owners receive an ASBO?

Barney

Apart from next door's cats making themselves at home more in our garden than next door, they twice got at the blackbirds nest and killed all the babies. They were also famous for bringing home miscellaneous previously living catches and parking them at home for the owner to dispose of. There was some point in keeping cats to tackle vermin, those days have largely gone.
Allan

I was reluctantly oblidged to take down all my nesting boxes due to cats killing the parent birds.

Barney

We stopped keeping cats after the last one died 10 years ago: our bird population now thrives

I can honestly say that is not my experience of cats over 25 years.