Badger ..

Graces7

I was out to feed my hens and shut them in for the night... Fierce gale and I could barely stand up. Took me a while to find them and of course they were hunkered down.

As I got near there was fresh badger scat on the grass. Have seen it elsewhere and checked online too and also that they will take chickens...

It is worrying, frankly. Much as I love wildlife...used to watch them at other houses.

They are in a large dog crate, sturdy wire mesh on all sided and a strongly fastened door.. I can hear them when I am in the house here, crooning

Pretzill

Graces7 wrote: »

I was out to feed my hens and shut them in for the night... Fierce gale and I could barely stand up. Took me a while to find them and of course they were hunkered down.

As I got near there was fresh badger scat on the grass. Have seen it elsewhere and checked online too and also that they will take chickens...

It is worrying, frankly. Much as I love wildlife...used to watch them at other houses.

They are in a large dog crate, sturdy wire mesh on all sided and a strongly fastened door.. I can hear them when I am in the house here, crooning

We have badgers roaming our land - I've never known one to take a chicken - it was the fox that used our Chicken Coop like MacDonald's and the pine marten and the mink. Ended up stopping keeping foul - I think of all our natural wildlife the badger gets a terribly bad rap.

Graces7

Pretzill wrote: »

We have badgers roaming our land - I've never known one to take a chicken - it was the fox that used our Chicken Coop like MacDonald's and the pine marten and the mink. Ended up stopping keeping foul - I think of all our natural wildlife the badger gets a terribly bad rap.

I lost a beloved cat to a badger so I am less sanguine than you, and abundant evidence online of badger predation on hens in Ireland . That scat was too near.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Pretzill wrote: »

We have badgers roaming our land - I've never known one to take a chicken - it was the fox that used our Chicken Coop like MacDonald's and the pine marten and the mink. Ended up stopping keeping foul - I think of all our natural wildlife the badger gets a terribly bad rap.

Likewise around here. Plus Badger scat is left in dedicated latrines rather than isolated 'deposits'. The latrine is invariably within 10 to 20 metres from the sett.

I've no doubt a badger would take a hen if it got the opportunity but being nocturnal, and hens generally being inside at night and not on the Badger's priority list, the likelihood is slight compared to more determined attacks from mink, foxes, & pine martens.

gzoladz

Whitney Dirty Ladybug wrote: »

Likewise around here. Plus Badger scat is left in dedicated latrines rather than isolated 'deposits'. The latrine is invariably within 10 to 20 metres from the sett.

I've no doubt a badger would take a hen if it got the opportunity but being nocturnal, and hens generally being inside at night and not on the Badger's priority list, the likelihood is slight compared to more determined attacks from mink, foxes, & pine martens.

I red somewhere that the badger is the only animal that can take a hedgehog! And there was a case of a badger attacking a human in the UK a few years ago too.

I'd love to see one in the wild!

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

gzoladz wrote: »

I red somewhere that the badger is the only animal that can take a hedgehog! And there was a case of a badger attacking a human in the UK a few years ago too.

I'd love to see one in the wild!

Badgers are the main predator of hedgehogs although foxes will take them too. That said , hedgehogs aren't a significant part of their diet.

I watch them here regularly. Fascinating and wonderful animals.

archer22

I have never in my entire life heard of Badgers taking Chickens.

Badgers actually avoid farmyards and buildings...as was shown on a recent RTE wildlife documentary.

fryup

i remember on bbc springwatch they showed a badger attacking nests of wading birds in some wetlands killing and eating the chicks...forget what bird it was, they said it was out of the ordinary behaviour and suggested only badgers in this particular area do it

Graces7

archer22 wrote: »

I have never in my entire life heard of Badgers taking Chickens.

Badgers actually avoid farmyards and buildings...as was shown on a recent RTE wildlife documentary.

There is abundant evidence if you google...so you have now! and I have had badgers around in several rural houses. They have destroyed hen houses to get at the hens

Including here and the house where my beloved cat was killed by a badger .

Others have lost pets to them . They are bad news frankly in inhabited areas.

Lovely in their natural setting, I agree , but simply predators in reality. I found it hard to realise this at first too

Sorry; have an appalling headache a week now so signing off from this. deeply upsetting with the conflict between deep love of natural life and love of the lives in my care. sad too that so many doubt my experience! does not alter the reality or danger.
Blessings and peace.

WildIreland

Graces7 wrote: »

They are bad news frankly in inhabited areas.

Based on what? The fact that they will take an easy meal if it presents itself, or that they're not scared off by what would have to be a fairly foolish cat to take on a badger -- if it was a badger (no "sane" cat is going to stand its ground and face off a badger).

This whole tendency to use wildlife as a convenient scapegoat for our own negligence or lack of care is more than a little disingenuous.

If you keep poultry it's your responsibility to make sure they are safe and secure. Blaming a predator for taking easy protein if it's on offer is nonsensical. It's like leaving a toddler in a room with an open pack of biscuits and expecting them not to munch their way through the pack as soon as your back's turned. Not going to happen. The answer, of course, is to put the biscuits out of reach, or, even better, out of sight.

I have no doubt badgers would take hens if they got the chance... as a poultry keeper, it's your responsibility, not the badgers, to keep your hens safe. FACT!

That said, as Srameen points out, badgers tend to use dedicated latrines, rather than broadcast their scat around their territory -- so you may want to check that it is actually a badger you have visiting.

I hope you manage to keep your hens safe.

All the best,

Calvin!

archer22

Graces7 wrote: »

There is abundant evidence if you google...so you have now! and I have had badgers around in several rural houses. They have destroyed hen houses to get at the hens

Including here and the house where my beloved cat was killed by a badger .

Others have lost pets to them . They are bad news frankly in inhabited areas.

Lovely in their natural setting, I agree , but simply predators in reality. I found it hard to realise this at first too

Sorry; have an appalling headache a week now so signing off from this. deeply upsetting with the conflict between deep love of natural life and love of the lives in my care. sad too that so many doubt my experience! does not alter the reality or danger.
Blessings and peace.

There is "abundant evidence" of Alien Spaceships "if you google"...however that doesn't mean that I am going to believe such BS :rolleyes:.

Have spent my life living near Badgers and know them well.

fryup

Graces7 wrote: »

Including here and the house where my beloved cat was killed by a badger .

have you evidence of this ?

OpenYourEyes

Graces7 wrote: »

Others have lost pets to them . They are bad news frankly in inhabited areas.

A good rule of thumb is that, by and large, predators of the size we have in Ireland generally don't pick fights with other predators. It's simply not worth the risk of attacking another predator with claws etc. That's not to say it doesn't happen, but it is to say it's very much over exaggerated. Cats get hit by cars, trapped/shot etc etc, and many people think that there was a badger in the garden a week ago and put 2 and 2 together and get 5...

It's not unlike the tendency of the pigeon-racing community to blame losses on Sparrowhawks and Peregrines, when in fact things like weather and just poor navigation are much bigger problems!

magicbastarder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm95d-gZkD0

when badgers attack!

Del.Monte

Badger had the better of that one and scoffed everything that he could.

Pretzill

I can only go along with majority here - we have badgers roaming our garden late evening/night - I have trail Cam footage of the badger digging the ground for earthworms and a wily young fox following him rechecking the holes.

Saw the badger from the window one evening and my dog barked and the badger ran away in seconds.

I'm really sorry you lost your beloved pet cat Grace and to a badger of all animals

this year a feral cat has done more damage to our wild birds than any other creature including the hawk - and I'm confident if we still kept fowl it would've had a go - any creature can be predatory if pushed to it - but with wildlife it is in the nature of things imo.

Strawberry1975

The Badger as same as the Deer Carry TB
The cause problems with cattle drinking from water troughs
The are fine in the forests as the don't bother anyone

Pretzill

Strawberry1975 wrote: »

The Badger as same as the Deer Carry TB
The cause problems with cattle drinking from water troughs
The are fine in the forests as the don't bother anyone

This is a fallacy and is a proven one. Badgers do not spread TB - badgers don't even walk close to areas where cattle reside.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Strawberry1975 wrote: »

The Badger as same as the Deer Carry TB
The cause problems with cattle drinking from water troughs
The are fine in the forests as the don't bother anyone

You're coming out with some very negative and blanket statements about our wildlife today.

There's as much evidence that Badgers contract TB from cattle, as the other way round.

Strawberry1975

Pretzill wrote: »

This is a fallacy and is a proven one. Badgers do not spread TB - badgers don't even walk close to areas where cattle reside.

It's a Fact where badgers come into contact with cattle
Ya end up getting TB

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Strawberry1975 wrote: »

It's a Fact where badgers come into contact with cattle
Ya end up getting TB

Okay, it is not a Fact at all. There are copious examples, in my area alone, where TB free herds are in contact with TB free badgers, with no infection occurring.

But, if you have a source for the Fact I'd appreciate details.

junospider

To state that badgers dont even walk close to where cattle reside is beyond ludicrous . I have seen them in the same field as cattle, one even ran out of the slatted shed one night.
Some people dont want the hard facts. Infected badgers can and do transmit TB. to cattle.

archer22

junospider wrote: »

To state that badgers dont even walk close to where cattle reside is beyond ludicrous . I have seen them in the same field as cattle, one even ran out of the slatted shed one night.
Some people dont want the hard facts. Infected badgers can and do transmit TB. to cattle.

Well if infected Badgers can transmit TB to Cattle then obviously infected Cattle can transmit TB to Badgers.

And that is a far more likely scenario as Badgers dig under old Cow pats to get earthworms and bugs.

Plus Cattle get moved all over the country as well.

archer22

And another thing you might want to look at is the state of the trucks that ferry those cattle...all of them I have seen look like they never saw a power washer in their entire lives!!

Zoo4m8

archer22 wrote: »

And another thing you might want to look at is the state of the trucks that ferry those cattle...all of them I have seen look like they never saw a power washer in their entire lives!!

Marts and factories have truck wash facilities and trucks are washed after unloading..

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Marts and factories may but the movement of cattle between farms and townlands around here is certainly done using trailers that seldom see a wash.

Zoo4m8 wrote: »

Marts and factories have truck wash facilities and trucks are washed after unloading..

Rows Grower

Do badgers swim out to remote islands?

endacl

Rows Grower wrote: »

Do badgers swim out to remote islands?

Badger Grylls does.

Rows Grower

junospider wrote: »

To state that badgers dont even walk close to where cattle reside is beyond ludicrous . I have seen them in the same field as cattle, one even ran out of the slatted shed one night.
Some people dont want the hard facts. Infected badgers can and do transmit TB. to cattle.

About twenty years ago I was hunting on land belonging to a farmer who told me "the department" were snaring badgers on his land.

I was disgusted to hear this and even more disgusted when he told me that they set the snares on Friday and did not come back to check them until Monday morning.

He checked the snares Saturday morning and put a snared badger out of his misery with his shotgun, when the officials from "the department" discovered this he was chastised and told that he could be prosecuted for what he had done and he was never to do it again.

We had a discussion about the whole situation and he told me that they take all the snared badgers (or at least did at that time) and check them for TB.

He told me that he was reliably informed that of the many thousands of them snared that year, 12.5% of the badgers snared tested positive for TB.

Now I can't prove any of this but the stats must be out there somewhere.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Rows Grower wrote: »

Do badgers swim out to remote islands?

Being weasels, they can certainly swim, but only do so out of absolute necessity.

Rows Grower

Whitney Dirty Ladybug wrote: »

Being weasels, they can certainly swim, but only do so out of absolute necessity.

I know like the rest of us they need water everyday but I would have thought they would only be suited to fresh water.

I never heard of anyone spotting a badger swimming at sea but I suppose with them being nocturnal and all that they'd be hard to spot.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Rows Grower wrote: »

I know like the rest of us they need water everyday but I would have thought they would only be suited to fresh water.

I never heard of anyone spotting a badger swimming at sea but I suppose with them being nocturnal and all that they'd be hard to spot.

I was thinking of islands on lakes but the question was can they swim; which they can. I've not heard of them swimming in the sea but we have them on some remote western islands.


They actually rarely need to drink, as they get most of their water from their prey.

Rows Grower

Whitney Dirty Ladybug wrote: »

I was thinking of islands on lakes but the question was can they swim; which they can. I've not heard of them swimming in the sea but we have them on some remote western islands.


They actually rarely need to drink, as they get most of their water from their prey.

Never knew that, learning all the time.

Thank you sir!

Zoo4m8

Whitney Dirty Ladybug wrote: »

Marts and factories may but the movement of cattle between farms and townlands around here is certainly done using trailers that seldom see a wash.

Hmmm...I power wash my trailer after every trip as do my three neighbours, but of course the only way the casual observer would know would be to see it being done..

Graces7

fryup wrote: »

have you evidence of this ?

Yes. attack was witnessed.

Graces7

Pretzill wrote: »

I can only go along with majority here - we have badgers roaming our garden late evening/night - I have trail Cam footage of the badger digging the ground for earthworms and a wily young fox following him rechecking the holes.

Saw the badger from the window one evening and my dog barked and the badger ran away in seconds.

I'm really sorry you lost your beloved pet cat Grace and to a badger of all animals

this year a feral cat has done more damage to our wild birds than any other creature including the hawk - and I'm confident if we still kept fowl it would've had a go - any creature can be predatory if pushed to it - but with wildlife it is in the nature of things imo.

agree and thank you. I am shocked at the ideas here that badgers can do no wrong.
I have lived remote among badgers and pine martens for decades and know their nature and the dangers from them.
No room for sentimentality out here.
There is only one feral cat here and he is past hunting and yes, in their nature. as in all life.
Since this thread ( and most of the posts here are blocked thankfully) my own cats have waged war on the island rats with great success. So it balances out One of the rats was the size of a large kitten. That cat sits alongside a rat run now.for many hours a day.
sadly my hens fell prey to a two legged predator... miss the eggs... maybe in the spring.... Blessings and thanks

Eddie B

I done a bit of voluntary work for Birdwatch Ireland a number of years ago, and a badger swam out to one of the Islands on the river Shannon ( breeding wader project). They had to get a parks ranger out to trap it.

Also remember seeing a program years ago about a Scottish lake, where a Pine Marten used to swim out to an Island to feed on eggs and chicks.

Amazing the surprises that nature throws up now and then.

gzoladz

I am planning to go out looking for one during the Christmas-New Year week. I have made 2 or 3 unsuccessfull attempts this year in Dublin and Connemara, always in locations where they had been recorded, I was shown a sett entrance in advance, etc.

Time permitting I will try another Dublin location (a famiy recorded on cam ~1 month ago, fairly central), a location in Louth and a "friend of a friend" seems to get one often in his property, so waiting for those details.

It is surprising the places where they show up!

Pretzill

gzoladz wrote: »

I am planning to go out looking for one during the Christmas-New Year week. I have made 2 or 3 unsuccessfull attempts this year in Dublin and Connemara, always in locations where they had been recorded, I was shown a sett entrance in advance, etc.

Time permitting I will try another Dublin location (a famiy recorded on cam ~1 month ago, fairly central), a location in Louth and a "friend of a friend" seems to get one often in his property, so waiting for those details.

It is surprising the places where they show up!

We have one or two in our garden everynight! You know they've been around because they dig for earthworms and leave divits in the softer parts. I monitored them on trail Cam and pictured them right up near the house as early as 9 in the evening. Love them.

Rows Grower

gzoladz wrote: »

I am planning to go out looking for one during the Christmas-New Year week. I have made 2 or 3 unsuccessfull attempts this year in Dublin and Connemara, always in locations where they had been recorded, I was shown a sett entrance in advance, etc.

Time permitting I will try another Dublin location (a famiy recorded on cam ~1 month ago, fairly central), a location in Louth and a "friend of a friend" seems to get one often in his property, so waiting for those details.

It is surprising the places where they show up!

What is your plan?

As in how will you observe them, will you use a light or night vision?

Do you just want to see them emerge from the sett or are you going to watch/film them as they forage?

Igotadose

https://www.badgerwatch.ie/pages/faq.htm

Seems Ireland have been culling badgers for some time, though by my reading of the FAQ (from a pro-badger site it seems), cattle can give badgers TB, but badgers giving to uninfected cattle hasn't been proven. Not 100% impossible, but only 'proven' in artificial circumstances. Calves were penned in with infected badgers, calves got TB. Eliminating all badgers in Ireland won't eliminate TB of course.

Apparently there's a TB vaccine for badgers (in a chocolate bait but no TB vaccine for cattle. Kind of surprising given that TB and cattle have been under research for so many decades both in Europe and the USA.

gzoladz

Rows Grower wrote: »

What is your plan?

As in how will you observe them, will you use a light or night vision?

Do you just want to see them emerge from the sett or are you going to watch/film them as they forage?

My first goal is to see them, even if in very low light. I have a little night vision camera that may help. When I go owling I use my binocs, that deliver decent low light performance, so that is an option too.

I'd love to get a picture if there is an opportunity to do so, however as mentioned my priority is to be able to detect them, see them, learn in the process and nedless to say not to cause any disturbance at all.

In some locations in the country I could actually stay in the car, what would be good for shelter and to avoid getting smelled/seen.

This is just a hobby for me, so I enjoy the planning, preparation, field work, and if I do see one, that's the icing on the cake!

gzoladz

Pretzill wrote: »

We have one or two in our garden everynight! You know they've been around because they dig for earthworms and leave divits in the softer parts. I monitored them on trail Cam and pictured them right up near the house as early as 9 in the evening. Love them.

Put the kettle on, I bring the biscuits

Rows Grower

gzoladz wrote: »

My first goal is to see them, even if in very low light. I have a little night vision camera that may help. When I go owling I use my binocs, that deliver decent low light performance, so that is an option too.

I'd love to get a picture if there is an opportunity to do so, however as mentioned my priority is to be able to detect them, see them, learn in the process and nedless to say not to cause any disturbance at all.

In some locations in the country I could actually stay in the car, what would be good for shelter and to avoid getting smelled/seen.

This is just a hobby for me, so I enjoy the planning, preparation, field work, and if I do see one, that's the icing on the cake!

If you are ever planning a trip to south Kerry let me know and I can show you some setts minutes walk from my front door that have been active for years.

Feel free to fire me a pm anytime.

gzoladz

Rows Grower wrote: »

If you are ever planning a trip to south Kerry let me know and I can show you some setts minutes walk from my front door that have been active for years.

Feel free to fire me a pm anytime.

Thanks, that's very generous. Kerry is a place we would love to go back, so we will make it happen at some stage.

recedite

A badger sniffing around hens is more likely to be after the eggs. If they find an egg, they will keep coming back regularly to collect more.
I have heard heard of badgers killing and eating broody hens, probably because they would be roosting lower down than most hens, and also the hen would not be inclined to move off the eggs.


Re TB, IMO there is whole industry that has grown up around TB testing, and like any industry it tries to keep itself ticking over. So it has no interest in actually getting rid of TB.
Then there is the fact that deer also carry TB, and are very mobile. And deerstalkers are shooting them, gutting them, and leaving the innards in forests, where badgers and foxes will come along later to clean up.

Strawberry1975

Don't forget the Rat's

tabby aspreme

The boom is back, once upon a time badgers were content with a modest sett entrance, not any more though.

Eddie B

tabby aspreme wrote: »

The boom is back, once upon a time badgers were content with a modest sett entrance, not any more though.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

tabby aspreme wrote: »

The boom is back, once upon a time badgers were content with a modest sett entrance, not any more though.

Those would be classic/standard sized badger setts. They're by no means particularly large.

peterofthebr

hi so setting up a camera i was able to identify its a badger who dug a large hole the side of the hay shed. im in cavan and was going to ring the dept and see what can be done... but think they might only call out if there was a history of tb in the heard possibly? (never had tb)
- i was thinking of throwing some diesel or something around the hole to deter it..what u think? thanks