still nothing in those traps after our last video I got a lot of questions and
comments and responses but the two most predominant questions that I receive
were number one how are your ducks doing and number two
what the heck did you do with that skunk that you trapped in the last video
Bang a right
before I answer either those questions I do want to recognize the hero of the
last video the cat that knew what was going on well before his owner did mr.
Pablo barn cat probably got a friendly camera bro I can't shoot this video if
you keep hanging in front of the camera my friend the Ducks are doing ok I
didn't have to put any down yet most of them seem to be healing up as you can
see here actually a lot of them are starting to get back to their regular
old duckiness I've been keeping the ducks in that old chicken tractor just
as a way to keep a closer eye on them and keep them in something that I know
is a little bit more predator proof right now I'm actually working on re4
defying the duck house and making it like Fort Knox I'm putting a hardware
cloth in a lot of places I am adding an additional layer of wire I'm adding
additional boards I'm adding additional furrowing protections doing everything I
possibly can to make sure I can keep that weasel out I've been really trying
to trap the weasel but I haven't had too much luck there I'm pretty sure it's a
mink which is a member of the weasel family I have been watching very closely
monitoring with game cameras I've been trying to trap with havahart traps and
the other day with one of our havahart traps I caught a skunk now for some of
you I know you're saying well how do you know the skunk was at the animal that's
attacking your ducks and based on the way the animal entered into the duck
house based on the you know wounds that my duck suffered I am thinking that it's
very very unlikely that it's a skunk and it's a very very high probability that
it's not made in my eyes that means that the skunk was a completely innocent
casualty of this war with the weasel this skunk was just wandering around
happened to smell something that smelled like cat food and he wandered into a
have a heart trap and I caught him he spent the entire night in that trap as
the mink ran around the duck house tried to get into that duck house and
ultimately broke into the duck house the guy was totally innocent of the thing
I've got it on tape he he's absolutely exonerated so but
regardless of innocence or not I now had this problem on my hands that I had a
skunk in a trap and as everybody knows skunks have a tendency to spray you with
their smelly smelly spray when they feel threatened or endangered now in talking
with some of my neighbors they all suggested that I either shoot it or
drownin but for me the big softy that I am I just couldn't bring myself to do it
I mean there's just been so much death and pain on the farm
over these last couple of days killing an innocent skunk felt like I was only
contributing to that feeling I mean the fact that predators will attack an
animal like the duck that is what it is that's part of the deal with all of this
you know that's part of the cycle of life but I don't always have to continue
to contribute to it now here in northeastern Vermont we have a special
animal catch and release program we call it New Hampshire I'm just kidding I'm
just kidding I don't actually take animals and relocate them into another
state I know that's illegal that was just a joke please don't take it
seriously now the first thing I did before trying to do anything with the
skunk that I had in the trap was I decided to take 15 minutes and just do
some quick online research so if you stumbled across this video because
you're trying to deal with a skunk that's trapped in a live trap kudos to
you you've really already accomplished step one in this process all of the
advice that I saw was very conclusive and saying that the thing I needed to do
was cover the trap with some sort of blanket or towel the reason being this
skunks don't have very good eyesight yet they also do not spray what they cannot
see by covering up the trap they can't where the threat is and so they don't
know where to spray and on top of it all the covering of the trap creates this
confined space that makes the skunk feel like it's not safe to spray because they
don't want to spray themselves the logic of all of this seemed pretty darn good
to me so I figured what the heck could go
wrong well step on this
my first attempt actually wasn't great and it's sort of only halfway got on the
cage because I was so nervous and scared so I had to use like a stick
to try to move it into the proper place once I got the proper cover on the skunk
I picked it up and very carefully and very slowly carry him to my pickup truck
toss him in the back of the pickup truck I would strongly recommend you guys you
are trying to transport a skunk in like a car
that because the entire time I was doing this it very much felt like a high-risk
proposition and the last thing in the world I think you'd want to have happen
is for the skunk to spray in your car I felt okay with it in the back of the
bed of the pickup truck and so I drove off - I'll just say the back side of our
property undisclosed location but still our property so you know everything was
on the legal up-and-up one big mistake I made when I was transporting the skunk
was as I put the towel on top of him and put him in the back of the pickup truck
I didn't compensate for the fact that the cage would move around a little bit
while I was driving and that the towel could potentially fall off so yes the
cage moved around a little bit while I was driving in the towel fell off so
there I was actually in the back side of the property over by the woods and I was
trying to get rid of the skunk and I opened up the back of my my tailgate and
I'm face to face with the skunk completely uncovered he's terrified from
the drive but what I ended up doing was sneaking around the back grabbing the
towel dropping it over the cage again and I was able to pull him out of the
truck without any incident and set him on the ground then my next step was to
actually open the door of the trap with the cover still on the reasoning being
again skunks have terrible eyesight and I figured if it was still dark or bright
red for the case of the towel I was using inside the cage he'd be less
likely to spray so I opened up the the door of the cage and then I slightly
peeled back the towel to give the skunk a little bit of light so you could see
where to go and try to get out
come on go get out
now if you're ever having a down day or a tough time I have some advice for you
because the day that I released that skunk
out in the back was quite possibly one of my three worst days working here on
our farm you know I had just discovered for a second time that the Ducks had
been attacked I was feeling like a failure because I couldn't keep my
animals safe I was just feeling awful about things in general I was worried I
was scared and I felt like having to deal with this skunk was just one more
thing that I had to contend with it was the last thing that I wanted to do on my
list but let me just tell you that there is no greater feeling on the planet
Earth than safely and successfully releasing a skunk back into the wild
like if this was a video game I feel like I just unlocked a new challenge it
was incredible like the sense of accomplishment I had of both you know
being able to be humane and spare the life of this skunk but then also do it
in a way that didn't really damage or cost me anything other than about a half
an hour's worth of time I mean I mean like seriously you guys should all give
this a shot sometime there is no feeling greater so if you're watching this video
and you stumbled on it because you were trying to figure out how to contend with
your skunk problem kudos to you you can do this you are able to deal with this
skunk just be slow just be cautious and just follow the steps in the process and
you'll just be fine but man that feeling that you have once you're done with it
it is the greatest feeling honor