Homesteading

[GreatWhiteHunter]

Natural death. I mean when a load of 7 1/2 shot passes thru, you naturally,,,,,, die.

Of lead poisoning . . . . . .

 

[sheeplady]

Wild hogs are back. Didn't figure it would take em long. They rooted up the bottom as well as some in the back pasture. And poor Miss Mary's back yard(closest neighbor) looks like it's been root-tilled.

I set back in my man cave Tuesday night watchin a good pile of slop. Old black sow and a bunch of eating size shoats came in out of the brush. Several larger shoats in tow. So oldest son Is bringing over a hog trap tonight. I baited again last night with old cereal, cookies and such. They liked it! Report to follow!

What do you do with them after you catch them? Do you eat them? Do they taste good?

 

[Renault]

You can use them just like a regular domestic model! We've fed them out. Make a pretty fair hog! I prefer to butcher them when they are a more manageable size. I will generally split them down the middle and freeze the two halves. They are delicious.

PostScript
Son emailed and reported he has some kinda bug and doesn't wanna bring it over here. So I'm on my own again tonight!

 

[sheeplady]

I had heard of wild hogs. Apparently they have them in NY now too, according to the NY DEC website. But apparently here it is illegal to shoot them without DEC permission; nor after 2015 can you keep ones you catch to fatten up. (There's a provision for farmers shooting them, but it is rather unclear if you can just shoot them or if you have to have "permission.")

Well, there goes my free ham and bacon if I ever found one. I was getting all excited.

Looks like I'll just have to figure out how to make woodchuck appealing- we have enough of those to feed an army at the new place. I've got one who lives under a neighbor's shed at the current house and messes with my garden. It's illegal to discharge a gun here (residential). I keep trying to convince the neighbor to shoot it (he's a cop). I keep offering to make him a delicious stew and a six pack of beer if he kills the bugger, but no bites on that offer. And the neighbor knows I'm a damned good cook too. Sigh. I'd trap it, but then what would I do with it if I caught it besides shoot it? I guess I could cut it's throat, but I'm not too certain my skill in that.

That and I'm pretty sure if I was caught butchering a woodchuck in my backyard here my neighbors would have me committed, so there is that to consider.

 

[Renault]

LOL! I have never seen a woodchuck. But I've heard of folks eating them. We don't have them down here. Do you all have armadillos yet? I know they are going north!

It's fun to see critters you've never seen before!

Went out last night but we've got a moon about half full. Didn't see any. From now til after a full moon they will hit the field in the wee hours. And I do not like to hunt them in the dark. Just too many things can happen. And I'm not spry anymore. But son says he's better and will bring traps over this afternoon. Hopefully we can get about 5 or 6 in a trap!!! Yum!!!

 

[Stray Cat]

Looks like I'll just have to figure out how to make woodchuck appealing- we have enough of those to feed an army at the new place.

LOL! I have never seen a woodchuck.

I had to search for "woodchuck" online - the first time I've seen the word (I have seen the animal - in the zoo, but never in it's natural environment)

...

When it comes to homesteading; we have had a discussion on that subject, on our "For the ladies" part of the forum.
I live on a farming household: front of the lot is a normal household, back is the farming ground (where we have our animal and garden). Couple weeks ago we have bought this year's pigs - that we'll grow and fatten (and you know what happens to them in December).
We have chickens (the ones laying eggs and running around) and broilers (the ones not doing much, but getting fat). Few years ago we had turkeys; I don't think we'll be having them this year.
We've got an orchard on one side of the gardening part of our lot, and on the other side we've got our vegetables.
When it comes to homesteading, most of the households are having their lives similar to ours over here. Majority of us own lots that are large enough to facilitate all we need to be self-sufficient (as much as we can)
For instance: we get our milk from our two-doors-down neighbor. And in the summer, we provide fruit in a quantity large enough to give around. And, yes - we do make moonshine - what better way not to waste anything (and, earn some money, too)

 

[Renault]

Ok Sheeplady,

Trap set and baited! We'll see if we get lucky tonight! Just gotta keep the horses away from springing the trap!!!!



Btw, for folks that have never seen one, that big tree behind the trap is a mesquite tree. Some folks use them for cooking wood.

 

[sheeplady]

LOL! I have never seen a woodchuck. But I've heard of folks eating them. We don't have them down here. Do you all have armadillos yet? I know they are going north!

The woodchucks are kind of cute. They look like a big beaver, with a fat tail. When they run they sort of make a hopping motion. Not anything like a rabbit, but they are sort of chunky and cute looking when they run. They also aren't timid, so they can be friendly. The big thing about woodchucks is that the holes they make are dangerous for animals, as the animal gets their leg stuck in there and breaks it. Since coyotes hunt them, they really like to build their homes inside fenced in areas that keep the coyotes out, making the risk of a broken leg that much higher.

They make pretty big holes- my 16 month old daughter could get stuck in one. They are heavy diggers- they can move rocks twice their size. You have to bomb them and kill them to get them to leave your property.

I feel bad about wanting to kill them, until they eat my garden.

I too have heard of folks eating them, but I have yet to meet someone who had directly eaten one themselves.

And.... I just looked them up and apparently they can carry rabies. I'm back to wanting them all off my property by means of death.

 

[HudsonHawk]

Btw, for folks that have never seen one, that big tree behind the trap is a mesquite tree. Some folks use them for cooking wood.

And some of us spend all weekend trying to eradicate those thorny devils

 

[Renault]

And some of us spend all weekend trying to eradicate those thorny devils

Another one of my favorite pastimes!!! LOL

Btw, this just in. Went out about 10 to make sure the horses hadn't sprung the hog trap. Well there were pigs all around and the horses were eating all the bait. (Corn tonight). Horses wouldn't let pigs near trap! Well when the horses saw me they came over to me. I wait about 3 minutes and here come a bunch of good size eating pigs. Went all Guadacanal on them with my model 12 riot gun. Got three on ice!!!

Trap was sprung. I reset it. Will check it in morning. May have some more pork in it!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

We call them Ground Hogs here in Indiana (same thing as a Woodchuck). They are considered a varmint and tear up farmland all over the state..so getting permission to hunt them is often welcomed. I hunted them for years in the flat Hoosier fields with my trusty .223 Sako. We don't eat them here..but in other states some people do.
HD

 

[Renault]

They remind me of a "whistle pig"!

 

[HoosierDaddy]

They remind me of a "whistle pig"!

Same thing..!!
HD

 

[Renault]

Ok! That's what we always called marmots when hunting in Colorado! LOL!

 

[newsman]

Looks like I'll just have to figure out how to make woodchuck appealing- we have enough of those to feed an army at the new place. I've got one who lives under a neighbor's shed at the current house and messes with my garden. It's illegal to discharge a gun here (residential).

We have the same problem. Our home is too residential to do something. But we had a major issue with roof damage from some of the local tree rats. For firs time in my life I needed a BB Gun. Everything I had in the safe was just far too dangerous to shoot in our neighborhood. So I purchased a moderately high-end pellet rifle. The problem was solved but not before $600 in damage to the roof.

You might be able to get away with a pellet rifle. Not that they can't be dangerous. They most certainly can. But it's a far safer option than a 3006.

And I won't recommend this by any means but a buddy of mine who is a scientist has gassed these critters out. He went totally WWI one them and figured out a way to gas them in their trenches. Even he ran away from the toxin he created. Not sure what it was. But if he says it was dangerous then it was probably banned by The United Nations.

I've also had luck with traps from the local hardware store but I have no idea how far you have to take your critter away before it won't come back.

 

[Renault]

We used gopher bombs on gophers which for some was big sport. Just a big smoke bomb that runs em out and participants watching exit hole offed em with. 22 pistols.

Morning hog report. Appears after I reset the trap it was sprung by a really big hog that was able to exit before the guillotine door slammed in place. Or the pesky horses sprung it again. Appears my evening assassination of 3 of the conspirators did not upset the status quo, as the appearance of fresh rooting sign was prevalent throughout the brush!
I will leave the trap wired open to get them good and used to being around and in it! And we will try again next weekend. Some live pigs would be good for the pen!

 

[3fingers]

Renault, have you noticed a problem getting a hog who has sprung a trap and managed to escape getting him to go in a trap again? I have a friend who lives in east Texas who traps a lot of hogs. He uses jello and sour corn. I have heard him say that they get trap wise pretty quickly.

 

[HudsonHawk]

We used gopher bombs on gophers which for some was big sport. Just a big smoke bomb that runs em out and participants watching exit hole offed em with. 22 pistols.

Gophers are a huge menace out in the oil fields in West Texas and New Mexico. They'll chew threw buried electrical lines and even the poly gathering lines.

 

[Renault]

Renault, have you noticed a problem getting a hog who has sprung a trap and managed to escape getting him to go in a trap again? I have a friend who lives in east Texas who traps a lot of hogs. He uses jello and sour corn. I have heard him say that they get trap wise pretty quickly.

Yes! They get extremely trap-wise!!! Especially if pressured. They will move on. They are nomadic here to begin with. But you can always depend on them to come back. The pigs here get pressure from a lot of places. We are in a river bottom (flood plain) so we don't really have to worry about development. But everywhere around here seems to spring into a subdivision. So this keeps them and the deer on the move Looking for new habitat. The Labor Day fire of 2010 here did a lot of habitat destruction too. We've had many critters migrate here looking for greener pastures !

I use jello too on occasion. Those big pixie stick candy tubes work good too. Sometimes they are all you need for bait. I think the hogs can smellthem from miles away!

 

[Renault]

While on the subject of traps. Back in the Golden Era folks made permanent hog traps. You still see old derelict ones in the hill country where hogs were ranges like cattle (watch ol' Yeller). They would cut a piles of cedar post and set them in the ground like pickets. Think old forts in old westerns. They would then place a one way door on the front that would swing up like a pet door. This would be in a chute arrangement to channel the pigs. They would bait both sides of the door. Hog would root thru the door and it would shut behind them.

Sometimes you will see a round picket pen. Built kinda like a nautilus. With a one way door in the same chute arrangement but the door is a spring loaded swing door. Same principle. Hogs root thru and door shuts behind them.

These days many use the same concept as the ladder mentioned above, but use t-post and stock panels. The door is simply an unwired end of panel that is springy enough to slam shut and say that way when hog roots thru to bait.