Originally Posted by
Oldtimr
Not a bad idea but a raft won't stop raccoons. When I was trapping and banding ducks post season, I would occassionaly find a coon in the trap and dead ducks.
We don't have any Coons in the lower lease where I build the rafts, But there are Weasels and Minks. Fox are the worst, almost every year they re-establish a den (or several) right next to where the Ducks nest.
The higher lease I hunt has a pond and Coons. I've never gotten a shot at a Coon. Either bad luck or they are way smarter than I am. I've even tried trapping them with no success. If the area with the Coons wasn't so near the neighboring hunting lease I'd try dogging them. But I'd get real unpopular quick if my dogs went rampaging through the neighbors lease. I've never meant the next door neighbor, but have heard he is royalty and a real . I have meant a couple of his game keepers, cold, standoffish and generally hostile.
Most anything you can do to thin out th predator population is going to benefit the Ducklings.
I was sitting in a high seat next to a Creek and watched a Pike eat a Duckling.