Badgers
 

My cousin has a badger living near a little stream at the back of her house.
Will he do any damage to her garden? She likes having him there; but thinks
she may have to put some protection around her plants. What do you think?

In message , Margret
writes
My cousin has a badger living near a little stream at the back of her house.
Will he do any damage to her garden? She likes having him there; but thinks
she may have to put some protection around her plants. What do you think?

Just one badger? - more often than not they live in clans. We have a
sett near us and get visited by five or six badgers most nights but they
rarely cause any damage. Occasionally a badger will decide that it is
essential to dig for grubs and worms in a lawn, this usually takes the
form of a one to three quite small scrapes in a relatively small area of
2 or 3 square metres, for a few nights. The 'damage' takes a couple of
minutes to put right. Twice in the last eight years it has become a bit
of a problem and we solved it by laying a piece of green plastic coated
wire netting over the area for a few nights - surprisingly the badger
did not move its digging activities to another area in the garden.

The only time they invaded one of our shrub beds was when they decided
to dig a latrine - we put a rag soaked in foul smelling Renardine on a
short stick on the site which immediately discouraged them.

Your cousin will probably find the following of use:
http://www.badger.org.uk/questions/b...our-garden.pdf

--
Robert

Robert muttered:

In message , Margret
writes
My cousin has a badger living near a little stream at the back of her house.
Will he do any damage to her garden? She likes having him there; but thinks
she may have to put some protection around her plants. What do you think?

Just one badger? - more often than not they live in clans. We have a
sett near us and get visited by five or six badgers most nights but they
rarely cause any damage. Occasionally a badger will decide that it is
essential to dig for grubs and worms in a lawn, this usually takes the
form of a one to three quite small scrapes in a relatively small area of
2 or 3 square metres, for a few nights. The 'damage' takes a couple of
minutes to put right. Twice in the last eight years it has become a bit
of a problem and we solved it by laying a piece of green plastic coated
wire netting over the area for a few nights - surprisingly the badger
did not move its digging activities to another area in the garden.

The only time they invaded one of our shrub beds was when they decided
to dig a latrine - we put a rag soaked in foul smelling Renardine on a
short stick on the site which immediately discouraged them.

Your cousin will probably find the following of use:
http://www.badger.org.uk/questions/b...our-garden.pdf

We have a large and complex sett at the bottom of our garden, and we've
never had a problem. The main damage comes from the deer, who regularly chew
all the roses ‹*even up on the terrace rose bed. Badgers are extremely shy
and I've never seen one, although I'd love to.

Margret wrote:
My cousin has a badger living near a little stream at the back of her house.
Will he do any damage to her garden? She likes having him there; but thinks
she may have to put some protection around her plants. What do you think?


So long as she doesn't keep chickens she's unlikely to have a problem :-)

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:09:59 +0100, Derek Turner somewhat@odds
wrote:

Margret wrote:
My cousin has a badger living near a little stream at the back of her house.
Will he do any damage to her garden? She likes having him there; but thinks
she may have to put some protection around her plants. What do you think?

So long as she doesn't keep chickens she's unlikely to have a problem :-)

Why would that be a problem? What do badgers do to chickens?

JB

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 13:14:18 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from JB contains these words:

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:09:59 +0100, Derek Turner somewhat@odds
wrote:

Margret wrote:
My cousin has a badger living near a little stream at the back of
her house.
Will he do any damage to her garden? She likes having him there;
but thinks
she may have to put some protection around her plants. What do you think?

So long as she doesn't keep chickens she's unlikely to have a problem :-)

Why would that be a problem? What do badgers do to chickens?

Eat them if they get chance. Badgers are omnivores, and chickens are
not safety conscious especially at this time of year. They lay and
brood secret clutches of eggs at ground level, an easy target for
badgers and foxes with young to feed.

Janet

So much for the NFBG's statement that they eat "earthworms and insect
larvae"! OK they did say 'most of the time' but there's a bit of a
step between an earthworm and a chicken.

JB

On 26/4/05 17:11, in article , "Janet
Baraclough" wrote:

snip

Badgers do eat earthworms and insect larvae, probably most days,
(because those foods are virtually always available). But that's far
from the sum total of their diet. They also eat fruit, (but because
that's only available seasonally, it wouldn't be described as "most of
the time") roots, seeds, frogs, baby mice and rabbits, the eggs and
nestlings of ground nesting birds, roadkill, and bread and scraps thrown
out for birds. As do foxes, many cats and dogs, and pigs if they get
half a chance. Hens aren't innocent vegetarian pacifists btw. Freerange
ones hunt and eat frogs, mice, fallen nestlings and voles. That's part
of their natural diet, that makes their eggs taste wonderful.

There is no moral "step" between eating a worm and a chicken imho,
only a cultural one for some humans. It's sustenance. People like me
who eat chickens and eggs are feeding on that food chain ..just like
badgers.

Badgers eat hedgehogs, too....
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)

On this great day..Tue, 26 Apr 2005 18:16:22 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 26/4/05 17:11, in article , "Janet
Baraclough" wrote:

snip

Badgers do eat earthworms and insect larvae, probably most days,
(because those foods are virtually always available). But that's far
from the sum total of their diet. They also eat fruit, (but because
that's only available seasonally, it wouldn't be described as "most of
the time") roots, seeds, frogs, baby mice and rabbits, the eggs and
nestlings of ground nesting birds, roadkill, and bread and scraps thrown
out for birds. As do foxes, many cats and dogs, and pigs if they get
half a chance. Hens aren't innocent vegetarian pacifists btw. Freerange
ones hunt and eat frogs, mice, fallen nestlings and voles. That's part
of their natural diet, that makes their eggs taste wonderful.

There is no moral "step" between eating a worm and a chicken imho,
only a cultural one for some humans. It's sustenance. People like me
who eat chickens and eggs are feeding on that food chain ..just like
badgers.

Badgers eat hedgehogs, too....
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove the weeds to email me)



and will take weak lambs

Mike

Pullout "stop" to reply by email

In article ,
JB wrote:

I only asked because I was naively ignorant of badger behaviour /
mislead by the fluffy bunny brigade (delete according to preferred
opinion)

Badgers have no doubt at all what to do about fluffy bunnies.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 17:11:50 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

There is no moral "step" between eating a worm and a chicken imho,
only a cultural one for some humans. It's sustenance. People like me
who eat chickens and eggs are feeding on that food chain ..just like
badgers.

The only 'step' between the two that I meant to suggest is that a
chicken is much bigger than a worm. There is no 'moral' step to use
your phrase; after all these are animals morals, along with all the
obligations and rights that go with them, are a meaningless concept in
this context.

I only asked because I was naively ignorant of badger behaviour /
mislead by the fluffy bunny brigade (delete according to preferred
opinion)

JB

"Kay" wrote in message
...
In article , Janet Baraclough
writes
The message
from JB contains these words:

Eat them if they get chance. Badgers are omnivores, and chickens
are
not safety conscious especially at this time of year. They lay and
brood secret clutches of eggs at ground level, an easy target for
badgers and foxes with young to feed.

Janet

So much for the NFBG's statement that they eat "earthworms and insect
larvae"! OK they did say 'most of the time' but there's a bit of a
step between an earthworm and a chicken.

Badgers do eat earthworms and insect larvae, probably most days,
(because those foods are virtually always available). But that's far
from the sum total of their diet. They also eat fruit, (but because
that's only available seasonally, it wouldn't be described as "most of
the time") roots, seeds, frogs, baby mice and rabbits, the eggs and
nestlings of ground nesting birds, roadkill, and bread and scraps thrown
out for birds.

Aren't they also the main enemy of hedgehogs?


They are the main predator of hedgehogs, but hedgehogs have no enemies
except for some humans.

"Derek Turner" somewhat@odds wrote in message
...
BAC wrote:
"Derek Turner" somewhat@odds wrote in message
...

JB wrote:

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 12:09:59 +0100, Derek Turner somewhat@odds
wrote:



Margret wrote:


My cousin has a badger living near a little stream at the back of her

house.

Will he do any damage to her garden? She likes having him there; but

thinks

she may have to put some protection around her plants. What do you

think?

So long as she doesn't keep chickens she's unlikely to have a problem

:-)


Why would that be a problem? What do badgers do to chickens?


use those front paws to rip through electric fences, smash their way
into the hen house and kill the lot. At least,that's what happened to me
- and I'm not allowed to shoot the *******s!


Have you now given up keeping chickens?


Temporarily!......

I hope you soon come up with an effective solution :-)

BAC wrote:

Temporarily!......


I hope you soon come up with an effective solution :-)


I have a very effective 12-bore 'solution' - I'm not allowed to use it!

rant
These bloody townies wander around in fluorescent anoraks with their
dogs and chattering nineteen to the dozen and so never see a badger and
think they are 'rare'. We're overrun with the bloody things, they eat
our livestock, infect our cattle with TB, undermine our fields so we
break the axles on our machinery and yet the little *******s are still
protected. In the 'good old days' the Church of England used to pay a
bounty for every dead brock. Now we're all more 'enlightened'. Spit.
/rant

"Derek Turner" somewhat@odds wrote in message
...
BAC wrote:

Temporarily!......


I hope you soon come up with an effective solution :-)


I have a very effective 12-bore 'solution' - I'm not allowed to use it!

rant
These bloody townies

I like badgers, and I live in the country.

wander around in fluorescent anoraks with their dogs and chattering
nineteen to the dozen and so never see a badger and think they are 'rare'.
We're overrun with the bloody things, they eat our livestock, infect our
cattle with TB,

Unproven, as is the counter hypothesis that bovine TB in badgers is actually
caught from cattle. More and better research is needed before a species is
wiped out.

undermine our fields so we break the axles on our machinery

Nonsense. Badgers do not make their sets in open fields. Their usual habitat
is in woodland, and under tree roots. The closes they might get to a field
is the hedgerow.

and yet the little *******s are still protected. In the 'good old days' the
Church of England used to pay a bounty for every dead brock. Now we're all
more 'enlightened'. Spit.

/rant

In the 'Good Old Days' the Church of England used to burn 'witches' too.
Does that indicate greater enlightenment then?

anti-rant

Duncan Heenan wrote:


I like badgers, and I live in the country.

so do a great number of imported townie bunny-huggers. doesn't make you
a countryman.


infect our
cattle with TB,


Unproven, as is the counter hypothesis that bovine TB in badgers is actually
caught from cattle. More and better research is needed before a species is
wiped out.

and the FBB sabotage all attempts to prove it one way or the other. I
know what my farming neighbours think.


undermine our fields so we break the axles on our machinery


Nonsense. Badgers do not make their sets in open fields. Their usual habitat
is in woodland, and under tree roots. The closes they might get to a field
is the hedgerow.

we have no woodland anywhere near us, only hedgerows and sandy soil. try
telling my farmer next-door-neighbour that his very expensive
repair-bill was not caused by badgers - DEFRA issued him a license to
evict them.