Blood on the Corn

Yesterday morning as drove the girls to school I thought I saw a little black shadow inside the trap so I checked on my way back home after dropping the girls off at school.  This guy perked right up when he heard the car door slam, and by the time I got up to the cage he was slamming from side to side trying to get out.  I was going to go in the house and grab the .410 to shuffle him off this mortal coil, but decided to wait so the girls could see him when they got back from school. 

By the time they got home one of the other guys who hunts out here had solved the pig problem and the girls were very disappointed.  I wanted to show them the black pig because these come from the truly wild pigs that have been here for ages.  The pink pig that was killed a while back came from domestic pigs that have been released.  Apparently at one time here people would trap the hogs, notch there ears to claim them and then let them go again.    I guess it was common courtesy not to kill a hog someone else had notched. 

When me and the girls walked out there all that was left was a splattering of blood on the corn which the pig had been continuing to eat even as I watched it try to bang it's way out.  They didn't seem to be bothered by the blood although I wouldn't shoot one when they are around I don't think they are ready for that yet, but death is just part of country life.

Waiting for bacon

With bow season started and rifle season coming up in a few weeks sacks of corn are flying off the pallets at the feed store as hunters try to create  place where the deer will come for a snack and stay for dinner. The problem is that everything loves to snack on a nice pile of dirty corn.  The area by the house I have squirrels, rabbits, crows, deer, and my own chickens stopping by and getting their fill.  The problem is the hogs.  The hogs are large in number, large in size and eat a ton.  They love to eat the corn that is put out to attract the deer and they are making the rounds from feeder to feeder.  I would imagine the same hogs are also visiting the feeders on the hunting lease land next to us.  I have a very small feeder that takes on sack of corn at a time, but the more serious hunters have large tripod feeders that take eight to ten bags to fill up. No one wants to see the hogs eat seventy bucks worth of corn. 

Unlike deer, hogs can be killed year round by with either bow or rifle and anything else that would do the job.  This is one of the most common ways to get some hogs.  The wife's cousin put this hog trap out near the spot where he normally bow hunts because they are costing him to much cash in corn and not leaving enough for the deer.  The trap has been out for about a week and has been tripped once, but so far hasn't caught anything.  The same trap was used down the road and they trapped ten or twelve hogs, so it's really just a matter of time.  With lots of corn on the ground it will take a while before they get hungry enough to go inside.  If the ground was bare it would take less to get them inside. 

Checking the trap has become part of my morning routine.  Yesterday I clear some brush with the machete so that I could get a clear look from the road as I take the kids to school.  For now anything trapped in here will just get one in the back of the head and trip into the woods to be coyote food. When it's hot outside it is hard to butcher the hogs because the meat will spoil so fast, but a little further into winter and these will be put on the menu.