Going, going, ...



HI, All!
OK, I've had quite a few losses while on vacation and my daughter was
watching things. Not her fault at all.
Before we left, we had seen signs of a raccoon, so we set the trap and
promptly caught a young female. Nothing after that. Off to holiday
thinking we'd nipped it in the bud.
Then...
Something killed one gosling (half-grown) one morning. Did not eat it.
Next, something got into the greenhouse and masacred all twenty
ducklings, taking their heads off or breaking their necks. Some were
eviscerated, as though something was looking for eggs. Some had four
small holes in their heads, nothing else. All happened in the morning
(near dawn or just after). It got in by gently slipping the plastic
away from the frame and entering the small hole at ground level.
When I got home and walked the farm with my daughter, trying to find
clues, we found two ducks missing and one guinea hiding in with the
geese. We found a dead guinea in the middle of the yard (it was alive
two hours earlier) and followed a feather trail along the roadside
ditch to find a second guinea dead.
My daughter set the trap each night with an egg or two. The eggs have
disappeared, but the trap is not sprung.
We are having trouble figuring out what is doing this. There was a cat
caught in the trap one morning and whatever has been doing in the birds
tried to kill the cat, too, because she is torn up in several places.
We lost a few kittens at the barn to whatever it is (that's why we set
the trap initially).
What is fast enough to catch a guinea in broad daylight, enter the barn
and eat kittens, slip into the greenhouse and murder twenty half-grown
ducklings, get the bait but not trip the trap, and leaves four small
holes and mayhem, without being seen?
All this in about a week's time.
I truly need a different approach. The trap isn't working. I can't
stay up all night (and watch eight little ones the next day!).
What am I missing?
TIA

Kathleen
Straw Barry Fields Farm
Beefalo
Kentucky, USA

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