What is the best bait for raccoons in a live trap?

chickengeorgeto said:

Goomer said:

Originally Posted by Goomer 

 
...  At the same time I skinned and tanned my first mole.  I figured 99 more mole skins and I can cover a motorcycle seat.  A beautiful, if tiny pelt.

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I've seen a buyers price list for hides and pelts from the late 19th Century.  It listed mole skins as a hide they would buy.  I don't know if it was used to protect the feet from blisters or used to make ladies powder puffs but I suspect both.

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My grandmother was still using her vole skin powder puffs in 1977. Went down to TN to attend my grandfather's funeral and was talking to her as she put on her makeup. Asked about the odd looking powder puff (slightly flattened/over sized furry ping pong ball). Apparently my grandfather would skin & cure the `hide' of any vole the dog/cats brought to house (that hadn't been torn up). Grandma would pull the little patch of furred skin tight over cotton balls and sew it shut. Very fine hairs apparently good for even transfer of powder. Might have used moles too, but that didn't come up in conv. so I wouldn't know.

On topic: mixture of bacon grease and peanut butter slathered on the underside of the trigger plate/treadle in live trap.

chickengeorgeto said:

The idea behind this forum is what is the best thing to help your chickens. Just blowing the coons away is the best thing to do if you want your birds to live long, live well, and prosper. Any thing else is just raising chickens to serve as blood sacrifices to the raccoon god.

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The principle behind ALL forums is the discuss options available for the task at hand. Killing an animal that's only doing what it was created to do, survive, isn't the only option. There are plenty so why not discuss them all? There are some that are very key, like security.

Common sense tells me that if a person has the option of providing a secure environment for their flock then there's absolutely no reason to kill foraging animals unless they just like to kill things. If you let your birds free range unattended then you're asking for trouble. I did and I ended up loosing 5 birds total, four of them expensive French Copper Marans to the neighbors dog and one to a red-tailed hawk. The neighbor replaced the Marans and I replaced the one killed by the hawk. I could legally have killed the dog but why kill a dog that knows no better because of ignorant people that allow the dog to roam freely?

Is your coop secure? Does it have adequate welded wire over the doors and windows? Can the doors and windows be closed tightly and locked at night? Does one go out at sunset and lock the birds in their coop or do they wait hours after sunset because they're gone or enjoying a movie on TV? Is the run enclosed? Is the floor able to keep burrowing animals out, like dogs, coons, coyotes, big cats, etc.? Are the birds allowed to free range unsupervised? I know we don't always have time to be out there during the day but if you aren't and you lose birds, that's fault of the individual that allows it. Famers that allow chickens to free range know they're going to lose birds. It's a part of life.

My grandma, who passed almost 30 years ago. raised chickens and even her birds were not allowed to free range but they had a large pen. That's something that I learned from her. When my birds started disappearing, I looked for an answer and that was a pen around the coop and run that allowed them to free range in the safety of a large 100 foot by 40 foot pen. I came home the other night to a coon trying to get into the pen. It was unsuccessful and even if it did, it would never get into my coop because I built it that way. The pen is large enough and my flock of 13 birds small enough that there's plenty growing inside the pen and this spring they will have their own garden. I have 60# monofilament line running across the pen and haven't had hawk problems since. I never really had hawk problems in the pen anyway. They were a problem when the birds were free ranging.

Bottom line is that there are plenty of options, George. If you're option is killing them then that's fine. Just know that it's not the only option and it's not the only humane option, as you put it.

chiknhurder said:

The principle behind ALL forums is the discuss options available for the task at hand....

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By your own words then the purpose of this forum is to help the members raise chickens to provide eggs, drumsticks, and entertainment to the forum members.

That makes ways to suppress things that kill chickens a topic of interest to all of us. For instance I would gladly buy a Tyson fryer and present it to any hungry predator that knocked on my front door. But predators wish to pick and chose their chicken meals, much like you or I like to eat from the salad bar at a steak house.

The natural tendency of any predator is to return to the place where the living is easy, the same as humans do. Like the Planes Indians of the 19th Century and before, chicken predators don't move on until they have exhausted the prey base in one location or area. This is the very reason that Native Americans engaged in inter-tribal warfare to the point of and beyond of committing genocide.

In fact the human animal is still killing his neighbor and fellow country men over resources today in places like Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Eastern Europe, India, Pakistan, New Guinea, Kenya, China, and the list goes on endlessly. So why shouldn't you or I protect our chickens at the expense of chicken predators caught in the act or those with bloody chicken feathers on their breath? All I ask for is a logical and well thought out reason, not emotion.

When one goes off-topic, one can become lost in strongly held opinion, when one entertains strongly held opinions, one can become irritated, when one becomes irritated, one can lose one's way back to the original topic at hand, when one becomes confused about one's direction, one can become even more irritated. When one is off-topic and irritated, the Mods will lock the thread.

Don't let this happen to what has been a pretty useful thread, stay on topic.

From the rules:

*Although some ways are not considered ideal to some, it serves the purpose of removing the offending predator. If you have an idea or a helpful comment, please do reply. If it is a sarcastic comment about the disposal or capture of a predator, please keep your thoughts to yourself. We are not here to judge one another on methods or ways and means.

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Random Ramblings is available.

I think we are done here.

This was a thread about the best bait, folks. Besides going far off topic, this thread has violated the terms of the Predators and Pests forum. I'll again quote what Ivan quoted just above, which is highly relevant:

*Although some ways are not considered ideal to some, it serves the purpose of removing the offending predator. If you have an idea or a helpful comment, please do reply. If it is a sarcastic comment about the disposal or capture of a predator, please keep your thoughts to yourself. We are not here to judge one another on methods or ways and means.

Perhaps all should reread this entire section, which is iin this forum's stickies, or HERE.