14 weeks old, 7 Raccoons!

S-S-S
Shoot-Shovel-Shut Up

Works every time! Job well done.

X2!
Had a opossum in my coop one night when I forgot to shut the door. Scared the crap out of the kids the next morning when I put the stiff carcass standing up around the corner of our house when they went to the school bus, no dad of the year award for me! I threw it in the feild next to us and thought I'd catch a coyote or fox eating it but got some great pics of a bald eagle eating gut speghetti.
I know one guy who lost a bunch of cornishx in his chicken tractors, coons reached through the chicken wire and killed them, frankenbirds are too dumb to get out of the way. Another woman lost a bunch of her kids 4H silkie showbirds the same way and she had her cages in her garage. They are not safe until the coons are eradicated. I caught a fisher on my trail cam way back across a feild into the woods behind me, praying he don't like chicken. My coop is somewhat predator proof but I don't know if it is fisher proof, or even determined racoon proof. I spend fo much $ on my birds to let others eat them for snacks, all tresspassers will be shot! shh
Also got a coyote on my trail cam 50 feet from my coop, put it out there wondering what was getting the dogs going every night.
Lost five birds on different days before I decided no more free ranging.
 
I trap predators. Shoot them. My chickens own their own crock pot :) Simmered predators are free protein. I don't waste time skinning or gutting. I have had to remove hind legs on large coons and cook them in two pieces. The hens just love this style of buffet. So far I have not trapped any skunks. *fingers crossed*

That's awesome! I never thought of feeding them to the chickens! I don't like to kill and then dump...it just calls more predators and I don't like to waste good feed...my DH would eat them but I don't know that I could lol; he'd have to hide it in spaghetti or something ;) We've lost 4 mallards in 2 days and of course, coon dinner is a possibility...for the girls anyway lol :)
 
Here in the heart of the Old Deep South - there are PLENTY of them Coons lurking about the ol' Hen House!

Being in UCLA ( Upper Corner of Lower Alabama ) I have had to be educated rather quickly about Coons.

Very soon after constructing my idea of the perfect Chicken Tractor (not a great idea) I quickly discovered all was NOT well in paradise.  I found a fairly broad but not deep tunnel gouged in the dirt under the 2X4 side rails of the structure.  No chicks were harmed in any way but the mash dispenser was disrupted and the feed was gone.

Clearly time for re-evaluation! 

The hen house has undergone several re-designs.  It is now a hen house and not a chicken tractor.  The thing got to where it more resembled a Panzer tank than a chicken tractor after a while!  :/

Along with the defensive restructuring, I added active defense.   At first I set a "Have-A-Heart" type trap.  This netted six raccoons.  This included Mama and two kits.  Unfortunately, one kit survived to carry on.


However, the papa raccoon was too smart and stole the bait out of the trap several times without tripping the trap.  Some research lead me to buying a Duke Dog Proof trap.

This did the trick!   The first night I set it and primed it with canned dog food, I got the guy!

I've set the trap twice since then without anything taking the bait.  I'll wait a week and see if another family tries to take over the territory.

 
Release is not an option! :mad:


Do the Duke Dog Proof traps kill the coons? I'm hoping so ;) ..... I ordered some with high hopes :)
 

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