Dirty coons!

[chknman79]

Stinkin coon got 4 of mine over a two day period while I was working alot and did not have a lot of time to check on my chickens. I went out and found a completely cleaned carcass and feathers. Went to work right away and predator proofing the coop and locking the chickens up at night. (Hadn't had any problems in the past 4 months) won't make that assumption again! Set a live trap that night and caught a fat coon. (Should've been, since he had eaten 4 grown chickens and 6 ducklings this month). Set the trap again and nothing since. Nothing has bothered my birds since. Still locking them up and leaving the trap set. All's well now. Just waiting on some eggs.

 

[Bubba]

You guys don't realize just how lucky you are that you can use a gun. Firing (discharging) a firearm anywhere in LA County will get you in BIG trouble. So I use my trusty blade (Machete). 3 Raccoons, 6 Possums and some other assorted animals have cleansed the blade with thier blood. I love shooting but actually having to stalk something to get into melee range is so much harder and worth it. The adrenaline spikes are awesome. What always amazes me is how much damage a possum can take, seriously tough animals. Thank god they are small if they made possums like a bear we would be up s**t creek.

Bubba

 

[momoftwinsinwi]

Bubba, a machete?? how the heck do you get close enough to whack it with a machete?? I'm getting a visual and actually LOL!!!

 

[JFL1950]

Just curious as to what type of a trap everyone uses and the bait they use?
Thanks

 

[Patchofheaven]

My husband and son built our trap out of alot of scraps, it looks sort of crude and is really heavy. We have been setting the trap everynight since the family of coons got 3 of my babies, we use cat food as bait. So far we have caught something (most likely a coon) 5 times in 2 weeks. The coons literrally have bent the wire/steel and escaped through really small holes like 2" x 2". There are still more because the family is still trying to assist the prisoner from the outside of the trap. My hubby keeps reinforcing the cage everytime they escape so the trap is efven heavy than before. Since starting almost 2 weeks ago, we have only caught one really big, stinky old fat coon.

 

[EboyDog]

For those who may have the the wood and want to make a trap for themselves, here is a link to the Department of Missouri's conservation site which has plans (downloadable PDF at the bottome of the page) to build a simple trap. It's described as a rabbit trap but can be made larger to accomadate coons, bears or small kids (just kidding about the kids!!

)

http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/woodwork/ww10/

Personaly I opt for the metal cage trap which so far I have caught two possums, three raccons and currently working VERY hard to catch something that have managed to eat the trap food and not trigger the trap which I am rather sure is skunk as there is oder of such around the area that I am setting the trap.

I release the critters about 20 miles from me, across several highways and one interstate in a rural area behind the house of my kid's mom (my 5 year insists that I do no harm to them) but if (when) I catch the skunks, I'm not so sure I will transport them as I prefer not to wear their perfume! but I will have to see once that get's here!!

By the way there's nothing more mad than a coon in a trap!! Once you have one in a trap, you lose all ideas of how "loveble" and neat they are.... but I'm kindhearted by nature, before I had chickens, I fed the baby coons marshmellows, little did I know at the time that they loved chickens more than marshmellows!!

 

[silkiechicken]

I use a hav a heart trap, bait with absolutely nothing by placing along a fence line or use marshmallows. I then feed them a few grams lead.

 

[chickenwoods]

I am a fur trapper,i trap fur for part of my years salary.I know some people here wont agree with that,but its my heritage,and a family tradition.I use foothold traps.
I place my traps where the coons prefer to enter my pen,then it is better to not use bait.they already know where thier going.Sometimes if i cant find a good place to put a foothold i will use a live trap.I bait it,with fox urine,or cat food seems to work. In the last 4 months i have caught about 7 coons and 5 possums.

 

[foxtrapper]

Quote:
Depends on the predator and conditons. For coons I've used conibear traps on a bucket set, snares, foothold traps, cage traps, egg traps and the little griz.

Conibear bucket sets are the most effective for me, but you can get a good number of non-target animals as well, like a chicken or cat.

The grasping traps like egg traps of the little griz work very well on coons, and coons only. I find the egg trap to be more effective than the little griz, but what a pain to use.

A cage trap with a coon in it is not a pleasant experience. It's even worse with a feral cat in it. Oye!

 

[EboyDog]

Quote:
I hear ya!! I got two this morning, actually the older one was very quiet and took it all very well, the other was a young one, rather small and gheez, I don't recall ever seeing an animal in such a bad mood! The smaller the coon, the more agressive they are!!!

The two this morning make a total of 6 that I have caught in the last two weeks, I don't know what I'm doing right but so far I haven't lost any chickens due to coons and mind you, I'm trapping these coons in a couple old sheds that are within 100 yards of the chicken coop and their run (knock on wood). but I think my dog has helped that at least with regards to keeping the varmits away, now if I can just teach her that the chickens are her buddies and not food!