fighting raccoons

[cream puff]

If you're going to kill the coon, as it seems most of you are nothing beats a dog proof trap and a 22 pistol little big of any kinda fish in the trap and they'll hit it for sure

fish, eh? That brings me to another question:

What is the best bait for the raccoon? We caught and dispatched two already, but I know there are more and they seem to have gotten wise to the trap. I've baited with bread, raw liver and cooked liver and nothing has gone in. But fish you say?

I would love to hear what everyone's most successful bait is.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

fish, eh? That brings me to another question:

What is the best bait for the raccoon? We caught and dispatched two already, but I know there are more and they seem to have gotten wise to the trap. I've baited with bread, raw liver and cooked liver and nothing has gone in. But fish you say?

I would love to hear what everyone's most successful bait is.

I haven't used it but hear wet cat food is good. I know they were always going after 1 of my neighbors cat food.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

fish, eh? That brings me to another question:

What is the best bait for the raccoon? We caught and dispatched two already, but I know there are more and they seem to have gotten wise to the trap. I've baited with bread, raw liver and cooked liver and nothing has gone in. But fish you say?

I would love to hear what everyone's most successful bait is.

As EggSighted stated the canned cat food works great and is easily wired to the cage so tge raccoon has to work the set for a bit longer.

My GOTO bait when using a cage trap:

Take a tin of sardines and 2 or 3 cups of vegetable oil and run it through a blender until throughly puraid.

Then put about 5lbs of dry dog food into a 5 gallon bucket and pour this mixture over it and thoroughly mix it together.

I have not met a raccoon yet that will pass it up. I've even caught a few fox in cage sets using this bait.

 

[MamaBigMouth]

This group is amazing! I just lost my first chicken to raccoons this morning, it was horrible.
There was a clear feather trail right to my neighbor's shed. On one side of the shed I found a foot and bits of beak and on the other side I found her other foot.
I now have one Red Star who is calling for her friend and it's braking my heart. I live in Richmond VA. If anyone knows of any young pulleys available please notify me ASAP
Thank you for all of the great tips, I'm working on revamping the coop and installing electric wire. This is war!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Here's a post that I made, from page 58 of My Coop Project thread:

Protecting the Flock

I know that I have posted about using cage traps to catch predators, but for the life of me...I cannot find it. So here it is again.

I live in town. This is what I use to catch any culprits that might want to make a meal out of my chickens. The trap opening is 13 inches X 13 inches, and 36 inches in length. Once the predator steps on the treadle, the door closes and your predator problems are solved. Any one that keeps chickens should have at least a pair of these for quick use when predators stalk our birds. These traps are solid, well built and will last you for many years.

Stay away from the Havahart brand traps, unless you're after squirrels, Havaharts are cheaply made and use sheet metal, the springs that lock the trap are weak. I've had animals push out of a Havahart Trap. If a predator forces out of a Havahart trap once, the trap is ruined.

For most predators bait it with a tin of soft cat food food and set it each night. One time I had a squirrel problem, so I baited it with a mix of peanuts and corn, caught a lot of birds, but after a few days no squirrels. You will probably not want to leave it set during the day, all you'll catch is a bunch of chickens; trust me.

You'll need to stake it so it cannot be turned over, if the trap rolls over the washers will slide and the trap door will open. If the predator escapes, they just got a free education as to what to avoid in the future.

It works great for squirrels, weasels, mink, feral cats, small dogs, dumb foxes with a lower I.Q., and raccoons; basically most of the animals that want to make a meal out of our birds.

For cautious predators like foxes, the trap has to be perfectly bedded, no wobble at all or a fox will not enter the trap. The trap needs to be well weathered, just leave them outside and nature will do a great job. When handling the trap, always wear gloves, try not to touch the trap with bare hands.

Cautious predators are very challenging to stop from killing chickens.

Most foxes that become chicken killers are the young of the year that are just learning to hunt and provide for themselves. Chickens are an easy prey item for young foxes...

Here Is my recipe:
1 tin of sardines
2 cups of vegetable oil

Mix the sardines and vegetable oil in a blender until puraid completely. Then in a 5 gallon bucket mix the slurry thoroughly with about 10 pounds of dry dog food.

This makes a very good bait for most any predator that feeds on chickens.

If you are having trouble catching the predator that is being overly cautious, and there are no malfunctions of the trap itself, wire the trap open so that it cannot trigger and let the target animal hit the trap each night for about a week. Check the trap each day to ensure that the predator is visiting the cage trap, re-bait as needed.

After week, remove the wire and ensure that the trap is properly set. If the predator is hitting the trap regularly, you should have your chicken killer the next morning.

This approach works great for even those very cautious predators like foxes.

 

[dtabor]

To be honest, I'm not 100% sure why I did either...mostly I think because I was out of ammo and also because the skunk hadn't been the one mauling the coop, plus it was a real young/small one. In hindsight, I'm an idiot (not the first time I've figured that one out either

) but after killing the raccoon yesterday, plus 3 red squirrels on the deck that were trying to get into the house via a direct vent maybe I just felt like I should be nice or something. We live in the northern woods of Vermont, so relocation is pretty common around here - beware of getting on the wrong neighbor's bad side, else you'll discover someone using YOUR house as the relocation spot! But I let him out at pond area in the woods...and probably wouldn't have gotten sprayed if I could have figured out how to prop the trap door open for him to get out without standing too close using a long stick. Last time I'll be doing that!!!

Until this week, it's been mostly an uphill battle with predators. I'm a fairly new chicken mama, but kind of started off all ***-backwards: picked up 4 rescue hens last fall (in November! Before I'd even expanded the 4x4 part) - a barred rock Big Dot, a small leghorn Henny Penny, an ameracauna Big Brown and an aracauna Cookie- who all got NASTY lice and scaly leg mites. What with the subsequent respiratory, reproductive and dog/wild predator issues (lost Cookie to an off leash dog, grrr), it was pretty much trial by fire. Earlier this month I had finally gotten my act together & properly expanded the coop, plus spent a small fortune at the avian vet getting everyone checked out, ivermectin, etc. (Big Brown had to be put down, due to malfunctioning shell gland and calcified mass in her gut), even ordered some 4 week old chicks - and then the raccoons showed up. Not to mention the fox and the hawks. So yeah, it sucked. And I was in no mood to play nice.

On the bright side, one of the 4 week olds is still around - a feisty rhode island red named Sweetie Peeps, though she's getting bullied by the Orpingtons (Gilda, Ezzy, Lydia, Nancy and Didi). But everyone is SAFE! and so far so good, except for my smelling like skunk butt. Since SP is at the bottom, she's become super human-friendly - she comes running at sight of me & jumps up onto my shoulder, gives me chicken loving pecks & purrs. The other girls are still wary, but we're all getting to know each other.

We are just starting out with our chickens again as well here in VT. Living in the woods I know predators will be a constant battle. One my son is ready and willing to help combat though. I have either seen or have trailcam pics of just about every predator in VT known to go after chickens on my property. Coop and run will be ultra secure but Im using a tractor for the last 4 weeks of meat birds so Im a little leery about that. We shall see.

Just wanted to point out that relocating animals is totally illegal here in VT due to the spread of rabied, even though many do it. In your case I wouldnt feel bad about exterminating anything that comes after your birds!!

 

[dtabor]

Like Mary said below, I don't think you'd want to use anything bigger. I have an old single shot rifle - super simple, takes one bullet in the top chamber, no cartridges or anything fancy. I'm actually a terrible shot (we have other guns for use at the local range), but again, as Mary said, the .22 fits right into the trap mesh and you can get a direct (and humane) shot to the head pretty easily. There's no way I'd be able to hit a moving target!


Yeah, I had it covered before moving it - the problem was that I couldn't figure out how to get the door to stay propped open so it could exit without my standing there holding it up with a long stick. Pfffft. I've never actually shot a skunk - do you happen to know if they spray when they get hit? (like an auto reaction?) I'd guess yes?

As far as the new & improved predator-proofing, so far so good!!.. all girls safe, and I didn't see/hear anything creeping around last night. Debating whether to set the trap again tonight - it still stinks pretty bad, so I may just wait another couple days. I've also been taking in all the food dishes before putting them to bed.

Ive seen it go both ways with skunks. Many say if you hit them in the head they dont release but Ive seen that debunked before. Sounds inhumane, but the only way to "cleanly" dispose of them is to leave them in the trap and cover it. Once its dark they will relax and go to sleep during the day then drop the trap into a deep river pool (with a rope on it obviously) or 30 gallon trash bin with water.

 

[clownychick]

Ive seen it go both ways with skunks. Many say if you hit them in the head they dont release but Ive seen that debunked before. Sounds inhumane, but the only way to "cleanly" dispose of them is to leave them in the trap and cover it. Once its dark they will relax and go to sleep during the day then drop the trap into a deep river pool (with a rope on it obviously) or 30 gallon trash bin with water.

eh, I save the long swims for the small fry like the red squirrels that seem to have multiplied exponentially every week. Someone else on here mentioned a skunk dispatch pole (you can google it), which is how I'd go if it happens again.

 

[EggSighted4Life]

This group is amazing! I just lost my first chicken to raccoons this morning, it was horrible.
There was a clear feather trail right to my neighbor's shed. On one side of the shed I found a foot and bits of beak and on the other side I found her other foot.

I now have one Red Star who is calling for her friend and it's braking my heart. I live in Richmond VA. If anyone knows of any young pulleys available please notify me ASAP
Thank you for all of the great tips, I'm working on revamping the coop and installing electric wire. This is war!

Hi, welcome to BYC!

I am very sorry for your loss.

 

[clownychick]

Just wanted to point out that relocating animals is totally illegal here in VT due to the spread of rabied, even though many do it. In your case I wouldnt feel bad about exterminating anything that comes after your birds!!

Thanks for this info - I actually had no idea it was illegal here!

And good luck with the tractor... I had one too, back when I had my big girls and new chicks. If it had been more predator proofed if might have worked, but for me it wasn't secure enough. With 2 predators, one could scare em over the the other side where #2 would then snatch through the mesh (I didn't have hardware cloth on the tractor).