raccoons during the day

[crzymomo8]

I'm about ready to quit chicken raising. We've spent a good deal of money on buying and building coops, managed to raise 12 babies, and now something is eating my chickens. Over the last few days they've been disappearing. Only once did I see any left over evidence, something killed one and must have been scared of before finishing, because the poor chicken was just dead under the coop. This afternoon I happened to be in the bedroom and hard quite the commotion on the yard, and darned of there wasn't a raccoon and a dead chicken. In the daytime none the less. But this time there was blood everywhere, and the poor chicken was fairly dismembered. I've locked the poor 4 remaining chickens in their coop, but I wonder if I'm not being plagued by two different predators. Nothing seems to be bothering the big two chickens though, just the babies.

 

[PamB]

Do you have a run that you can keep the younger ones inside of? Your raccoon problem sounds bad, so I wouldn't freerange your chickens if you don't want to lose any. You need to get rid of that raccoon so it doesn't keep coming back, because unfortunately, it will.

 

[nbenevento]

I am so sorry you are having to go through all of this. Since you have one or more predators around you, can you build a run for them? What about setting traps and disposing of the predators? Once they are done with the easy prey, they will go after the bigger birds. I'm sure you have invested plenty into you coop, maybe a little more on a run? I wish you good luck and I hope you get that / those predators.

 

[centrarchid]

Set livetrap with a chicken carcass. Put balance of birds in a more secure location. If raccoon visits during daylight, then its den is very close.

Set a coon aggressive dog on it if you have one.

 

[FenikT]

Be sure to end that raccoon's existence if you catch it. If you simply take the "kind" way out and re-home him, it will likely find its way back. Not to mention, letting this raccoon live will only allow it to share its bad habits w/ the rest of the gang.

I just (a couple nights ago) had a raccoon mortally wound one of my 7wk old chicks that was among three chicks spending their first night in the run (inside a cage). Prior to this, I had been putting them in the garage at night. Two hours into the "sleep out," I heard a commotion and ran outside. A big boar coon was making its way out of the run and over the fence into the dark. I then noticed the coon had enough room to stick its paw into the cage, grab a chick's leg, and then do its best to pull/twist the leg off. Needless to say, I wound up having to put the chick down. The other two were scared senseless. The regular flock (6 hens) were holed up in their fortified coop w/ no issues.

I won't be using a Hav-a-heart trap for him or any other of the crew. I ordered a 220# conibear trap and a dog-proof can coon trap. Wander into my run Mr. Coon and find out what happens now.

 

[crzymomo8]

Thanks for the advice. We have a run where the girls were placed after the first few disappeared. However that has not stopped the bugger from continuing his chicken feast. I added extra hardware cloth to the bottom of the coops, added screws to strengthen the chicken wire to the run, and added being to the top of the run thinking it was perhaps hawks, but he's still finding ways to get in. I'm thinking of moving the chicken run right next to the dog run, so it's not so close to the edge of the woods, and perhaps getting some guineas. As soon as we get some extra funds we are going to totally redesign the run to make much taller and stronger, but what we have well have to do for now.

 

[BluBug]

Electric Chicken netting works well as long as u don't have it installed next to a fence or coop that raccoons / opossums can use to vault themselves over into the fenced area,I made that mistake when I first installed mine, but it works wonderful keeping chickens safe.

 

[chickenmomma2]

I've had a predator in my run the last 2 nights. So far the babies in their own separate run are safe. All the big kids are in the coop. I've been waiting to put the babies in the big coop because it is getting crowded and I'm adding on. It's ready for the roof. I was wondering if barbed wire about a foot or 2 down from the top of my 6' box wire fencing for the run will stop the preadator. I have hawk netting over top of most of the run. I put a trap in the run last night and it just wandered around it and tried to get the food out of the trap from the back side. My friend has told me to put wood around the trap except for the front entrance which will forced the predator into the trap. Oh, and when I catch that predator it is going to meet it's maker. Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[TJPENN]

If a coon is out during the day, it has rabies so be careful. Coon's can smell ducks and chickens for a 5 mile radius according to a wildlife site I found. It also said a coon can grab through nets and fences with larger than 1/4 grid and hold the prey to eat it. I purchased a baby monitor for the coop area. Cost $60 with free shipping. Angelcare Sound Monitor on Amazon. These are amazing, even crossing an acre from coop to the receiver in my house. My neighbors chicken eating dog is also out a lot and I hope to shoot his butt with my BB gun soon and many times until it gets the message. I may loose a bird from a predator, there's so many of them, but hope I could get there fast since I can now hear the run and coop. I leave mine in the run we made as safe as we could when I'm not here.

Good luck, it's terrible having to cull livestock left for dead.

 

[Kazfam]

Hi All. First post.

We just started caring for some 15 week old BO's. The first night we had them in their coop, my son set a live animal trap near the coop/run using cat food for bait. We caught a raccoon the first two nights - they were removed from the property. He has since set the trap each night (it has been 3 weeks) and we have not caught anything else. BUT - it is a comforting measure of security.

The coop is quite secure.

Here is a similar trap we are using: http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/o...mpaignId=T9F&gclid=CMqjpcjLgLkCFYSf4AodZ0cAUw

I think wild animals will take the path of least resistance - easy to get cat food vs. chasing live prey.

Here's hoping.