Raccoons here

[NancyNurseCxMama]

Sorry, I’m sure you didn’t intend that, but it doesn’t seem a good way to die.

If you have the raccoon in a trap you can enclose that trap in a plastic bag or tarp and attach the whole thing to a tailpipe.
CO poisoning is a relatively peaceful way to go, certainly as compared to the horror of drowning.
I too envision kittens in pillow cases....
I have a neighbor who insists on free ranging his little flock. So far he has lost half of his flock to predators, some right before his eyes (so much for "only let them free range when you can watch them").
With coyotes, foxes, hawks, neighborhood dogs (I watched one kill two groundhogs in less than an hour and then walk over to my coop salivating), vicious black vultures, raccoons, mink, black bears, etc, etc, etc, sighted on my property I am more than happy to deny my girls the "joy" of free-ranging.
My six girls have a 6x6 coop and a 10x20 run covered in hardware cloth with a buried hardware cloth apron. Going on two years now and although I am under no illusions that ANY coop/run is Fort Knox, we have suffered no predator attacks. Investigations? Oh yeah. Scat and prints from numerous different predators, black vultures positioning themselves on the roof of the run, red-tailed hawks nose-to-nose with the hens but through the hardware cloth.
There is no doubt in my mind that those chickens would be mincemeat within hours of free-ranging. Death waits outside that triple-locked run door.
Honestly, my girls would LOVE to run free and I would love to let them have that freedom. But not if it meant they were going to be killed.

 

[Kris5902]

Also, most predators are lazy... or as I used to say when I was working retail “being efficient”. They would rather easy pickings and even a fair show can dissuade some... If a predator is really determined and you don’t have Fort Knox like security on your coop, then they are going to get a chicken. I don’t think most people really stop them at all... just make that chicken dinner a little too much work to be worth their effort!

 

[Kris5902]

If you have the raccoon in a trap you can enclose that trap in a plastic bag or tarp and attach the whole thing to a tailpipe.
CO poisoning is a relatively peaceful way to go, certainly as compared to the horror of drowning.

And now I’m picturing explaining a homemade gas chamber for raccoons to curious neighbors or relatives in the suburbs... LOL “really officer, it’s only for the raccoons that try to eat my chickens!”

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

Also, most predators are lazy.

Yep, my bears are extremely lazy. Suet feeders---well sure, if they open easy. Bird feeders? Well, only if we can bend the hangers easily enough and then only if the feeders open up when they fall.
From the looks of the bear prints, he wandered towards the coop and then turned around when the motion-activated light went on.
None of them, so far, have even tried to dig under the run. I check daily...grateful.

 

[NancyNurseCxMama]

And now I’m picturing explaining a homemade gas chamber for raccoons to curious neighbors or relatives in the suburbs... LOL “really officer, it’s only for the raccoons that try to eat my chickens!”

Aww...I was just hoping to give the poor thing a peaceful death. He is only following his natural instincts. They conflict with ours, to be sure.
And damn, this would happen in my enclosed garage. I am on three acres...no one would see!
BTW, if I have to, this is how I would let my girls go. They are pets....

 

[Kris5902]

Oh, I don’t disagree... I’m just picturing the average urban/suburban flock owner trying to explain the gas setup. I know my city neighbors were always stopping by and saying hi, chatting, whenever I was working outside, or we were working in our garage/yard.We had quite the nice little community on my block.

I also had an almost pet raccoon in the city, for about a year I fed him, and named him Odin cause he was missing an eye. I was outside sitting in a lawn chair and crying the first time I met him, I thought he was the neighborhood stray (without my glasses on) and accidentally petted him. From then on it was eggs and dry cat food for him almost every night. He came face to face with one of my cats, and once the stray I had thought I was petting, without any aggression. I’m sure a coyote got him eventually... but he wasn’t a bad coon, all things considered.

That was in the city, here on the farm the raccoons are different... more skittish, a LOT smaller (really 1/3 the size at best!), but far more vicious and predatory. Also, we don’t have rabies issues in our raccoon population here. I’m a hypocrite I know! But I do dsee both sides of the argument.

 

[arrowti]

Hello, just to update: the coop is very secure. Once they're locked in they're pretty much safe from everything except a human or a bear... the fenced run, on the other hand...

No sign of them last night. No glowy eyes. One of the young hens got scared by a piece of falling tin and flew the fence and went on a dead run into the woods and disappeared. Couldn't find her for the life of me. Was sure she was going to get eaten, but when I got home from Christmas Eve at my grandparents she was perched under the coop and I put her in.

Despite having had predators they've usually run off just by being scared off once or twice. From the horror stories I've read about raccoons slaughtering the entire flock and unplugging fences and all other things I was worried about the danger.

I'm heading back to my apartment today, so I won't be able to see the birds but I'll update if any coons are spotted.

Thanks for all your advice!

(I personally would rather shoot the animal quickly then CO2 poisoning.)

 

[Kris5902]

I’m glad your chicken found her way home safely... If your coop is secure and they are reliably put up at night and locked in then maybe you don’t have to do anything about your raccoons. Live and let live, once they realize they can’t get in, if there’s nothing else they are harming, just let them be?

We live on a large property now and there are several different groups of raccoons here. If they stay away from the house and dogs, and the chickens, we just leave them alone. Since I wrapped our chain link outdoor pen in 1” 19 guage hardware cloth we haven’t lost a bird to a predator since.