Raccoons...they just keep on coming!

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slicvickie

slicvickie

Songster
8 Years
Apr 6, 2015
16
30
102
Minnesota
So I spotted a raccoon outside my run, after my girls had gone into the coop. My actual coop is fort knox, and im working on making the run the same. Found a trap on fb and picked it up the next day.
Baited the thing with a piece of cheese.
Danged if I didn't catch the bugger that same night! I relocated it to a nature preserve 15 miles away. Not best practice, I know, but ...
Next night there was a feral cat! It got the same treatment, but I'm a softy and fed it well, before sending it on its way.
Night 3 landed a pair of raccoons in an unbaited trap! They got the stupid critter award for both getting caught together with no bait at all!
I had to leave for the weekend to close up my cabin, so did not set it while I was gone. The chickens have a timer on their door and were fine for the couple days.
Got home on Tuesday and reset the trap, again with no food/bait. Sure enough, another big fat Coon on Wednesday!
And then this morning was another PAIR!
Current score...16 days, 6 raccoons and 1 feral cat! No chickens have been harmed.
I have just bought everything to add an electric fence. Hoping this will deter them.
Otherwise I may need to learn how to tan hides and make myself a coat!
 
They will just keep coming, until you get rid of the immediate group of coons, it will take awhile for others to move into the 'new territory', once they are removed but then the problem will start all over again.
I go through it every year, I trapped 6 this past spring, the last one broke the wire I had attached to the trap, and made off with my trap! :( I use steel traps, and no bait....my birds are the bait!!:D So, it's not that their stupid, for stepping in an unbaited trap, just very determined to get my birds.
 
At any given time there's 4 to 9 raccoons that cross or loiter around my 16 acres. Mostly it's the younger, dumber ones that are brazen enough to come by the house and chicken coop / run.

The only way I get any respite is to shoot one and leave the body out for a few days. If I'm feeling vengeful I'll leave it where I can fire from cover when any of the rest of the family come to check out their deceased relative (and they often do). Either way, that usually buys me a year or or two or three of respite from raccoon visits.

It's unpleasant work, and if your temperament can't handle it or your local landscape doesn't make it feasible for critter sniping, you're just going to have to focus on defense. Apart from coop security, also eliminate any other food sources they can get to: garbage cans, compost heaps, pet food, etc. If you're lucky, one your neighbors is a slob that leaves their cats food dish and garbage bags on their porch every night and the raccoons may lose interest in your place.
 
With a safe coop and run, raccoons are not such an issue. Unless you have birds who can't fly at all (Silkies), the flock should be fairly safe from them when free ranging during the day. Other predators are a bigger daytime risk.
Don't feed outside of their cop and safe run! Food left outside at night brings too many predators, best avoided.
And if you do trap varmits, follow your state DNR guidelines!!! Here, relocation can occur on the same property, or to private land within the same county, with landowner permission. ONLY. Releasing trap wise raccoons, or whatever, is terrible practice, for them, disease transmission, and other poultry owners.
Mary
 

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