Last night's visitors-- coop pics

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upstate_nyer

upstate_nyer

In the Brooder
8 Years
Jul 31, 2011
10
0
22
We lost 3 out of 4 hens a few weeks ago. I'm a total beginner at this, so it was unexpected and devastating! I had to clean up the blood, gnawed chicken feet and wing feathers (all that was left) before our young daughter caught on. In any case, I noticed something trying to dig under our coop the past few nights, and set up a trail cam. Got some pretty amazing pics, which I thought I'd share!

visitors1.jpg

visitors2.jpg


Tonight I'll put marshmallows in the Have-a-Heart trap and see if they come back....
 
Oh Wow! Thats a BIG Coon....compaired to the height of the door to run area (which I am presuming it is people height?) How is it getting to your chickens though? Is there only chicken wire ventilation areas on the Coop part which he is reaching through to grab them? If so I would invest in some hardware cloth and redo ALL the wire on that coop and run. NICE looking setup you have though! oh and
welcome-byc.gif

IF you catch that one keep resetting your trap though....where there is one there is more.
 
That is a good sized coon! Do you have a hardware cloth apron around the mini-coop/run? You did not say if the chickens were taken from the coop or if they were free-ranging. Sorry you had to experience your loss.

I have the same coop - though now it is contained within a roofed 8' x 16' hardware cloth enclosed run. Also have a 2' hardware cloth apron surrounding the run.
 
Last edited:
Thanks all. The coop portion is locked up VERY tight, no chance of a raccoon getting in there. As long as I always get home in time to lock the hens up, that is. I was out late for dinner, had a few beers, and forgot to lock the coop up. My poor hens paid the price, and I felt terrible about it. The one who survived was a wreck for a couple of weeks, but now lets me approach her and even pick her up sometimes. I got 5 new chicks that are now mid-sized, and they've been successfully introduced to the surviving gal to make a flock of 6.

So I just can't risk having to be 100% on the ball every night with these raccoons coming back. The Have-a-Heart is set out there right now with some marshmallows. We'll see what the morning brings!

Oh, and no--that door is far from person height! The peak of the coop's roof is about 5' tall (you can see a plastic gallon jug in the first shot for perspective), so while it's still a big coon, it's just normal-sized, nothing Guinness-worthy.

In any case, I'm moving the hens into a converted shed soon with an attached run, so all of your advice and admonitions (that there's more than one, that they'll be back, etc.) is helpful and appreciated. I may have to trap a bunch of these guys before I'm done.

That said, any tips on letting 'em go? Better to just dispatch in the cage, or...? I wonder about the laws against moving a coon, as well as the simple stuff like getting fleas or whatever in the trunk, not to mention how to let the thing out without having it try to turn on me. I'm not thrilled to have to shoot anything, but seems maybe that's the easiest way to go?
 
Yes, I agree... I think there are two there. The first one is at around 11pm, the second is just after 3am. Persistent, aren't they? I thought coons mostly hunted alone, though? I'm guessing that if the first pic is two coons, the coon in the second pic wouldn't be an entirely different one altogether, right?

I have the camera set up again tonight, so even if the trap is empty in the morning, if it/they come back, I'll have more photos tomorrow!
 
Oh, and thanks for the tips on the hardware cloth. I may do the same thing with the run--great idea. I bought a roll at Lowes today, so at the very least I'll have the apron on as of tomorrow.
 
I hope you can put those coons out of their misery as relocating them will make them someone else's problem and sometimes they'll come back from 20 miles away.
 

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