A horrible, horrible night......UPDATE 11-19-11

[mondotomhead]

After having over a two hour commute to get home last night I walk in the door and my DH says he has some bad news. The baby raccoons that have been hanging around tore through the chicken run and killed 4 of my chickens. Gone is my favorite cochin rooster, his cochin girlfriend, a seabright hen and seabright rooster. I'm going to stop feeding the wild birds because the seed attracts the raccoons. This never bothered me before I got chickens but now I can see I will have to stop.

What makes this so, so bad is I encouraged those baby raccoons to be friendly....and they were. Never in a million years did I expect this to happen. I take responsibility for the death of my beloved birds..........

 

[GoldDogsMom]

so sorry for your loss!

you do know that baby raccoons grow up to be BIG raccoons right??? Time to send those coons packing!

 

[sunnydalefarms]

So sorry to hear!

 

[bobbi-j]

Don't beat yourself up. It's a hard lesson to learn. Wild animals are just that - wild animals. They really don't see you as a "friend" because you feed them. They're just using you as a food source. I'm sorry about your chickens. What kind of wire did you use on your run? If it's chicken wire you might want to consider replacing it with hardware cloth. If baby raccoons can rip through it, you know that adult ones can, too. And this could happen again, whether you feed the wild birds or not. Raccoons will come along, discover your chickens and do their best to get in. Our job as chicken owners is to do our best to prevent that.

 

[ChickiKat]

 

[mondotomhead]

If my DH doesn't find those raccoons first I will be buying a Have-a-Hart tomorrow. I am such an idiot......

 

[chicmom]

Oh gee, I am so sorry to hear that. Did you have chicken wire around your run? I think if you switch to hardware cloth, you could still be friendly with the raccoons.......

But to be safe, it would be good to discourage them. Maybe even have someone trap them and relocate them......

Hugs to you and again, so sorry!

Sharon

 

[GoldDogsMom]

not an idiot, just soft hearted...I really understand because a coon killed my ducklings last spring and I am pretty sure it was the "cute little bugger" that lived in the duck house (which was empty) last winter!

 

[bobbi-j]

How do you plan on dealing with them once you've caught them? I'm hoping you'll do the right thing and dispose of them (no, that does NOT mean "relocate"). You're not an idiot. You saw cute little bandits and enjoyed their antics throughout the summer. Unfortunately the buggers saw an easy meal and took advantage of it. When you pick up that trap tomorrow, pick up some good, sturdy fencing (like the hardware cloth I mentioned) and for extra measure, if you want, some electric fence, a fencer, some step-in posts and insulators. It's a great deterrent. We use it to keep the horses in the pasture, and the deer and coons out of the sweet corn.

 

[mondotomhead]

The chicken run had double chicken wire.....the 2" then the 1" around it with wood screwed over all the wire top-bottom and sides. Its pretty bulletproof. But there was this one, small area at the top of the chicken house where it angles where it was not double chicken wired. It was this one, small part the raccoons pulled open. I still don't know how they managed to do it. Once the raccoons got in they couldn't get out, hence the blood bath.

I feel so sick right now and I'm trying not to think to hard about what happened during the day those raccoons were in there. My DH had to kick out, literally, the raccoons when he got home yesterday night *crying*...........still