Aha!! Chicken Thief is positively identified.

[Chickmano]

Thanks, everyone. Game cam caught that fat raccoon inside the run again last night. Fortunately I had really sealed up the coops after the chickens went to bed so everyone survived the prowler. I like the hot wire suggestion...and maybe the gun if my husband or someone else wants to try it. I'm all about live and let live, but his raccoon doesn't seem to share my feelings when it comes to my chickens.

 

[WillieBoy]

3X...what Good ole' Boy said...My brother and i did a roof repair on a home where raccoons chewed through the roof and moved into the attic..The raccoon will be back, will not give up as long as it knows chickens are in the coop...nice pic..

 

[Ms.Frizzle]

Keep in mind that if you decide to live trap it and release it else where, there is a good chance it won't survive. We were discussing this in my natural resource class. Since the animal is not used to the surroundings, where to hide, best places for food, they often don't make it. Or else they just find someone else to become a nuisance too. If I saw a coon trying to get at my chickens, I'd shoot it too.

 

[animalpro24]

scary! We used to have tons of coons around here. We kill most of them though. they've got lots of our chickens, but they haven't killed any ducks so far.

 

[bryan99705]

If you can, set up the electric fence as a perimeter out and away from the coop and run so the coon have no choice but to try to get past it to get to the building. It makes it easier to set up and tends to keep more than just coons away. Remember that the ground rod needs wet ground to be most effective and give you tyhe hottest shock.

 

[AHappychick]

Quote:
x2

they will keep at it until they find a way. They have all night to figure it out and basically are as strong as a 10 year old boy and about as smart

 

[PortageGirl]

They are persistent but not too relentless as long as the coop is tight and they never get to the hens again. Bobbi-J is right that chicken wire won't keep them out, they are strong enough to just tear it apart. Hardware cloth fastened down right will keep them out, and a hot wire is also useful depending on the situation.

Raccoons will get bored if they don't succeed though, they'll move on to easier pickings, as long as there ARE easier pickings. Keep them frustrated, and your friend might move on... or not.

I don't waste time trying to relocate them, but if they don't bother my hens, I don't bother them. If need be though, I too use live traps, baited with yummy stinky stuff, (cat food smeared on the plate, a chicken leg wired to the plate, if a chicken dies, I wire some of that to the plate, whatever you have) then I use a .22 to kill the raider. It's illegal here to relocate animals, due to potential spread of disease, and to some extent, it's actually cruel to drop an animal into the territory of another raccoon, plus the raccoon is in a strange area and may have trouble finding food, as well as inflicting what is now a trap-wise animal on other people. They also travel back, so you'd have to take it a LONG ways away.

All that is looked at as silly by some people against killing animals, but the hens are under my protection so I do that in the best way I know how, while inflicting as little pain as possible along the way.

 

[PattyO]

Has anyone tried those things I think it is called Nightguard. Sends a red beam out in the night or would motion detector lights work?

 

[Chickmano]

I like that logic. We went shopping today for better reinforcement supplies and .22 ammunition. The men of the house are ready to do the job, sans moi. I will be supporting them from a distance, knowing it needs to be done but not happy about it.