all chickens killed by unknown predator.

[lukemower]

AHHHHHHHHHH WHAT IS GOING ON, ANIMALS SHOULD NOT BE THIS SMART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I set the trap special this time, and I opened a tuna can mostly, but left the lid attached, I hung it over the pressure pad so if anything touched it it would fall on the pressure pad, then I put the food bowl with the rest of the bait behind it, the animal, it has to be a raccoon came into the trap, slid the food bowl under the pressure pad to keep it from setting off the trap, then it ate all of the bait, pulled down the tuna can on top of the jammed pressure pad and made of with the whole thing!!!!!!! WHY DID WE HAVE TO GET THE MOST BRILLIANT RACCOON IN THE WORD AS OUR PREDATOR, WHY!!!!!!!!! the other trap was sprung, all the food was gone, and nothing inside the trap. I am at a loss of what to do, this should be impossible, I am considering hiring a "sniper" to sit out their and shoot it. this is just wrong, why can't we catch this raccoon???????

 

[dekel18042]

would we be able to order 4 or five chicks? the shipping is fine, all of the stores I have tried don't have them now I will look again. I checked as many places as I can find and they only stock in the spring, how would I contact a breeder? do they still breed now?

My Pet Chicken will ship small orders. If they are out of what you want, you can call them early on a Monday morning and if they have extras you can put an order in but it might be hit or miss.
We have some excellent feed stores around here that will take orders. They have a nice selection, but only do it once or twice a year and it is over for the year. You might inquire where you live and see if any store does the same thing.
As far as the trap goes, we use a havaheart (Yours sounds like it could be a different kind.) and we dump the bait, either cat food or tuna out of the can so it can't be pushed around. Good luck.

 

[lukemower]

My dad is very worried that the chicks would die in shipping, how likely is this if we only get four?

 

[dekel18042]

My dad is very worried that the chicks would die in shipping, how likely is this if we only get four?

Hopefully over summer all would survive. I've ordered several times and neither I nor my friends ever had any casualties, Then I had an order shipped end of April last year with some new breeds I wanted to try, Unfortunately the weather turned frigid, not normal for that time of year, and the box sat for a day (was lost?) in Philadelphia. It took an extra two days to arrive.
25% of the babies were dead on arrival. Thankfully the rest survived.

 

[chiques chicks]

Is the trap too big or too small for the animal you are trapping? If it's too small, the animals rump can keep the door from closing.

Could you possibly put the bait in a bag hung at the far end of the trap so the animal has to work for it, causing more movement? Don't make it easy to just walk in and eat.

And not to make anyone sound dumb, as I've done this--- is the safety off on the trap? Don't know if they all have safety latches, but I do know one brand does and it is easy to forget.

 

[lukemower]

the trap is 1 ft by 1 ft by 3ft, I think that would be just the right size for a raccoon, my dad suggested tying it to the end of the cage too, hopefully he will have to move around a lot. ok so shipping the chicks should be just fine in the summer, we will be leaving for a couple days so we will leave the traps unabated and unoperational. I ordered the electric fencing yesterday, so everything, we need to make a fort knox chicken coop should be here.

 

[lukemower]

also there is no safety latch

 

[lukemower]

my dad says we have to catch the fox and raccoon before we get the new chicks.

 

[lukemower]

I am preparing to order the chicks from meyer hatchery for the week of July 13 should I get the vaccination, and/or vital-pack, and/or grogel + B with them?

 

[chiques chicks]

Vaccination probably isn't a bad idea, the rest,idk. I've only gotten chicks from a hatcher once.