Any Pro-tips on Trapping/Removing Raccoons

[Fuzzbutts]

You might consider investing in an electric fence. Premier 1 has electric poultry netting that can easily be moved.

Thank you! All of that was extremely helpful! I was considering electric fencing but didn’t know where to even begin (still learning)

 

[Folly's place]

I have a very secure coop/ run for my chickens, and it's paid off! I also had fewer varmits visiting when I stopped feeding anything outside of their coop and run. All treats and feed are inside, never outside.
Mary

 

[Welshies]

I have a very secure coop/ run for my chickens, and it's paid off! I also had fewer varmits visiting when I stopped feeding anything outside of their coop and run. All treats and feed are inside, never outside.
Mary

Me too. I have only had one fox visit in the whole year I've had my new coop. I am busy trapping it (or trying to) as we speak.

 

[Hivoltage]

Had the same thing happen and we lost 4 in one evening before they got in their coop. I bought cages, poison, ammo...then decided I was going the wrong direction. The only way to be safe is with a secure coop and run. We will still let them free range this summer, but only when we are outside and will be home when they head for coop.

 

[Howard E]

Fuzz:

My attitude towards trapping coons is to consider it an immediate, short term solution to a long term problem.

When my daughter started losing birds to coons last summer, I helped them set some traps and they caught two......which were fed to the buzzards. After that, we did "the tighten up" on their hoop coop......and no more losses since.

This is the best option I can give you for the short term trapping solution. Follow this example exactly. Same traps, same layout, same process where multiple traps are set out and baited, but not armed for several days, giving coons a change to get comfortable with them:

Kill any and all coons you catch.

After that, solution is to have a predator proof coop that no coon can breach that protects the birds from all comers at night, when they are most vulnerable. And protect them during the day with an electric fence setup. That is less about protecting from mostly nocturnal coons as it is from dogs, coyotes, foxes, etc. You can make the area protected by electric fence as large as your desire and budget allows. Highly effective.

 

[Birdinhand]

there really is no end to the number of vermin you will find yourself wanting to trap/poison/kill, as long as there is a source of food, new ones will take the place of the one's you eliminate. hardware cloth is the key. the best thing to do is take the coop and run down to the studs/frame, envelope the entire thing, top, bottom and sides. if you have a really large run, than electric fencing is cheaper and doable for the run but won't keep out the bird of pray. if you have a large run with electric fencing, then treat the coop area, the part that you lock down at night, as it's own envelope, make it secure with hardware cloth. having an intermediate run that is enveloped in hardware cloth can be very nice for offering a secure place for the hens for those times when you are keeping them in due to things like hawks/eagles.

 

[itsasmallfarm]

we use havaharts and duke dog proof coon traps, baited with marshmallows or seeds (caught 3 coons last year and 7 another year) just in the havahart trap. just got the duke dog proof traps last year yet to catch anything in them.

 

[Fuzzbutts]

Fuzz:

My attitude towards trapping coons is to consider it an immediate, short term solution to a long term problem.

When my daughter started losing birds to coons last summer, I helped them set some traps and they caught two......which were fed to the buzzards. After that, we did "the tighten up" on their hoop coop......and no more losses since.

This is the best option I can give you for the short term trapping solution. Follow this example exactly. Same traps, same layout, same process where multiple traps are set out and baited, but not armed for several days, giving coons a change to get comfortable with them:

Kill any and all coons you catch.

After that, solution is to have a predator proof coop that no coon can breach that protects the birds from all comers at night, when they are most vulnerable. And protect them during the day with an electric fence setup. That is less about protecting from mostly nocturnal coons as it is from dogs, coyotes, foxes, etc. You can make the area protected by electric fence as large as your desire and budget allows. Highly effective.

This was hugely helpful! This guy seems to have a pretty ingenious method for trapping. Thank you!

 

[Fuzzbutts]

there really is no end to the number of vermin you will find yourself wanting to trap/poison/kill, as long as there is a source of food, new ones will take the place of the one's you eliminate. hardware cloth is the key. the best thing to do is take the coop and run down to the studs/frame, envelope the entire thing, top, bottom and sides. if you have a really large run, than electric fencing is cheaper and doable for the run but won't keep out the bird of pray. if you have a large run with electric fencing, then treat the coop area, the part that you lock down at night, as it's own envelope, make it secure with hardware cloth. having an intermediate run that is enveloped in hardware cloth can be very nice for offering a secure place for the hens for those times when you are keeping them in due to things like hawks/eagles.

We will definitely be using hardware cloth, and lots of it! Currently we have a coop that we are re-vamping and our run only has a fence around it. We are now exploring the options we have to put some sort of ceiling on it to box it all in, although we are not yet sure how to go about this.

 

[Fuzzbutts]

On a side note- you all are wonderful!! All of this help and experience will be put to good use!