Anyone else have success with a game camera identifying predators or do something better?

[aart]

And it was catch/release for us. My wife would not let me do what you suggest.

Then don't trap them!
There are several very good reasons not to relocate trapped animals,
and why it's illegal to do so in many places.

My friends said they just counted the miles and will find their way back to our coop

Highly likely...or they will be killed by resident coons in the territory you released them.

 

[cmom]

We use a carabiner on our new coop because of what you mention on the slider door. And it was catch/release for us. My wife would not let me do what you suggest. My friends said they just counted the miles and will find their way back to our coop

When I catch a predator that has killed any of my birds, I eliminate it. We are rural on a dead end road. We have been the recipients of several releases in our area. People just drop off their catches. Someone once dropped of a gosling on the side of the road at out driveway. It's not right to catch and release and here it's illegal unless you get the property owners permission, but no one ever asked us. There are wildlife rescues. I had an owl plaguing us. It had killed some birds. We did catch it and called a wildlife rescue that came and got it. They said they had a release area and it shouldn't come back. Good luck...
I have since replaced the section with the crappy netting with some good heavy duty netting. It tried to go through the good netting and got caught.

 

[Daisycar]

WOWWW! Wonderful owl!!!

 

[Daisycar]

I caught the details on the YouTube video below if interested.

Thank you Laura and Michael for the very interesting video!

 

[Weeg]

Game cameras are great! I use them of the woods around my property and have caught a coyote on our logging road so far! To keep the predators away, you can use both of these products, and honestly, I only used one of the 2 listed products and I haven't seen any predators since. I use the first product, the Univerayo brand, it is the best! I posted the search because you can buy and 8 pack, or a 4 pack. Good luck, Avery

 

[centrarchid]

I use game cameras. I am not above using a carcass as bait getting predator to come more into view or to trap. I also like to put camera in video mode to get a handle on how predator is trying to break in. Their have been times where I used fencing panels, boards and even deer netting to present predator with obstacles. If a predator makes a kill and leaves carcass, then I leave it as well to occupy predator until I can catch it or fix gap in perimeter the predator comes through.

 

[JEP]

I expect losses but am going to be diligent on trying to keep improving my coop/run. I plan to put some of my game cameras out as well.

 

[aart]

Has others done something similar to their coop/run to verify what is happening when we are away?

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/post-your-game-cam-pics-here.438535/page-321#post-23342005

 

[Johanna Albertine]

I came out back early in the summer to check the chickens as we do every AM. I found that overnight something had tried to dig under the coop and appeared to have been successful at entering. We have had chickens for a few years and it continues to be a fun learning experience. The predator had moved a couple of the bricks out that we had the coop sitting on to make it level. I caught the details on the YouTube video below if interested.

Our current coop has wire cloth mesh on the ground about 2′ around the coop to lessen the risk and hopefully prevent this. Keep this in mind with chicken coops. In the video below I show that we use landscaping timbers, rocks, and bricks around our older coops and runs as a wider barrier at the bottom. It has worked, but overnight in this instance it had failed. The good news in this case is they got in, but we shut our chickens up every night with a chicken door on the coop so no harm to our girls in this instance.

When I came out and saw this type of damage, I needed to find out what is going on at night. So what I purchased first was a Tasco game camera. It runs on batteries and uses an SD card. This was under $30 from WalMart and easy to install and setup. I did also purchase some tree mounts from Amazon to mount instead of using the strap that came with the camera. They came in a 3 pack which allowed me to move the camera around very easily. All I had to do is turn the camera on at night when I shut them up for the evening in the coop. Then, the next morning turn it off and pop out the SD card and review what was captured

Has others done something similar to their coop/run to verify what is happening when we are away? Would be interested to see if anyone does anything different or better than the game camera.

Hi, Loved your video! We also have a lot of raccoons around; my husband thinks they’re nasty (he had one entering his apartment once and steal his bread!) but I think they’re cute little bandits. I also use trailcams and have seen the way they fish in a brook and forage for food in a normal way. Also caught one on camera prowling around the chicken run. I can’t blame them for being tempted by spilled chicken feed... On YouTube I once saw a video of a guy who traps a raccoon that he thinks ate his chickens; he then drowns it in the trap! I think that’s overly cruel and hope you won’t do something like that. But I can understand you don’t want raccoons all over your coop! We also have about 1.5 ft of hardware cloth buried (only a few inches deep) all around the coop and run to discourage digging.

 

[JEP]

Hi, Loved your video! We also have a lot of raccoons around; my husband thinks they’re nasty (he had one entering his apartment once and steal his bread!) but I think they’re cute little bandits. I also use trailcams and have seen the way they fish in a brook and forage for food in a normal way. Also caught one on camera prowling around the chicken run. I can’t blame them for being tempted by spilled chicken feed... On YouTube I once saw a video of a guy who traps a raccoon that he thinks ate his chickens; he then drowns it in the trap! I think that’s overly cruel and hope you won’t do something like that. But I can understand you don’t want raccoons all over your coop! We also have about 1.5 ft of hardware cloth buried (only a few inches deep) all around the coop and run to discourage digging.

I expect a lot of critters around once they realize those hens are here. We have lots of coyotes, racoon, hawks, turkey buzzards, and there is a fox around here.. My neighbor swore he saw a cougar on his place. They never bothered my mares when i had them, of course horses aren't the free meal chickens are. I plan to get one of my cams set up this week.