LynnTXchickenmom
Chirping
- Aug 22, 2022
- 36
- 38
- 56
We moved our 1 month old chicks to the coop yesterday. It’s warm enough here. I went out there and checked on them around 9:30 pm and they were sleeping. After I locked them in, I stood outside for a few minutes. The porch light was illuminating my yard and coop.
And then … what came trotting past not 4 feet away from me? A Mama raccoon with her cubs! 4 coons total. Bold as brass, crossing my suburban backyard from the side yard to the back corner where our compost is stored. They disappeared under the fence. All the neighbors had trash sitting on the curb because the trash truck comes Fri morning. Were they ripping into trash on the street and then crossing my yard to get to the culvert behind it? (Houses/yards all around us and behind us on the other side of the drainage ditch.). Did they want my compost? Did they smell the chicken feed in a metal can? Did they smell the chicks and come running, then saw me and took off? Idk.
My chicks were secure in the coop and fine this AM. Our trash was not disturbed. Feed can was undisturbed.
Our large run is not predator proof; it’s just fenced to keep the chickens contained. Only the coop is secure. Can we let them be out there during the day? What about letting them free range in the yard during the day?
As for getting rid of the raccoon family: My son traps and shoots raccoons with a .22 for their pelts in rural Kansas during the academic year at his boarding school—he has a license for this purpose and he traps beaver, too—but it’s illegal to do that in our city. We even have to pay a certified company to remove them. No trapping and shooting by residents allowed. (Cost: $150-300 per raccoon—you can imagine how my kid is chafing at these restrictions, but that’s city living for you. He wants us to move to a rural farm, lol.) Is removing the coins necessary or are the chickens likely to be ok free ranging during the day only in the backyard? We are home most of the time, and often in the yard, but not always.
UGH. We don’t want to lose our egg producers, naturally… our chickens are livestock for feeding our family, not pets. But we want to take good care of our livestock!
And then … what came trotting past not 4 feet away from me? A Mama raccoon with her cubs! 4 coons total. Bold as brass, crossing my suburban backyard from the side yard to the back corner where our compost is stored. They disappeared under the fence. All the neighbors had trash sitting on the curb because the trash truck comes Fri morning. Were they ripping into trash on the street and then crossing my yard to get to the culvert behind it? (Houses/yards all around us and behind us on the other side of the drainage ditch.). Did they want my compost? Did they smell the chicken feed in a metal can? Did they smell the chicks and come running, then saw me and took off? Idk.
My chicks were secure in the coop and fine this AM. Our trash was not disturbed. Feed can was undisturbed.
Our large run is not predator proof; it’s just fenced to keep the chickens contained. Only the coop is secure. Can we let them be out there during the day? What about letting them free range in the yard during the day?
As for getting rid of the raccoon family: My son traps and shoots raccoons with a .22 for their pelts in rural Kansas during the academic year at his boarding school—he has a license for this purpose and he traps beaver, too—but it’s illegal to do that in our city. We even have to pay a certified company to remove them. No trapping and shooting by residents allowed. (Cost: $150-300 per raccoon—you can imagine how my kid is chafing at these restrictions, but that’s city living for you. He wants us to move to a rural farm, lol.) Is removing the coins necessary or are the chickens likely to be ok free ranging during the day only in the backyard? We are home most of the time, and often in the yard, but not always.
UGH. We don’t want to lose our egg producers, naturally… our chickens are livestock for feeding our family, not pets. But we want to take good care of our livestock!
