Catching raccoons - do it proactively?

[centrarchid]

I am a new chicken keeper and just got my 5 girls about 3 1/2 months ago. Since spring I have been trying to catch 2 groundhogs that are raiding my garden with a Have-A-Heart trap. Unfortunately I've been unlucky so far.
BUT, in the process I have caught 9 raccoons!!! I didn't know we had so many raccoons around here, but it also shows me how much danger is out there because I know raccoons are a major threat for chickens.

My question: Is it a good idea to try to catch predators and keep your area clear of them to protect your girls? Does anybody else do this?

If you are like me with a number of pens scattered over multiple acres, then managing raccoon numbers is sound. Same goes for opossums. This is especially true when their are broody hens on the ground after dark. I can protect most of the latter from foxes pretty easily at night, but culling raccoons back is easier than bunching up broody hens into one location or making a bunch of heavy duty coops.

 

[Howard E]

As for elimination, besides me, I"m aware of 2 different neighbors within 1/2 mile that keep chickens. To my knowledge, none of us have lost birds to coons, yet for other reasons, the three of us have begun a coon reduction program. Neighbor to the west and I have each taken out about 10 coons each. Heard 2nd hand report neighbor to the south about 15....that was 2 weeks ago. May be more by now. So that was 35 coons taken from a distance of no more than 1/2 mile apart. There are plenty more to go.....and more will move in to take their place. So ours is a temp solution. The fact that none of us lose birds to coons is due to good housing.....and very little to do with trapping.

 

[Sandbyter]

To the question of if you should pro-actively trap varmints to keep your local area free of them and the danger they impose? It depends. Almost all danger from coons arrives at dusk and ends at dawn.....which coincides with same hours the birds are in the coop and on the roost. If you have done your part to build sanctuary that protects them at night, trapping is not needed. They can be stacked up 3 deep, but if they can't get in to do harm, they are no threat.

But if you have holes or weak spots they can breech, they will get in and wipe you out. You can try to thin the herd by trapping, but you will never get them all, so while losses will be less, you can still expect trouble. When any one coon or varmint has success, they return time and again until you get the varmint or they get all the birds. Battle of wits and skill, and they are really, really good at it.

So question for OP.....what have you done with these cage trapped coons? Dispatched or relocated?

Sent to heaven.

 

[Sandbyter]

As for elimination, besides me, I"m aware of 2 different neighbors within 1/2 mile that keep chickens. To my knowledge, none of us have lost birds to coons, yet for other reasons, the three of us have begun a coon reduction program. Neighbor to the west and I have each taken out about 10 coons each. Heard 2nd hand report neighbor to the south about 15....that was 2 weeks ago. May be more by now. So that was 35 coons taken from a distance of no more than 1/2 mile apart. There are plenty more to go.....and more will move in to take their place. So ours is a temp solution. The fact that none of us lose birds to coons is due to good housing.....and very little to do with trapping.

Wow! Didn't realize that many raccoons can live in a small area. I take it they are not very territorial. But the less raccoons are around, the less chances!

 

[WNYfarmfresh]

I’ve had 8 8lb turkey eaten by a single coon that breached the turkey run. Kill them all.

 

[Sandbyter]

I’ve had 8 8lb turkey eaten by a single coon that breached the turkey run. Kill them all.

Wow! So sorry to hear!

 

[Eggscaping]

I am a new chicken keeper and just got my 5 girls about 3 1/2 months ago. Since spring I have been trying to catch 2 groundhogs that are raiding my garden with a Have-A-Heart trap. Unfortunately I've been unlucky so far.
BUT, in the process I have caught 9 raccoons!!! I didn't know we had so many raccoons around here, but it also shows me how much danger is out there because I know raccoons are a major threat for chickens.

My question: Is it a good idea to try to catch predators and keep your area clear of them to protect your girls? Does anybody else do this?

Raccoons are THE only animal I will kill with, as they say, 'extreme prejudice'. Before we moved...and this was a big city...we lot our little, elderly, deaf dog to one, in his own backyard. The neighbor's cat was mauled and had to be put down. On the next block, a pretty well-made rabbit cage was ripped into and the little girl's pet bunny was torn apart and eaten. We had two of them trying to get into our enclosed front porch where I stored cat food. All this, mind you with NO pet food outside and no pets fed outside. When I went out with a broom to run then off, rather than run, the largest stood up on his hind legs and growled and huffed at me, daring me to come closer.
I love animals and I'd relocate any of them....but not raccoons. With them, it's a 'take no prisoners' situation and my conscience is clear afterward. Trap and reduce population - they breed like flies.

 

[cmom]

We have been the recipients of other peoples relocations. We are rural on a dead end road. In many places it's illegal to relocate unless you get the property owners permission where you plan to relocate the predator to. Of course that rarely happens. Most people just drop their catches off. A few years ago we were being over run with skunks. A friend of our overheard some people at the local doughnut shop about relocating skunks in our area. In a couple of weeks I caught a skunk nightly. One night I got two skunks in one trap. I dug a very big hole on the back of our property. Every day I eliminated the skunks caught and in the hole they went with some dirt over them. One of the skunks tried to dig under a gate to the pen at a chick/grow-out coop. The pop door was partially shut and some of the chicks couldn't get into the coop and it was dark out when I realized it. I went out and there was the skunk digging. When it saw me it turned towards me and stomped it feet. I went in the house and got my gun hoping it had left but was still there and again it stomped it's feet at me so I shot it and put a bucket over it until I could deal with it in the morning.
Once I found this at the end of my driveway. Someone's relocation.

 

[centrarchid]

Where I am located, relocating trapped wildlife appears comparatively rare. Yet, there are ups and downs in the frequency of predator issues. Skunks in particular are the big thing here at work where co-workers had no experience with them until recently. The skunks were always present, but only in the last couple weeks did they go into pens. Then it took a while for co-workers to realize what was happening. Then there is the issue that the skunks produced at least 2 litters with 1/4 mile of the chicken coops. One centered more towards my lab, and another down in draw to north. Litters appear to be about 60 days apart in age. Co-workers must think someone is dropping off trapped skunks, because they have yet to see one unless in their trap.

 

[MnCanary]

For the groundhog, I've caught two in the last three years. Put the trap near it's burrow and put cantaloupe in the trap. The older the cantaloupe the better, they love that smell of fermented cantaloupe!

We had a groundhog terrorizing our pot mum greenhouse. It ate flower buds off the mums every night. Quite a few nights of trapping got us nothing, until someone thought to put pot mum flower buds in the trap. It worked! It was humbling, though, that the groundhog outsmarted us for those several nights.