Coons got some of my quail

[jhm47]

Last night, a family of coons came by my quail cage, and killed 3 of them. I have them in a cage with 1 x 1 wire, and they were able to pull 2 of them through the holes in the wire. One was still inside, but it's head and legs were eaten off. They also got into a nest of chicken eggs that were about ready to hatch and ate them all too. The hen did manage to escape. I have set my live trap, and baited it with the dead quail carcass, and marshmallows. Any coon that I catch will be promptly relocated.

Yes, I will relocate them to that great wildlife refuge in the sky!

 

[Epona142]

Best of luck to you. Coons have eaten all but two of my chickens, and just recently knocked my quail cage down and killed all of my quail. Ate a couple of them, just killed the rest.

And I've had no luck trapping them.

 

[amazondoc]

So sorry to hear about your quail!

This is, unfortunately, yet another good lesson for folks who read these posts. 1" x 1" wire is NOT sufficient to protect from predators. You really really need to use either 1/2" (or 1/4") hardware cloth, or 1/2" x 1" welded wire mesh.

 

[Epona142]

My quail cage is hardware cloth. It seems the doors were secured well enough though, I suppose when they knocked the cage down the doors came loose enough for them to pull them open.