Coons!

[VerlonCox]

Okay.............I will be the psycho and give out one of my little tricks here. I have a few toms that REFUSE to roost in the pole barn. To make a long story short they were penned up when I got them with hardly any room to run around and I didnt have it in me to not let them free range again so I let them sleep outside if they want to.
I walk the property about every two weeks with a can of OC spray and make little quick hits on tree trunks about a foot or two off of the ground. We are flooded with coyote's, raccoon's, bob cats and anything else that you can think of. A one second burst is MORE then enough and if you get it on you then I pity you (catch the wind just right). I have actually seen raccoon's go after my goose eggs and it was like an invisible line that they wouldn't cross. I also pee all around my barn and when I do I try to get it as high on a tree as I possibly can (learned this from an old timer who swore by it), the higher the pee the bigger the predator in the coyote world.

 

[Boggy Bottom Bantams]

I can see coon doing egg and chick damage, but yall these things are that big. I'm tellin ya a lot of their blame is to be put on other critters, Yes they eat grapes apples, fish, anything creepy crawly in the water, but chicken stuff is really not on their menu.
I am a long time trapper, out door mega enthusiast, wild life biologist to a degree, and very long time poultry keeper, that lives in a south Georgia swamp, with a creek on one side, a river on the other, fields full of crops, over 400 birds, and this is a coon paradise!! I see them in my yard nearly every day.and have never lost anything to a racoon. MINE JUST DONT MESS WITH MY BIRDS, PERIOD!
Fox, cats, coyotes on the other hand will eat the crap out of them as they are true predators, coons are omnivores. I think a lot of the bad rap is undeservingly going to an innocent animal. I know they do get some once in a while, but they arent build to be attack predators, more opportunist.
Anyway, that's the science behind it, I'm sure half a million of you will disagree, so here's an idea, get a trail camera and place out by you coops and you will see whats really out there, I have 6 all around them, get some coons passing by, but the ones who mean business are the REAL predators, not coons. Coons also dont have the strength to pull a bird threw wire either, that surely was a bobcat or fox....just my opinion here, but it's based off 35 years of being around them on a daily basis too..
Death to the coon!!!