Drat - Daytime Raccoons - FYI

[CrowinKing]

Thats why I do predator control!

I had one walk within 6ft of me back in October when I was fixing the quail pen. They picked off a couple of my quail through the wire!!! They pretty much leave my chickens alone!! The dog is right by the coop!

 

[jjthink]

Wow - they picked off your quail in broad daylight?! Yikes.
Have never had a daytime issue with raccoons until now. At night it's been no worry, as everybody is tucked in safe and sound.
I feel so bad for the chickens because they literally live for their free range exploring time (hen Annie paces at the gate relentlessly till it's time), and yet it's becoming an increasingly dangerous world out there.
Well, we just got half a foot of snow, so I had better get out there with a shovel!...the chickens are on strike and were again mumbling something about hitching a ride to Florida. I think they mean business.
JJ

 

[SpottedCrow]

I hearya Judy! LOL

And first Class too!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Huh, I wish :> Yes, they do find a warm place to hunker down, and don't roam nearly so much and thus don't need to eat so much either. However they most certainly remain awake and at least intermittently active all winter. We have them in our barn, actually (in inacessible parts of the loft, and in the 'drop ceiling' sort of thing over part of the downstairs of the barn). Thumpity thumpity thumpity all the time. Sheesh! No, they are not sleepwalking <vbg>

We have so many around here, yeah, I 've seen them out in the daytime, especially after 5 or so p.m. in the summer. However they do seem to be more paranoid and less bold than at nighttime. While I would not assume that chickens are safe from raccoons in the daytime, I still think that even if that rare daylight raccoon should come by, he's less likely to do serious damage than he'd be in the night.

You can't protect against *everything*, unfortunately.


Pat

 

[lurky]

Years ago we had an incident that made the front page of the town paper. A rabid skunk got into our dogs kennel on the same day a rabid raccoon attacked a dog across town. What i read in the paper about the two, was that a rabid skunk will typically behave aggressivly while a rabid raccoon will appear drunken like....unsteady/staggering. Our dog got bit up by the skunk but we got a booster rabies shot because he was half way through a 3 yr shot....but he was fine. Just a little FYI

 

[BaronRenfrew]

Predators and the balance of nature?
Where's the wolves to keep the raccoons in check? A city holds more raccoons that a forest does. They eat from garbage cans and gardens. The city of Montreal has 1 million people and an estimated 100,000 raccoons. The city of Toronto has a large coyote population. In fact in Toronto, the Metro Zoo had their arctic wolves escape. It was over a month before they were caught and returned to the zoo. How hard is it to find a white wolf? They certainly had no shortage of food, be it coons, deer, groundhogs, or rabbits.