fighting raccoons

[cream puff]

We were woken up at 4 AM by a horrible screaming 3 nights ago. Ran outside and found the 4 Y/O hen that had been missing for nearly two weeks and heard noise in the tree. Put the hen in the integration coop (converted stall) that is next to the predator "proof" converted stall. Went back with a flashlight and saw a coon up the tree. Went back and disconnected the light sensor controlled door since it doesn't close until it is really dark out well after the hens have gone inside and opens at first light when coons would typically still be hunting. Found the hen's nest in the plants near the little barn in the morning. We have no rooster and she had never been broody before. The other girls that go broody do it in the nest boxes in the coop. I left her in the integration coop because it would be hard to keep her from running out of the coop with the other girls and heading back outside. She needed to cool off and get unbroody.

We have a bunch of !@#$% woodchucks and they have been running tunnels under the barn alley and a few days ago popped 3 holes through the dirt floor. Does no good to fill in the tunnels, they just dig it back out or make another one.

I've been setting the Havahart for the chucks, have taken 2 juveniles to the property line 1,500' from the barn, open land and Interstate behind it. Don't know if or how soon they will return.

Found the decapitated hen in the integration coop this morning, coon clearly came through the woodchuck tunnels. The integration coop is not predator safe, there is space above the door and between the joists for the floor above.

Lower in the pecking order hens are clearly taking a beating since the girls are all trapped in the coop before dark and after dawn.

Going to get a game cam and will set the trap for coon in the barn alley. Not sure how to fasten it done though. Also need to get a gun to kill the !@#$%.

They are a relentless foe, that's for sure. At one time I was feeding them dog food to keep them away from the chickens, didn't work for long. Then I just raised the coops way off the ground because chickens like to roost anyway. There is nothing worse than finding your favourite chicken dead from a raccoon, or a mink... I know how you feel.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Set the trailcam, and place the trap...wish it were trapS.

Let us know how you did....

 

[Folly's place]

Woodchucks are difficult to trap, but dog or cat poo, or a dead animal, buried in their tunnel, will often get them to move elsewhere. Raccoons are easier to trap, and then shoot. My coop and run are built like Ft. Knox, as they say, and since then we've had very few problems, and none at night. Raccoons, opossums, and wild rats, can all disappear tomorrow, and it wouldn't be too soon! I have two sized of live traps, and the larger one will catch raccoons who won't enter the smaller size. Mary

 

[bruceha2000]

Wallyworld didn't have the Bushnell cam I was going to get even though the site said there were 2 at the local store. They had NO trail cams. Went to the other WW 30 miles away, they had only one camera, Stealth Cam PX12 FX. It isn't even listed on their website. 90 day return policy so I bought it.

Hope to get it set up tonight. Had to go back to the first WW to get the Gamo Bone Collector Bull Whisper IGT Air Rifle, figured they would have it at both stores, but nope. Reviews say the scope isn't great but I will see about setting it up anyway. At this point I hope to shoot the varmint in the trap, don't need a scope for that. Went with the Gamo Whisper 10.5 gr pellets. Heavy so presumably better penetration than lighter ones and quieter as they run slower. I do desire to kill the ******** as humanely as possible.

Not sure how much I will get set up tonight.

 

[bruceha2000]

Update:

I have had my sick Black Australorp in the integration coop up on a 3' high support for the last 4 days (which is why I didn't put my recovered broody hen in the box). That is the coop where the coon killed my recovered broody hen, then left. I don't know if it had tried and failed to get the sick hen in the box. I moved her in the buster to the 4' high shelf in the main, presumably predator, proof coop this morning. Double safe. I buried the decapitated hen after I got back with the game cam and pellet gun. I left the spading fork in the barn ally.

I went out about 7:15 to put the other girls in the coop, they were all outside. I went to get the scratch which is in a can in the "room" next to the coop. That is how we get the girls to come in if it is before THEY are ready. Echo was making a lot of noise. The f###ing racoon was 2/3 of the way up the post the (open) people door closes against. It didn't even need a tunnel this time, the barn door was open. Kinda in a panic now. Got the spading fork and banged at the coon, it dropped into the coop and I shut the door. Just couldn't see how I could safely kill it with the spading fork so here I was with the coon trapped in the coop WITH my sick hen trapped in the broody box. Even though I had not done ANYTHING with the gun, I went to the workshop where it was in its box and brought it and the pellet container down to the lower part of the barn where the chickens live.

There are no iron sights on the gun and I hadn't mounted the scope (not like a 4x scope would be real useful at 12' max, actually it would be a hindrance). The coon was on top of the broody buster cage. Echo understandably really upset. I did the best I could to hit it in the head from about 6' through the 2x4 wire and 1/2" hardware cloth on the front of the coop. Who knows where I really hit it but it ran off to the opposite side of the coop on the roost bar. Got another pellet (this is a break barrel gun, one shot, then open it to cock and put in the next pellet) and shot again this time from inside the "feed room". Same result in that I don't really know where I hit it. Back for another pellet and when I returned it was back up on the buster box. Hit it from the integration coop, had to have been max 3'. Of course, I STILL don't know where I actually hit it though I was again aiming for the head. Back for another pellet, big crash, buster box on the ground, Echo loose (I had been working to divide it in 2 and the hardware cloth on the front was not tightly attached). Miracle it didn't fall on her, she must have popped out as it went down. Got Echo out of the coop, heard some scratching/thumping noises. Coon on the ground under the box. Moved the box and though it wasn't moving, I shot it point blank in the head. It MIGHT have already been dead, I wasn't taking any chances. Also tried stabbing the spading fork through its neck afterward, no luck. Sure glad I didn't try to take it out with that. I don't know how many coons we have, this one's carcass is outside the north barn doors for the night.

I set up the game cam and stuck a few cherries in the back of the Havahart. Hopefully I will catch another @#$% woodchuck and hopefully I will get some 10 second videos of whatever is moving in the barn alley between the door and the coop tonight (hopefully nothing) and in the morning (presumably woodchucks digging out their holes from their tunnels). Even though the box on the cam says it will trigger out to 50' it seemed to me that at least in test mode, it was MAYBE 25'. That only makes it to the edge of the coop. There is nothing in the instructions that says what that distance is supposed to be and I can't seem to find much of anything on the Stealth Cam PX12. Bought it at WallyWorld but they don't even show it on their website. We shall see.

 

[Folly's place]

What a story! Bury the raccoon in one of the woodchuck burrows, and good luck getting the rest. Mary

 

[bruceha2000]

There is a thought. Do you suppose the smell of a rotting coon would make them leave their tunnels?

 

[Folly's place]

Sometime it works, and that coon has to go somewhere. Mary

 

[Rock Home Isle]

There is a thought. Do you suppose the smell of a rotting coon would make them leave their tunnels?

Highly doubtful.

2 years ago, I trapped for raccoon with 5 traps. These animals were destroying plastic irrigation pipe in a corn field. After each catch I put the raccoon 30 - 40 yards out in the corn. After 25 raccoons that field started smelling pretty ripe, yet I continued pulling raccoons out of there right up till they were done irrigating. Buy the time I pulled my sets, I had taken 43 raccoons out of the field, totally surprised by those numbers.

The smell of a dead coon isn't going to make them go away, I'd say it almost attracts them.

 

[Folly's place]

I'm not talking about repelling raccoons, but rather making woodchucks abandon a smelly den. Mary