fighting raccoons

[Howard E]

Is that electric poultry netting running around the base? If not, what is it?

If electric poultry netting, that means you have a charger, so you could put something like alternating metal bars as your ladder? Make alternating bars hot and grounded? A chicken could hop from bar to bar and be good, even if perched on a hot one. A raccoon attempting to crawl up a ladder would likely touch a ground bar and hot bar at the same time. I might buy a ticket to that show.

If nothing else, make the lowest bar to the ground hot so any climbing animal touches it first. Birds could land on it or fly over it.

My roost bars are about 42" off the ground. I'm not sure if they could fly up that high, but I suspect they could. For now, they still hop up on an old hay bale as the intermediary and the last 2 feet or so from there.

 

[centrarchid]

I thought of some sort of perch about 2 feet off the ground that they could hop up on and fly the remaining 2 feet to the doorway? I think I've seen that somewhere before. I could just try it and see if they get the idea.

Experiment with getting them to fly up more than 24", ideally more than 36%. I would still look into using hot wire or some approach that would selectively zap a mammal trying to get into to coop.

 

[Intheswamp]

What about putting a landing platform/porch outside of the door for them to land on? There's already an edge (2x4 framing) that a coon could grab onto at the edge of the coop so a porch will not increase a coon's possibility of access...hopefully the 4' height will be out of reach for them. The porch might help the chickens take to the "fly in" way of entering a bit better.

Something to note is that if a raccoon can scale those legs then I would be afraid it could enter an open pop door. The netting wrapped around the coop legs gives claw-holds that a coon might could use. All a coon needs is to hang one grubby little claw in something and it can hoist itself up.

Seems a few years ago someone was working on building a fly-in type of coop. What they did was have solid, smooth sides made out of metal (wide roof flashing?) going up several feet tall. The sides were so smooth that a coon couldn't get a grip on them but the chickens could fly in. It seems that they used a fairly large opening...window-sized.

Ed

 

[bruceha2000]

I thought of some sort of perch about 2 feet off the ground that they could hop up on and fly the remaining 2 feet to the doorway? I think I've seen that somewhere before. I could just try it and see if they get the idea.

Any healthy LF (well maybe not Cornish Rocks and the like) can easily fly up to a 2' high platform. In fact they can do it at 2 weeks of age. My VERY large and heavy Black Australorp can hit the 4' high roost from the ground if she wants to. I watched her do it a couple of months ago and she is 4 years old. MOST of the time all the birds stage off the 2' high roost (which none have EVER used AS a roost) to get to the 4' high roosts.

Opinions please, I designed this after a lot of trial and error in an attempt to keep the chickens safe from predators and from the wet etc. What do you think?




it's 4 feet off the ground, and they use a ladder to get in, I was hoping they would learn to fly in, they roost in the front and nest in the back.

I ASSUME that those hooks have the "safety spring" feature? My preference is for slide bolts that have a hole you can put a carabiner or lock through when the bolt is engaged. Any hook and eye system allows for some "flex" and MAYBE a coon could force an opening if it isn't really tight.

Is the 1/2" hardware cloth attached with poultry/fence staples (U shaped nails) or screws with fender washers and not "Arrow staple gun" staples? The former are safe, the latter should be used ONLY for positioning the wire.

Raccoons climb. Very well. Unless you can support your coop with magnetic levitation or magic, a coon can get on it. I don't know if sheet metal is something they can't climb. I am concerned about the netting around the base of the coop. What is that made of? If some sort of fiber, natural or man made, any canine, coon etc can chew through it with little effort. Think of it like you think of chicken wire - useful to keep chickens where you want them (or out of where you don't want them) but not protection against most predators.

 

[cream puff]

the netting is just some nylon net that I was using to keep the chicks from escaping. The run is going to be removed soon. I was thinking of greasing up the posts so the raccoons can't climb them axle grease or something, I have some sheet metal lying around (doesn't everybody I can try attaching that to the legs too. Apart from a hawk killing two chicks there have been no more raccoon attacks.

I have some electric netting but I haven't got it sorted out yet... I might not use it at all... not sure... vacillating on the one...

My chooks seem to like the coop!

 

[centrarchid]

the netting is just some nylon net that I was using to keep the chicks from escaping. The run is going to be removed soon. I was thinking of greasing up the posts so the raccoons can't climb them axle grease or something, I have some sheet metal lying around (doesn't everybody I can try attaching that to the legs too. Apart from a hawk killing two chicks there have been no more raccoon attacks.

I have some electric netting but I haven't got it sorted out yet... I might not use it at all... not sure... vacillating on the one...

My chooks seem to like the coop!

In order for sheet metal to be effective you will need to have is as a sheer wall. They will bear hug their way like human child or monkey will otherwise. The electric netting would be a quick approach although you could make so a single strand of hotwire would have similar effect with that coop.

 

[eggnoramous]

Here's the birdering raccoon...looking all smug reaching through the hav-a-hart to eat the cat food. 3 chickens in 2 nights...any tips on how to get this a hole in the trap?? Or just keep the drop cam going and shoot him from the bedroom window when the motion notification goes off???

 

[eggnoramous]

I thought of some sort of perch about 2 feet off the ground that they could hop up on and fly the remaining 2 feet to the doorway? I think I've seen that somewhere before. I could just try it and see if they get the idea.

My ladies would jump/flap up and over a 4 foot panel every day.

 

[Howard E]

Here's the birdering raccoon...looking all smug reaching through the hav-a-hart to eat the cat food. 3 chickens in 2 nights...any tips on how to get this a hole in the trap?? Or just keep the drop cam going and shoot him from the bedroom window when the motion notification goes off???

Here is a video of how these folks set their trap to catch a fox.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/677983/i-caught-my-fox-updated-now-with-the-video

Block off the sides so the only way in is through the door.

Also, your photo is a classic. Shows how small an area a raccoon can reach through and how far.

 

[Millworker26]

Here's the birdering raccoon...looking all smug reaching through the hav-a-hart to eat the cat food. 3 chickens in 2 nights...any tips on how to get this a hole in the trap?? Or just keep the drop cam going and shoot him from the bedroom window when the motion notification goes off???

You won't catch that coon with the hav-a-hart. Buy a $13 Dukes dog proof raccoon trap, bait it with marshmallow, and you will have yourself a new coon skin cap the first night.