huge racoon

[lovinlife]

I found coon tracks out by the chicken coop in my barnyard that are huge. I put my fingers by the track and the track is four finger tips wide. That's 2"! It was a huge racoon.

I set the trap last night, but the booger flipped it over and tripped it without being inside it. that scares me. It's obviously a large one. I reset the trap tonight, so we'll see if the dadgum thing is in there in the morning.

Last time my I trapped a coon, my DH took it "20 miles" away and let it go. I asked him where he took it and he had gone in a circle and let the thing go about 5 miles from here.

He will shoot this one. Period. I lost my gorgeous blue Ameraucana hen when a racoon pulled its head through the coop fencing and left the body inside the coop. I've lost 5 guineas to racoons. DH set up his wildlife camera in the woods and saw 5 at one time. Argh!!!!!

 

[Ridgerunner]

Good luck on the trapping. I have not trapped a whole lot of raccoons like some people on here, but I have had some success. A couple of things that seemed to help me were I wired the bottom of the trap to a piece of plywood so it was stable in an upright position. He could not turn it over. And I made a box that sets over the trap. The only way to get to the bait is to go in through the opening up front. He cannot get to it from the back and sides. What works depends a lot on how trap-smart your raccoon is.

As you know, if you have one, you have more. Trapping and eliminating one that knows where your chickens are is a help, but the only sure way to keep the raccoons out is strong wire. You can help keep the chickens heads inside by putting hardware cloth or chicken wire on the inside of your fence.

I never recommend dropping an animal off somewhere else. You are just giving the problem to someone else and, in many places, that is illegal.

Hope you get it!!

 

[poultryfan73]

The only advice i have to trapping raccoons are 1. repition.. you must have traps set out 24/7 365 days a year. I keep just one box trap at my coop entrance and so far this year i caught 56! 2. Never take a raccoon elsewhere.. i did an experiment i spray painted a raccoons tail pink... then 2 months later i caught the same one because of the spary painted tail. They will find their way back!

 

[SilkiesAndSuch]

Good luck with your trap! I hate raccoons....I've caught so many near my pen. One was HUGE!

 

[CityClucks]

Raccoons are wicked. God created them with that bandit mask for a reason - to let us know they are the BAD GUYS! (But if you see one with a white hat on, it might be the Lone Ranger-Coon.) Good luck getting rid of it!

 

[looptloop]

OMG! Yikes, someone caught 56!!!!!!!!