I caught a raccoon & another & another ***GRAPHIC PICS*** pic heavy

[lauries]

Min 1/2-inch wire cloth only way to go to keep predators from reaching into chicken pens & tearing up your animals. May be more expensive but beats the destruction of your hens and future egg production. If you only have small flock, one loss is one too many.

 

[laughingdog]

Yall are makin me nervous as started reading this thread.. had to let my collie out to patrol the property! Coons seem attracted now to the layer pellets just started feeding as whole meal offered to chooks, or the rich smelling poo. young coyotes seem attracted now to the just hatched pigeons so far not trouble. the cats however are a real deal, as they just want to kill maybe eat some after.. dogs are after newborn calves that allowed to roam on owners property part of which I'm renting..

 

[laughingdog]

My collie hates bear and coon (two black bears had gone after a friend's young daughters that were between them and summer dump mound), and he is leary of dogs as have seen them go for them and neighbor children. he is the friendliest dog otherwise, but businesses to death round small children and stock (right down to bunnies, guinea pigs, chickens and pigeons).

 

[tweetr1979]

I know this isn't a coon question but ... what would you suggest for feral cats. My chicks aren't outside yet - a few more weeks to feather out and then they will be outside. I really don't want to have to be outside for hours with them keeping watch. Any ideas?

 

[Shellz]

A dog that won't eat your birds. Best thing going! We moved from the city to the country 4 years ago with our 2 year old mutt. When I got my first chicks, I would put one up to Jake's nose & tell him he's to protect them. Birds are nice. I did this a couple of times & it stuck ever since! I can't say this will work for any mutt or purebred, but I sure got lucky! He chases coyotes off & has killed small rodents up to muskrats. Now we have another mutt that's smaller & she learned from her big brother. She chased off a fox! I can leave these dogs out & trust that my birds will be safe.

Jake is a 35 lb Beagle X Boston Terrier & I'm sure there's something else in there. He went on point with a rabbit in the backyard when he was young.

Missy is a 20 lb Pug X Chihuahua. Spunky gal!
It leaves me thinking that dogs naturally want to please their masters & they need a job.

 

[laughingdog]

Yeah my rough collie seems not to be beat as breed for stock protection, a lot calmer and stockier than border collies, with speed and agility still. mine is the runt of show dog litter, tiny compared to siblings, surprising actually he has such good working dog instincts, as parents and siblings supposedly dumb as mud and hyper as heck. My collie still here and after first night and since had chickens here, roaming cats coons and dogs have learned to go well around coops. coyotes are smart and haven't come up since first day, aside from four younger seeming other night. a white codog (stocky short tail), was at chickens first night had them here, and my collie chased him first time lightly, but stopping at cattle fence boundry i showed earlier (learned boundarys first day). he immediately returned as soon as we went to go inside, and this time my dog didn't just pace and tease. maine coone mix cat got a small coon on top of chicken coop but growled and swatted at me when got too close, and she dragged it into brush next to or into barn and it stopped squalerin for fam after that. If your gonna get a barn cat the only useful ones I've had were maine coon and bobtail (bobcat mixes). They're easily trained like dogs and can be taught to leave chicks even alone, but they then see them as fam or at least great bait to hang around to catch mice to coons and other cats to attack, with size to at least run off (my bobcat mix at forty pounds, would hunt full grown oppossums like field mice and finally kill with just one blow to head unless they played possum as he ate at them..).

 

[whiterock]

I found a Very large Red Tailed Hawk in my Chicken enclosure one afternoon. She was feasting on my 1/2 grown flock of red stars. I got so mad I threw the water dish and knocked her down put the feed bucket over her and then scooped her into a large cage I had .
Then I called the local animal control and t hey told me not to hurt the Hawk because it was a protected bird.
I asked what about the chicken she was killing and they did not care!
So I had my daughter and friend drive her to an area about 2 hours away and let her go there!
It only took her 2 weeks to find her way home! ( a tall tree in my neighborhood!) I do theink that she will not cominto my chicken coop again!

 

[Shellz]

Ha, ha! I know what you mean! I've always had purebreds before Jake & they had their issues. I once had a boxer that was dumb as a sack of hammers! I ended up surrendering him back to the breeder when he chewed up my wedding gown that my dear mother made. Oye!

 

[SheilaV]

I used to do wildlife rescue and had to deal with such traps and their damage. I understand your need to control the predators and your choice to use these traps. But the rehabber in me says it is only fair that if you must use such brutality, you should also have to deal with the death it causes. helps put things in perspective, a bit of a balance. Sorry for your birds, the racoons and you and your family. Hurt, all the way around. Don't feel guilty, but do understand the downside. (I am not saying you did the right or wrong thing. I am just saying sometimes our choices do nothing but cause pain, no matter what we may choose.) Good luck

 

[laughingdog]

Get some game hens at least, to three to five young cockerels, they will grow up fine and protective of flock of most but hate for some reason redtails.. not sure if coloring shape makes think other cocks or what, but first one that my rosecomb bantam/sid tayler OEG got grounded as it went for chicks, he spurred it so fierce that broke its leg wing keel and punctured lung and some organs that bile came out of. as it twitched he continued to peck the eyes and brains out, as rest joined in. after they learned they could kill them by getting above and on back and they can't attack well on ground, never had hawk troubles till young BOPs came round after had to get rid of chickens. games stay friendly long as raised as fam with others, petted and treated. I've only had redtail troubles though same as with turkey vultures were they would try totake young only or eggs. so maybe I'm not much help saying to foster in or foster under a few games (just put under at dark so don't eat). My buddy has a scar his wife hates as he tried to grab a baby chick and mamma went right for the eyes and cut him like a workin girl of the night. if you leave low watt light on in coop they will die trying to kill annything that tries to hurt rest, as had a huge coon killed that way as rooster spurred it to death not letting it get back out of pen, were in dark would be defenceless. other coon wouldn't come out of corner and was blinded when i came out. one odd thing.. the bantam games always growed louder and worse than standards.