I hate coons, UPDATE #52 got'em!

[fowlrus]

I'm so sorry for your lost Ahappychick, I experience similar situation last year, it was like I had encounter the mad coons that's out for the blood. It left a killing field, blood and body every where, that was the time I separate the mind frame of predator and pest. And I personally see nothing wrong to eliminate those killers that's not kill to feed but kill for what ever the reason which I can not see/understand.
I hope you get those mad coons. You Go Girl.

 

[LilMissClucky]

So sorry for what happened. I definitely understand. We have had the same problems here. I lost all of my hens and my beloved roo. Luckily the chicks were elsewhere. The sneaky creeps pulled the wire from the wood (where it was stapled really well) and squeezed in through a really small area. Hubby walked up on two of them while getting to set a trap. That thing was EVIL! It was either him or my hubby and the coon had already made dinner of my hens. Lucky for my hubby my daughters BF was with him and they managed to ummm ... take the growling, snarling, thrashing about coon out of the equation. However, there were two and only one is accounted for. Dear daughter made mention that since we killed the large male that the kids may show up. I laughed it off and said that there is no coon mafia out looking to even the score. After I thought about it though I am worried about how many others are in their clan and which ones know my address.

 

[AHappychick]

yes they are NASTY although they are really cute too, which makes this hard for me, but one look at my scalped blue runner duckling and all feelings of sympathy towards the coons fade with a quickness.

They work in teams thats for sure and kill even after their bellies are full. This is the biggest thing I can not accept, its one thing to eat what you kill another to just kill for the pleasure of it. I will get no pleasure from killing these coons, but I do think I will get some peace of mind and satifaction in knowing that these nasty creatures wont be around to hurt anymore animals.

 

[XCTRACKCOACH]

I lost 2 brooding hens sitting on 30 eggs 2 days ago. I set 10 steel traps and left the 2 Carcasses tied to the pen. I knew the coon couldn't resist a buffet. Welllll....This morning I also gave him some lead desert...4 shot gun blasts CENTER MASS!

I really do love animals, but opossums and coons better learn to mark their map and stay away from my poor chickens!

 

[AHappychick]

good for you XCTRACKCOACH I wish I had trhe same luck. I used one of the duckling bodies as bait the last 2 nights and they wont touch it, tonight I move onto cat food until such time as I can get to the feed store and pick up a few other items that have been recomended.

I will say though that both of my injured ducks the scalped one and the one with the huge wound are healing well I think, although I cant imagine how long it is going to take my duckling to grow back all the skin on the back of its neck and scull.

 

[ducklover15]

I've lost two hens to coons (one two days ago and one almost exactly a year ago) and I'm now going to put all the extra money I can toward making my pen completely coon-proof.

I have an 8 foot tall dog fence which is attached to a shed where the ducks can get shelter. I have chicken wire running along the bottom about 3 feet up because a coon grabbed one of my hens through the cage last year and she died. I don't want to put anything sharp or electrified down there because the ducks enjoy poking their beaks through the holes. If I put barbed wire along the top of my fence on the edges and chicken over it as a roof, do you guys think it would keep the coons out?

Is there any kind of repellent I could put around our yard and/or the cage as well after I catch a few in my traps...?

I'm not letting these coons get away with killing my girls and I want to do everything possible to keep them away from the surviving hen and the 5 fertilized eggs the deceased hen left behind!

 

[mominoz]

Barb wire is for cows, I have climbed barb wire, so figure a coon is about 1/8 my size?
You could hotwire the top of the pen( and hope they don't jump into the pen when shocked. and you could hotwire out from the pen like 4-10" with standoff connnectors.
You could Aframe against the fence with other wire(put bottom say a foot or two out from the bottom and then attach it about 3 feet up to the dog fence . Sort of have a triangular base of double fencing.Then hotwire the top, 2 strands would be good.

 

[froggie71]

AHappychick, so sorry to hear about your runners. I hope you can take care for your problem and your injured runners will heal quickly.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

So sorry for your loss!

We've had about 4 coon attacks over the past 5 years and lost about 5 chickens and our only duck.

I can completely feel exactly what you felt while typing that first post. The determination to ensure your flock is protected. It is even worse when I knew it was our fault for not getting outside early enough to lock them in safe. Thank goodness for our auto coop door closer.

Yes, please post pics of your pen. It will be helpful for everyone to get a good idea of how exactly this happened.

 

[thewarriorchild]

Quote:
LOl hope you got some offee

I felt the same way this morning when my daughter got me up at 7 to tell me my alarm said 6 and it was really 7 and I was supposed to be 45 minutes away at 7!!