keeping Raccoons away

[ladyluci]

I got up to take the dogs out this morning, and my little Jack russell spotted a coon mom and her baby near my chicken pen! She chase them away; but now I'm worried about my chickens and I would like suggestions on how to keep the coons away (will fox urine scent work?). I want to prevent anything from happening in the first place; my pen is all enclosed and I close the coop every night.
Thank you!

 

[aprophet]

Once a wild animal finds a food source there is not much that will keep them away. some prefer to build fort knox I have yet to see a coop / run that can keep out weasels, rats ,mice and snakes. I prefer to do layers I trap and dispatch predators so I do not have as many to have to keep out. then I build reasonably secure pens, coops and runs. I also trap populations not single animals when rid yourself of a single animal you did not solve the problem when you trap until you quit catching animals (it is better to set multiple traps and catch them all in one or 2 nights) then your problem is gone for 6-9 months I have not seen any evidence of predator here since our general trapping season closed feb 28.

 

[ladyluci]

Thanks for the advice!...I'll set up traps; and in the meantime will put the dog to watch after the chickens

. I'm really concerned about the little chicks; as they joined the flock just a week ago and don't get in the coop before 9 pm (I guess I'll just put them in the coop early from now on).

 

[mikeksfarmer]

It seems every year in June I have to fight off Raccoons. Last night I had a bate trap hanging off my deck so I could shoot the coons that were killing my ducks and chckens. While I was waiting and watching a coon got into a parrot cage I was using for convolesence for a hen that was mauled by a fox. ( it seems it never ends) I would be one of those people who says kill all coons that you can. As kid I had them as pets; today I see that their population is influanced by mankind and that we can do little to control them. The vultures got to eat and the tomatoes do well when planted on top of a coon. Act now or learn hard!
Good luck !

 

[ladyluci]

I forgot to mention, we have goats next to the chicken pen, will the activity back there keep the coons from getting too close?

 

[Debob]

Best way I found is to use electric fence.

 

[patman75]

Here are the basics

Electric Fence
Hardware cloth or welded wire, basically fort knox coop
live traps
poison
Live stock Gardian dog
guns
booby traps
moat with burning tar pits
50 Cal machine gun mounted on top of chicken coop with spot lights
motion sensors with laser beams

Any of these can do the job.

 

[Bizzybirdy]

However sometimes I think I might need some of the above. Sitting outside all night waiting for a shrewd racoon gets very tireing.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
this works good until we lose power then not so good my traps work 24/7/365

 

[ladyluci]

Thanks for the input guys

; I'll try trapping and may even set up the electric fence too!