Major coon issues! Help?

[Twizzlebee]

So I just got back into the chicken business this year after a few years of not having any. And coons managed to undo the latch on our coop and kill all of our 6 older chickens. After this, we tried to coon proof everything. We securely locked up the brooders, or so we thought. The other night I saw a mother coon and 3 or 4 babies IN MY GARAGE. Our goslings had been in a rabbit hutch for probably a week, and the chicks were old enough so I threw them in an identical one, figuring that since the coons couldn't get the goslings, the chicks were fine too. Well, tonight was their first night in the hutch and a coon managed to kill one through the wire! I was almost asleep, and heard the fuss. Well, I have everybody inside now, including my farm cats. I feel like nothing is safe anymore... We are having someone come out this weekend to try and shoot some, but any advice on how to clear them out? We have one live trap, which is currently set with the dead baby as bait. Morbid, I know, but I'm fairly certain it would work. Any advice on how to clear the problem up would be greatly appreciated. I'm down to 12 SLW and 2 goslings out of the 26 chickens I had a month ago.

 

[jpcode]

Buy a bunch of Duke DP Coon Traps and get them all. Else it's several sleepless nights with a pot of coffee, a spot light and a 12 guage. If your are too squimish to eat coons at least make hats out of them.

 

[sdsmowen]

We had a similar problem. I started putting the young chicks in a large dog kennel covered in hardware cloth over night (works great!) the coons didnt mess with our larger chickens but started eating the feed so i loaded a trap with the feed and have caught 4 in the last 3 nights! luckily we have not had anymore losses.

 

[zazouse]

Buy a bunch of Duke DP Coon Traps and get them all. Else it's several sleepless nights with a pot of coffee, a spot light and a 12 Gage. If your are too squeamish to eat coons at least make hats out of them.

You blast a coon with a 12 gage , what would you make a hat out of.

how much do them shells cost now?
I have been reading some good reviews on them traps. wised they work for possums, my dog has killed 4 young ones in the last week

 

[theoldchick]

Get a coon trap, trap it, and shoot it in the head.

 

[zazouse]

Sorry you lost your babies.

You will get some good advice here , but will have to decide what works best for you situation, i use dogs to keep critters away, others use traps and you are gonna have to keep trapping them as long as you have birds cause when one leaves sooner or later another one takes it's place thats why i like dogs.

The coons probably never bothered the gosling's cause they are quieter than chicks, they tend to peep alot.

Good luck getting rid of them it sounds like you may live in a neighborhood, you can bet someone is feeding them if they are so brave to come into your garage.

 

[centrarchid]

Short-term response is trapping and shooting. With firearms my recommendation is a smaller caliber rifle as such kill but do not causas much damage to non-targets.

Long-term is the classic upgrading of your cooping system and a dog. Even if raccoons are not able to harm fowl becuase confinement is coon resistant does not mean such varmints can not cause mischeif that is otherwise costly.

 

[patman75]

Buy a bunch of Duke DP Coon Traps and get them all.

I recomend the dukes dog proof coon trap as well. Much more effective than a live trap.

http://www.fntpost.com/Products/Duke+DP+Coon+Trap

 

[Twizzlebee]

The funny thing is that we have a dog. She's in the house at night though. And we aren't in a neighborhood, actually. We are on 63 acres of farmland. I didn't catch anything last night, I think my traps are old or something, because they took the bait, and the trap had set, but no coon. Those dog proof traps seem pretty cool. My geese will be able to keep them away once their larger, correct? Because we are looking into another dog, but during the nights I don't know that I would trust it to 'free range' our property. And yes, I think a hat would make a good trophy.

 

[sdsmowen]

We have a pair of pups which will eventually be part of our long term critter protection. they are too young to leave out overnight right now so we are trapping.