I really thought I was going to have a raccoon-free year. Had some traps out earlier this spring, caught nobody, put them away again. Yesterday, the hens and a couple of the roosters were out foraging. It was a pretty stormy afternoon, a few spits of rain now and then, and very windy. My chickens hate being blown around and mostly hung around near the baby barn where they were a little better sheltered and could step inside if it got too wet. (The door is permanently open.) I went down to visit with them shortly before calling them in for the day, and while near the baby barn, stepped inside to check whether any hens who'd been feeling kinda wild had used the nest I'd made up for them with some spare flakes of hay in one corner behind some lumber. There was a small raccoon curled up and sleeping on the nest!!!
I keep a lot of garden tools in the baby barn. My pitchfork was only ten feet away. So was a big axe. I was tempted to give it a try, but then common sense prevailed...what if I didn't incapacitate or outright kill the sucker with the first blow? Wild animals that act way too tame or oddly always make me suspicious. What if that raccoon was sick with rabies or distemper? Or had gotten into some rat poison or antifreeze and was dying? In the end, I quietly retrieved a couple of my live traps--which were also in the baby barn--and baited them and set them right in the doorway. Peeked at the raccoon again before I left and then tended to the chickens, and it never...woke...up.
I had to go to work right after locking up the chickens for the evening and am more than halfway through my last night shift as I type this. I won't get home again until after dawn at which point I should know more about whether my latest raccoon problem is over. But geez louise! Sleeping on the CHICKENS' NEST in the BABY BARN? How stupid, or ballsy, or SOMETHING, is that? It's not even like that nest is particularly hidden, just a little secluded. Weird! Has anyone else ever found a potential predator behaving so carelessly? Skunks I'd expect to behave a little brazenly, for good reason, but even they normally know better than to curl up and sleep out in the open.
Anyway, just thought some of you could use a laugh at my expense. I try not to hate raccoons, or any predator. They're just doing their thing, after all, and chickens and their eggs are juicy and nutritious. But man, I sure came close to laying the hate on that sleeping little monster when I first saw him or her yesterday afternoon and contemplated grabbing my pitchfork!
I do confess to once braining a big rat with a metal pole, though...
I keep a lot of garden tools in the baby barn. My pitchfork was only ten feet away. So was a big axe. I was tempted to give it a try, but then common sense prevailed...what if I didn't incapacitate or outright kill the sucker with the first blow? Wild animals that act way too tame or oddly always make me suspicious. What if that raccoon was sick with rabies or distemper? Or had gotten into some rat poison or antifreeze and was dying? In the end, I quietly retrieved a couple of my live traps--which were also in the baby barn--and baited them and set them right in the doorway. Peeked at the raccoon again before I left and then tended to the chickens, and it never...woke...up.
I had to go to work right after locking up the chickens for the evening and am more than halfway through my last night shift as I type this. I won't get home again until after dawn at which point I should know more about whether my latest raccoon problem is over. But geez louise! Sleeping on the CHICKENS' NEST in the BABY BARN? How stupid, or ballsy, or SOMETHING, is that? It's not even like that nest is particularly hidden, just a little secluded. Weird! Has anyone else ever found a potential predator behaving so carelessly? Skunks I'd expect to behave a little brazenly, for good reason, but even they normally know better than to curl up and sleep out in the open.
Anyway, just thought some of you could use a laugh at my expense. I try not to hate raccoons, or any predator. They're just doing their thing, after all, and chickens and their eggs are juicy and nutritious. But man, I sure came close to laying the hate on that sleeping little monster when I first saw him or her yesterday afternoon and contemplated grabbing my pitchfork!
I do confess to once braining a big rat with a metal pole, though...
