OK, I saw the coon, and can't catch him in the trap! UPDATED 6 DOA

[mmwb]

Good advise. Make sure the trap is long enough. Sometimes the two door traps aren't long enough for a larger animal to trip the pan in the middle and not block the door. It may be better to close one end and wire the bait to the floor tight against closed door. The animal will have to completely pass over the pan to get to the bait. If it is fastened down, then it will have to work the bait--generally causing more movement--increasing the odds of tripping the pan. As suggested above, placing the bait under the cage can be effective, but make sure the trap is staked down so the coon doesn't just flip it. Often some large rocks or a cinder block on top of the cage will help stabilize it which can make a difference with some animals. Good luck.

BTW, if he has been stealing the bait, you have a good bait for that animal. Are you sure the coon is eating the bait? If it is a small piece of fish, mice, voles, shrews, etc... can make quick work of it and leave the illusion that the coon is stealing it as well.





Edited for sundry spelling and grammatical errors.

 

[kathyinmo]

HOORAY ! ! ! It worked. Caught one.... setting it again to see if I get more. This one was an adolescent, not too big and not too small. I am sure there are more where he came from. He is GONE now, and won't be bothering any more chickens!

Thanks for all the help. I used marshmallows (on top of and under the trip pan), and covered the whole trap with tarp, except the 2 ends. The whole trap is nailed to a board, making it difficult to tip over.

 

[jessithy]

 

[kathyinmo]

UPDATE: So far, we have trapped 6 coons on 4 occassions. Yep, got 2 at a time TWICE! That is freaky, going out and seeing two sets of eyes in there. I did take suggestions, and this is what I did: The trap is set level, on a large board, larger than the size of the trap. I cover it with an old green tarp like blanket. For bate I have been using marshmallows.

How many more can I expect? Do they just keep on coming? Geez, I am tired of this.

Thanks for all the help!

 

[big greg barker]

Just keep trapping till fall. The more you get the better.

 

[BroomFarm]

There's only about 9 bajillion coons in your part of the country and you'll never eliminate them. If you leave the trap out 5 nights in a row w/o a taker, I would think your birds are safe, for the rest of the year. Next spring, you may see activity again and then, as young coons start to spread out in early summer, for sure you'll have to put the trap back in action.

Then again, you could get a puppy, train it well, re: chickens, and enjoy its companionship while he discourages nightly visitors. So, it's barking and pickinuppoop, or annual trapping duties...I love dogs, which made the choice easy for me. In fact, we have two and they make doubly sure there ain't no masked bandits worryin' our girls.

 

[Gersbud]

Sounds like you need to find someone around you that hunts coon with a dog. Had that problem, got someone to come over with his dogs and haven't seen any in over a year.

Not to mention that I keep my chickens locked in at night.