Pullets trying to protect me or..

[Folly's place]

Crown lands must have a lot of raccoons! Exactly the opposite of what's done down here. Maybe you don't have rabies up there? Mary

 

[PingoBags]

Crown lands must have a lot of raccoons! Exactly the opposite of what's done down here. Maybe you don't have rabies up there? Mary

We do have rabies. I wouldn't hesitate to shoot a coon if it had rabies.
Raccoons seem to be everywhere here. They aren't the skinny city coons either.

I went to buy a box trap once but there would be no way they were big enough to catch these coons.
I've seen these coons up close, they are bigger around than the traps.
I would either need to make one or just shoot it, but I'm not at that point yet.

 

[lazy gardener]

Snow doesn't slow coons much here. I would rather shoot a coon than relocate it. By relocating it, it simply moves into a different territory to become someone else's problem. We had same problem. Even the large box was not big enough to trap him, cause his tail would stick out, then he could simply back out. We added on to the end of the trap with hdw cloth, and he rolled that trap 40' across the yard before he shredded the HW cloth (BTW, folks... "they say" that HW cloth is predator proof. Not so! It merely slows them down, and perhaps they are too lazy to deal with it and move on to better pickings.) If you bought a large trap, and lengthened it from the back end, AND used REBAR, and heavy welded wire, AND 1/2" HW cloth, AND pegged it down to the ground, And put some plywood under it to stabilize it a bit, you might get your critter. Then, I'd SSS.

 

[PingoBags]

Snow doesn't slow coons much here. I would rather shoot a coon than relocate it. By relocating it, it simply moves into a different territory to become someone else's problem. We had same problem. Even the large box was not big enough to trap him, cause his tail would stick out, then he could simply back out. We added on to the end of the trap with hdw cloth, and he rolled that trap 40' across the yard before he shredded the HW cloth (BTW, folks... "they say" that HW cloth is predator proof. Not so! It merely slows them down, and perhaps they are too lazy to deal with it and move on to better pickings.) If you bought a large trap, and lengthened it from the back end, AND used REBAR, and heavy welded wire, AND 1/2" HW cloth, AND pegged it down to the ground, And put some plywood under it to stabilize it a bit, you might get your critter. Then, I'd SSS.

I was thinking about making the trap from scratch but your idea of making a real trap bigger, would be a better option. I'll look into that.
Got my first dusting of snow, about to go out and see what the chickens think of it, it will be their first time seeing it.