I've lost count of how many racoons ive trapped and gotten rid of, its futile. I dont bother anymore with the traps and instead trust in VERY secure nighttime houseing for all my fowl except my emus, and even them im semi worried about since they are juveniles and only about four feet high or so.
I do have a Donkey (not in same field as fowl) and have not lost any goat kids yet to predators. So its either luck so far or she keeps things away at night.
But do yourself a favor and invest in a secure nighttime sleeping area for the birds, its the only way.
The second thing ive done that has had the biggest impact on stoping predation is removing hideing places, like low lying tree limbs, bushes going all the way to the ground, heavy vines on the fence going all the way to the ground, etc. I lost SEVERAL birds in the middle of the day due to what turns out were bobcats creeping from bush to bush after jumping the fence and grabing birds. Soon as I trimmed everything up and the bobcats had nowhere to hide and would be spotted jumping the fence into a open area with no cover.. they gave up.
So very secure houseing for after dark, and remove exessesive ground cover that daytime predators would use to creep with.
I do have a Donkey (not in same field as fowl) and have not lost any goat kids yet to predators. So its either luck so far or she keeps things away at night.
But do yourself a favor and invest in a secure nighttime sleeping area for the birds, its the only way.
The second thing ive done that has had the biggest impact on stoping predation is removing hideing places, like low lying tree limbs, bushes going all the way to the ground, heavy vines on the fence going all the way to the ground, etc. I lost SEVERAL birds in the middle of the day due to what turns out were bobcats creeping from bush to bush after jumping the fence and grabing birds. Soon as I trimmed everything up and the bobcats had nowhere to hide and would be spotted jumping the fence into a open area with no cover.. they gave up.
So very secure houseing for after dark, and remove exessesive ground cover that daytime predators would use to creep with.