Raccoon dangerous to Geese?

[MikeJanet]

We've had a peaceful 3 years with our hens & waterfoul as far as preditors are concernd. We seen and shot at and coyotees, but haven't seen any sign of raccons in the area until about 2 weeks ago when I discovered and inadverntantly tree'd a raccon that had been eating our poultry feed in the early hours after dark. We had our first loss this morning (a hen) and I'm wondering about the danger to our 3 geese and 3 ducks, who are all enclosed within 5-6' wire fence each night on about 1/3 of an acre, but not shut inside a building. Finding my hen this morning was sad enough, and my husband and I will do our best to eliminate the coon, but in the mean time should I be locking up my waterfoul at night too? The obvious answer is probably yes, but I'd sure like to hear from anyone who's had any goose/raccoon issues.

Also anyone have opinions on daytime dangers from raccoons - as all my hens, ducks and geese freerange over our property each day.

Thanks
Janet

 

[TennesseeTruly]

Oh yea, raccoons are a danger alright. Now that they know there's a food source at your house, you can be sure they'll keep coming back and inviting friends with them.

They will definitely kill your chickens and ducks and I suspect they could kill your geese as well.

Good luck!

Laurie

 

[Whispering Winds]

And they are generational too. We have had three related families come back to our attic 3 out of 4 years, finally found where they were getting in and NO more. Coons will eat anything with feathers, I think. So your little guys are in danger for sure. Coons are so cute to look at, but they are vicious as a mountain lion if cornered, have babies, or hungry.

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

Yes, they are very dangerous and relentless and can cause all kinds of damage. They can even unlock certain types of latches, etc. Coons are very smart.

 

[mominoz]

I had raccoons kill my geese, and they came back and got the others , they did serious damage-- and then came in a twosome and killed my last gandar 10 years ago. Coons are nasty!

 

[Olive Hill]

If you can't lock them up at night you can put one strand of hot wire around the outside of your existing fence to keep the coons out.

 

[MikeJanet]

Thanks to all, especially Mominoz, for sharing experience with coons and geese. We locked everyone up early, approx 5:30pm yesterday, since we planned on being out late to celebrate my husbands birthday. I had soooo many unhappy birds. Had to fool the hens with treats to get them inside and talk about complaints once the door was closed!!! All ducks and geese were herded into our garden shed which has these tall old (recycled) windows that they can see out, boy did they look confused, and again the complaints were non-stop - but of course all were safe this morning.

I'm a bit terrified about going on vacation in about 3 weeks since it's obvious we either have to find someone to trek out to our house am & pm or we have to reduce the size of our current yard and add 1 or 2 hot wires around top and near bottom of our fence line.

This is our 1st preditor hit, but I'm pretty sure the coons cleaned out the neighbors place before moving onto ours - the neighbors chickens and ducks were easy targets due to lack of protection and care in general. Neighbors even lost a couple of adorable helpless puppies to coyotees after leaving them out night after night, the puppies weren't even 10 wks old .. Grrr... but have to keep my nose in my own business and do what I can for my animals.

thanks again everyone - I would welcome suggestions for the best placement of hot wires if anyone wants to add their 2cents! As mentioned above we're thinking right at the top and within 12- 8 inches off the ground.

Janet

PS I've heard the burro's can help to deter coyotees - does anyone know if they might influence raccoons to stay away? Probably not..I mean how would a burro know that the seemly cute, masked, little creature is really a viscous killing machine?

 

[arherp]

I have had raccoons tear up my ducks, quail, chicks, chickens, roosters, turkeys, etc etc. I have not given them the chance to hurt my geese.

 

[jojo@rolling acres farm]

Get rid of them permanently...as many and as often as you can. They really can cause a lot of damage in a very short time. Geese are NOT safe from them. Burro's will not be of any help. They killed one of my silkie hens that was sitting on a nest in a dog house in a pen in the middle of the day yesterday. I shoot them on sight, any and every chance I get. My place is almost like Fort Knox - and they still found a way to get to her.

Joni

 

[GooseyMcGee]

A raccoon tore through the plastic chicken wire of my good pen. He brutally killed my poor male Chinese goose. Fortunately the female was able escape to the pond. My girlfriend and I are pretty shocked and devastated. We were able to keep them safe from coyotes but we had no idea about the raccoons. The female comes inside the house night for now. She is very lonely and keeps looking her friend. I think we will give her away to a petting where she can make friends with another goose and some ducks.