Raccoon got some of our girls : (

CPW Chicks

In the Brooder
9 Years
Feb 26, 2010
80
0
39
Beaumont, PA
Yesterday morning I went out to the coop to let our 11 hens out and when I opened up the door and went in there were 3 dead. 2 were killed and left there and the third was killed and partially eaten. There were no signs of where it got in or how, so we spent half of the day reinforcing our coop and putting up extra chicken wire to keep whatever it was out. After some research and talking to some people we know I thought it was probably a weasle or mink. So we put them away last night and I slept on our couch so I would wake up if I heard anything and sure enough at 2am there was some loud noise and I ran out and it was a raccoon, it had killed another chicken but we were able to scare it out by putting on lights and banging on the walls with a bat. We spent a few hours out there making sure it didn't come back. This morning my sister got in touch with the game commission who said since it had killed our chickens we are allowed to trap and kill it. So the plan for tonight is to cage the hens up and put them in our basement for the night and set traps in and around the coop to get the raccoon. Just not sure what to do after we catch it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

P.S. I hate raccoons
 
I just drown them or shoot them depending on where I am, you do not want to stop trapping after you catch the first one stay trapping until you stop catching them they come in groups. good luck
 
There has to be a better way to deter the raccoons than killing them all. I've been raising ducks and chickens my whole life and have killed 1 raccoon (we put a dead chicken in a bucket tipped on it's side with a conibear trap over the opening). I use geese as a guard during the day, lock everyone up at night in a SECURE house and have a dog running around outside all day and sometimes at night. I live in the woods on the river so I have fox, mink, otters, raccoons, skunks and coyotes show up on the trail camera all the time. Raccoons need a pretty good sized opening to get into a house, maybe your structure needs to be looked at as the problem.
 
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A lot of times when someone does not have predator problems there is a trapper or several trappers around them knocking down the local population and they just are not aware of them ( the trappers) the people who live across the street in the new development only one person out of a couple of hundreds is aware that I trap several times he has expressed his thanks that predators are not attacking his companion animals. to the OP good luck resolving your problem.
 
The structure is pretty sound and yesterday as I said we reinforced it, and the raccoon still got through. I saw where he ripped the chicken wire down and got through an opening that was about 3-3 1/2 inches wide. It was a juvenile so it was medium sized. We haven't had a problem with them before so I was surprised when I saw it was a raccoon. It to would hope for a better way to get rid of them but from what has been said is if they have already killed like this if you relocate them they would still seek out other circumstances like ours.

Thanks for the advice on what to do after we catch it. We found a friend who said they will come shoot it after we catch it, since I don't have a gun. I will make sure to keep traps out for a couple of weeks to make sure we get anymore that might be around.
 
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I'm sorry for your losses, but the chicken wire is part of your problem. Chicken wire was never designed to do anything besides keep chickens in. It will NOT keep other critters out. Remove the chicken wire and replace it with 1/4" wire mesh (sometimes called hardware cloth -- why, I have no idea...) fastened to the structure preferably by using firring strips and drilling screws through the strips and into the 2x4s of the structure. Again, I'm sorry for your losses, and hope you can keep your babies safe.
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I'm sorry for your losses, but the chicken wire is part of your problem. Chicken wire was never designed to do anything besides keep chickens in. It will NOT keep other critters out. Remove the chicken wire and replace it with 1/4" wire mesh (sometimes called hardware cloth -- why, I have no idea...) fastened to the structure preferably by using firring strips and drilling screws through the strips and into the 2x4s of the structure. Again, I'm sorry for your losses, and hope you can keep your babies safe.
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Agreed. You can use 1/2" or 1/4" but whichever, put it everywhere! Also make sure the connections are tight. They can dig too so put out an apron of the hardware cloth along the ground. If you lock your hens up every night you could use welded wire fencing but if the hens are not locked inside raccoons will grab them through that wire and kill them by tearing them apart (!!). I hope your chickens will be off their menu from now on.
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secured.
 
Thank you for the advice, I will switch to wire mesh. Our chickens do get locked up every night, the problem was at the top of one wall there was a six inch gap, where were able to put boards up over most of it but due to some cross beams we weren't able to cover all of it and that is where we put chicken wire up on both sides hoping to prevent any problems and till now it has.

It has been very devastating to loose them, it has been a sad couple of days. I will feel somewhat better when I can catch and get rid of what did this to them.
 
Use the bat on the coon next time, not the wall. Secure the coop with better wire. Add an electric fence.

Attacking the issue at both ends works well. Only looking at the issue from one side can lead to more deaths.
 
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I lost 4 Delaware and 2 Buckeyes to a coon about a month ago. I used Lil Grizz traps and marshmallows to trap the dirty words. It has been nine days since the last coon was caught. While I am confident my problem is gone for the moment, the traps are still in place. Since I live in the country with a woods and stream behind the house I have no illusions that I will be free of this problem forever.
 

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