Raccoon problem

[DesireeNA]

Hi! New to this site and fairly new to the chicken life. Going into my 4th season of chickens and gardening and I’ve never had any big issues…until now.
I like to let my girls free range when the weather is nice. A few days ago I lost one and couldn’t figure out what killed her because it wasn’t late in the day.
Well the raccoon on my carport last night answered that. I really hate to not let them out from time to time so how do I go about finding this raccoon? Any tips on looking out for signs of where it’s sleeping during the day? I’m trying to look at pictures online but I figured someone here may can point me in a direction of where to start? Would it want to bed down closer or farther from the coop type of thing? If it’s underground what would that area look like? Since the attack wasn’t at dark, should I be worried about it being rabid?
Thanks!
(I’ll add I do not have a rooster, if that helps or makes a difference?)

 

[cmom]

I would trap it and eliminate it if it killed any of my birds. Here it is illegal to relocate unless you have the property owners permission of where you would intend to relocate it to. We are rural on a dead end road and have been the recipients of others relocations. There are wildlife rescues that will usually take them when you catch them. They have release areas. There are many videos on YouTube. Good luck...

 

[cmom]

Free ranging is a risk you take and as you discovered your birds will be discovered sooner or later and the predator will be back. Some will lurk looking for an opportunity when you least expect it. Lessons learned the hard way. Now my birds are kept in nice large covered pens with electric wires around the coops and pens and concrete under all of the gates all due to losses from predators in the past. I also have several game cameras up around on my property and see predators roaming here especially at night. Again, good luck...

 

[Acre4Me]

Can’t add much to what @cmom said.

Trap to kill bc relocating wildlife is usually illegal and passes the problem into someone else.

Or, if you don’t want to trap to kill and cannot legally relocate then you need to exclude predators from your setup.

Raccoons are mostly active at night, so the likely hood of it attacking your girls that free range during the day is low. Don’t let them free range until after sun is fully up and its fully day, then lock them up well before dusk. Don’t forget to check the coop for varmints that might be hiding inside the coop.

Some people advocate to trap and kill, and repeat as needed. Some argue the other way-exclude predators and build a secure run bc if you trap/kill something else will eventually takes its place.

@cmom has some good insight into how her set up (exclusion based) works across generations. She has pics of mom and young ones that just simply avoid the Hotwire and it appears mom predators teach their young to avoid the nasty Hotwire.

Good luck.

 

[cmom]

I have had my cameras up for years and have gotten where I can identify some of the predators by markings or injuries. Most predators have territories they roam. I hate it when a predator kills any of my birds. Not very long ago a predator went through the top part of a gate into one of the pens and wiped out all of the birds. It was like they all just vanished. Unlucky for me I have two cameras out there but it was foggy out that night so I wasn't able to get it on camera. I suspect probably a coyote or maybe a bobcat. I had seen a fox, coyote and bobcat prior on the cameras. I had double wire on the gate. I have chicken wire on it with 1x2 inch welded wire over the chicken wire and the predator went through both. I have since fixed it. This was not the night and it was much foggier. In this picture you can kind of see some of the coops in the background.