Raccoon sighting! help!

[Handyhens]

My neighbor regularly passes by my house to get her kiddo to school very early. he said that see had seen a sizeable raccoon in our yard. what should I do? I'm contemplating waiting outside all night with a shovel and my brothers nerf gun..... should I trap it and relocate it? my coop made of hardware cloth and I lock all the doors with carabiner clips. Any and all advice needed.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

My neighbor regularly passes by my house to get her kiddo to school very early. he said that see had seen a sizeable raccoon in our yard. what should I do? I'm contemplating waiting outside all night with a shovel and my brothers nerf gun..... should I trap it and relocate it? my coop made of hardware cloth and I lock all the doors with carabiner clips. Any and all advice needed.

Respectfully, if you are contemplating relocating a raccoon anywhere but 6 foot deep, save your self the trouble and heart break and turn the shovel on your chickens. It will be a quicker death than being slowly pulled apart and nibbled to death from outside the wire.

Besides, releasing a coon in any location other than the one it was captured in illegal in all the areas that I am familiar with, Washington State has the following to say about it:

"Trapping and relocating a raccoon several miles away seems an appealing method of resolving a conflict because it is perceived as giving the “problem animal” a second chance in a new home. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is quite different. Raccoons typically try to return to their original territories, often getting hit by a car or killed by a predator in the process. If they remain in the new area, they may get into fights (oftentimes to the death) with resident raccoons for limited food, shelter, or nesting sites. Raccoons may also transmit diseases to rural populations that they have picked up from urban pets. Finally, if a place “in the wild” or an urban green space is perfect for raccoons, raccoons are probably already there. It isn’t fair to the animals already living there to release another competitor into their home range."

Coupled with the fact that coons live, sleep, den. forage, and defecate in lose colonies or groups, if your neighbor lady saw one large coon I expect that there are a couple of dozen raccoons in your area. In suburban areas they much prefer to den, sleep, and relive themselves in the attics of occupied homes instead of in windy, cold, dark, and dank hollow trees..

 

[123RedBeard]

I'm not sure what your plan is ... Shoot it with a Nerf gun??? Might make it run away for a minute ... But, trust me it (and it's friends) are much more adept at staying up all night?

If the shovel is to bury it, you still gotta catck/kill it first ... It will not let you get close enough to wack it over the head with the shovel ... Unless it has rabies!

If your ENTIRE coop is enclosed in hardware cloth, and it is secured with more than staples ... Go to bed!

 

[toomuch]

Just get a dog that doesn't kill chickens. He's basicly my chickens bodyguard.