Raccoon trap not working!!!!!!

[redchickenguy]

a raccoon has been eating our chickens and my trap isn't working. i put the trap where i think the raccoon is getting in and baited it with a dead chicken (it wasn't eaten at all we dont know why) but this morning the raccoon got another one. so far it has eaten half of our flock (4 chickens) i am going to take the dead chicken out and bait the trap with marshmallows. if you have any other sugestions for bait please tell.



thank you to whoever posts, redchickenguy

 

[dirtydozen]

Try sardines, can of tuna, canned cat food. Ive killed two coons in the last two weeks. One was in the shed where we keep the cat feeder stocked. My son killed a coon this morning that has been killing my chcikens, 5 this week. Coons not eating the chickens just killing and mutilating them. What kind of trap are you using? I have a live trap and just ordered two of the Dukes dog proof coon traps and they should be in this week.

good luck

 

[misslys15]

Can you post a picture of your coop? It might be easier to see where you think the raccoon is getting in or to spot any weak-looking areas.

If it is digging to get in, I would bury wire fencing into the ground or bend it into an L-shape so it is flat on the ground and then bends up. That's how we have our run set up (with the L-shaped fencing), and we've had foxes, skunks, coyotes, dogs, etc. around our yard and no casualties so far. You can try using coyote pee around your coop like this:

http://www.mypetchicken.com/catalog...e-Repels-Rats-Raccoons-Skunks-More-p1356.aspx

I have never had to use it so I can't personally speak to its effectiveness, but I have heard it keeps predators at bay. They also have pee pellets to sprinkle over your lawn if you don't want actual coyote pee in your yard. We have had problems with groundhogs in the past, so we've set up traps, but we've only ever caught groundhogs and skunks (but we have plenty of raccoons in the area), so maybe raccoons are just harder to catch? Also, if I were a raccoon, I'm not sure I'd go for the dead chicken rather than a fresh live one in the same area. Other baits I have heard of are fish, vegetables, watermelon, cooked meat, bacon, and marshmallows if you want to try any of those. You can also try those LED lights made to look like a predator's eyes in the dark or one of those devices that makes a noise that's too high-pitched for humans to hear, but it keeps pests away. I haven't had much luck with the high-pitched noises with groundhogs, but it may work for raccoons.

That's all the suggestions I can think of without seeing your coop. Hope this helps! So sorry about your chickens; I would be devastated!

 

[redchickenguy]

our coop is a OLD chicken coop and it's quit rotted out so i dont think we can keep them out so we just have to keep trapping them. we will build a new coop when we get our tree house done as it is taking up most of the budget for that sort of thing. but i do know where it is getting in and out because of feathers from the chickens it killed. i also learned that my trap DOESN'T work! so i will probably go to cabelas later and get a new one of higher quality.

 

[redchickenguy]

i caught the coon with a duke dogproof trap it didn't go for marshmallows it didn't go for cat food or peanut butter but the thing that worked was... pork it worked for the last on too and the trap is the best trap iv ever used.

 

[gander007]

I use Bacon myself and found it to work very well ...

 

[EeyoreD]

Try sardines, can of tuna, canned cat food. Ive killed two coons in the last two weeks. One was in the shed where we keep the cat feeder stocked. My son killed a coon this morning that has been killing my chcikens, 5 this week. Coons not eating the chickens just killing and mutilating them. What kind of trap are you using? I have a live trap and just ordered two of the Dukes dog proof coon traps and they should be in this week.

good luck

I second, third and fourth using sardines. Now there is one drawback to them - they're so stinky they're going to draw in coons from EVERYWHERE. The upside is that if you have several traps, you can clean out your area for a year or two.

I also recommend the Duke dog-proof. A couple of years ago I got 4 of them, chained them to trees or corkscrew dog tie outs, stuffed them with sardines (making sure to put the bait below the interior "handle") and got 24 coons in one spring. Last year? None. Well one wormy one late winter that was lurching around the yard in the daytime.

I have other problems this year but the combination of the dog-proofs and sardines was a recipe for massive predator clear-out.

 

[EeyoreD]

Oops, double post. Nothing to see here.