Raccoons and raccoon disposal?

[centrarchid]

You might be able to adjust the 2 lower wires to be 4 and 8 inches above the ground. Some foxes might go through your current gap. My dogs would if motivated.

 

[Henry&Friends]

I was after a fox that killed a special bird. I caught it. The live trap on the left is like yours. The one on the right is for coyotes, it's 5' deep. We had a lot of coyotes but a neighbor let some fellows hunt them on his property and I haven't seen as many since.
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My neighbor up the road warned us about a coyote he spotted in the woods around 2 months ago, but i never saw or heard any signs of it. People hunt in the woods in our backyard, so hopefully it'll stay scared to head down this way... I had the chickens in a coop my mom had built in the woods about three years ago, when we'd first gotten them. A mink/weasel killed all of them in one night, and I've had stray dogs kill 7+ at a time, and I've known for years that the raccoons would leave our garbage alone one night and go for the chickens. They're also getting in our mud room... Frankly, I'm upset I havent been allowed to do something years, months, even a few days earlier... Now theyre messing with my food, money, but most infuriatingly, my chickens, so they crossed the line

 

[Henry&Friends]

You might be able to adjust the 2 lower wires to be 4 and 8 inches above the ground. Some foxes might go through your current gap. My dogs would if motivated.

I intend to buy new posts sometime soon, so I'll keep that in mind. I might even run another strand, since i dont think ive covered 10 miles with only 3.

 

[Howard E]

What condition is that shed left in at night? As in doors open or closed?

Reading OP's first postings, and hearing of coons getting into feed and also to birds, sounded like a wide open opportunity for the coons to operate. That should not be allowed to happen. So how are coons gaining access to interior to get at the birds?

For now, I'd focus on stopping the carnage by limiting physical access to the birds. Greater chance of saving them that way vs. a cage trap. A cage trap can be effective over time, but you have no clean method of dispatch, and can only catch them one at a time if you did. It won't help you today.

Also consider moving electric fence to surround / block access of varmints to your coop.....short term. Do that today.

 

[Henry&Friends]

What condition is that shed left in at night? As in doors open or closed?

Reading OP's first postings, and hearing of coons getting into feed and also to birds, sounded like a wide open opportunity for the coons to operate. That should not be allowed to happen. So how are coons gaining access to interior to get at the birds?

For now, I'd focus on stopping the carnage by limiting physical access to the birds. Greater chance of saving them that way vs. a cage trap. A cage trap can be effective over time, but you have no clean method of dispatch, and can only catch them one at a time if you did. It won't help you today.

Also consider moving electric fence to surround / block access of varmints to your coop.....short term. Do that today.

Coop door is closed with a stick in the door hole at the base... Tonight I start using the actual lock on the door too I belive theyre getting into the gap between the hardwire cloth under my coop (the pieces are screwed on but one is vertical, theres about a 1/2 foot gap on one side) I attached photos in an earlier comment.my feed was outside in a closed bin, but is now in my mudroom in the closed bin... I think they dug into my mudroom, ive had animals do that before.

 

[centrarchid]

What kind of trouble would it be to make so entrance of shed electrified?

 

[Henry&Friends]

What kind of trouble would it be to make so entrance of shed electrified?

The shed is sheetmetal, so id be afraid of hotwiring the whole thing by accident... I think I'd feel guilty about that forever

 

[centrarchid]

 

[Henry&Friends]

Just talked again to my mom about this, and she doesn't want me to dispatch the coon, because it might have babies that'll starve. She asked if I was okay with that, and I honestly think thats killing, like, 5 birds with one stone. Of course, I didn't tell her that, that would be rude. So tonight I will set the trap, and see if I even catch anything, what it is, etc. She believes the hens killed the chicks, but they haven't paid any attention to them since I got them, so I doubt they'd routinely kill a chick a night. We will see what happens, i guess

 

[cmom]

Can you use a piece of wood or some metal, something to put over the gap. cut something to fit over it and screw it to the shed. I dug trenches a foot deep around some of the coops and put some hardware cloth in the trenches and attached the wire to the bottom of the coops. Nothing can dig under it. I'm not sure that is something you can do?