Raccoons Questions

[Dogfish]

They travel in packs at times. I shot 5 one evening after I treed them.

They are strong, climb well, are intelligent, and can minipluate just about any type of lock.

They will eat your birds, young or old.

Trap and kill. repeat as necessary. Ad a small electric fence charger if you don't have one. They will be back.

 

[7L Farm]

Yes they usually travel in a pack. Set your trap with sardines & load your gun.If you free range might wanna close the trap off during free range so you don't catch your chickens. Good Trapping to you.

 

[enggass]

Last question... I usually let my birds free range around the yard in the afternoon/evening. Around 5:00pm until they go back into the coop.(dusk) What time raccoons typically begin their day?(night)
I guess what i am asking is if I can continue to do this as long as I lock them in the coop once they have gone to bed, or will there be some time there where they will be in danger?

 

[pepperlady]

Okay, so I am new to chickens, but not Racoons! We've been trapping them for years here on our farm. Sardines work pretty well, but sometimes you will catch cats instead of coons. In all of our years of trapping, our preferred bait........wait for it..........Honey Buns. Laugh all you want, quarter a honey bun and set 4 traps. You will catch AT LEAST 4 racoons. We have caught 2 at a time using them before

For some reason they CANNOT leave a honey bun alone.

Good luck! (I wouldn't reccomend relocating.........they will probably just beat you back home)

Happy Hunting!

 

[noitulover]

1. Once raccoons know about your chickens, will they be relentless and continue coming back and back and back...?
A: YES!

2. Do they eat chickens?
A: YES!

3. Had this raccoon gotten in what would have happened? Would it have killed al 5 of my full grown hens?
A: Maybe not all five in one night, but possibly YES!

You need to kill them to get rid of them. In my experience with raccoons, they only come at dusk/night. I know we have raccoons around here, but our predator proof coop stops them. We've got 1/4" hardware cloth covering the run and any/all opening on the coop. The 1/4" hardware cloth is also buried underground and surrounded by rocks on either side of it to keep them from digging under. Our coop doors have heavy wooden sliding locks.

 

[enggass]

I had my first visitors this am around 5:00... They will be toast!

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
this time of the year they do it will be like 2-8 in the group I set 8-12 traps to start it is better to get them all in 1-2 nights then pull the traps for a week or so and set them again