Racoon attacks - again!

[MareeZoCool]

We have a coop that is scheduled for re-building, my friend & mentor has decided that this coop is totally unsafe." Your coop is more of an enclosed run. We need to build a secure house for your chickens."

Sunday morning at 4AM, a racoon climbed inside the chicken's hutch, and killed my cockerel, mortally wounded my 3YO Araucana hen, and stripped my roo of his tail. I'm angry - my hubby has refused to allow a quality secure coop to be built, thinking chicken wire & a quilt was fine. He now realizes he was wrong, and will allow my friend to donate the materials & her labor to the rebuilding of a secure chicken house.

Hubby can go away for the day while my friend & her hubby come & help ME build an acceptable chicken coop.

 

[Dar]

I feel for you... I lost a few to coons this weekend too... its war on coons

 

[WoodlandWoman]

I'm so sorry. It sounds like you have a really wonderful friend, with a really wonderful husband, to come do this for you. The memory of this awful time will eventually fade and you will be able to just enjoy your chickens again. It will be such a nice feeling, to know they are all tucked into their coop at night. Until then, is there anything you can do to try to keep your chickens safer? Can you borrow and set a trap?

 

[BlackBart]

What a good pair of friends!
Some people leave a radio on, tuned to a talk show, it seems to keep the Raccoons away but a secure coop is the best defense.
Let us know how it goes.

 

[montana_chicks]

Terrible, I feel for you.

My husband and I lost 5 hens to a raccoon... we finally caught the culprit and haven't had an issue since. We allow ours to roam the yard during the day and they put themselves in for the night. We've always locked them in every night, but the coon was able to make his way in the coop a couple times when my husband and I weren't able to lock the coop up by the early evening. (8-9pm) We also added a covered run and just keep them in for the day if we know we aren't going to be able to secure them up before it gets really dark out. I don't ever want to find another one of my ladies like that again...

 

[fancbrd4me02]

If a pen is easy for a predator to get into, it will happen. You are doing the right thing by building a secure run. It is your job to keep your chickens in a secure pen. If your pen isn't completed yet, put your chickens ina cardboard box indside your house or garage at night to keep them safe while you are fixing the pen.