Racoon: Now I am MAD!!!!Need help!!!

[rancher hicks]

I had one get in, my fault. You must seal all entries to keep them out as best you can.
You must do all you can to protect your birds.
I'll risk embarrassing myself by telling that I use human urine around my yard and coop. Mens is best I suppose. Just fill up a spray bottle and give it a try. I can't say for sure if it works but I haven't noticed any trouble. Fact is I've been interested in having people give this a try and see the results. Spray trees and anything that is around your perimeter.
Skunks and other critters travel along fencing and up again buildings. Mark your trees and anything they might travel nearby. You do have to reapply it. I usually do this at night. You won't smell it but they can. This may sound crazy but my birds depend on me to keep them safe and I do what I can to not let them down.

Loveya rancher

 

[rhoda_bruce]

embarass......ppsssss!!!

I'm game to try it!!! How did you hear about it? It makes sense. Animals mark their territories and they have a keen sense of smell, so they might even know its human and might be afraid of it. It will be a while before I can test it out though. I have a good set up, but I plan on temporarily getting a few male ducks soon, if I can and I only plan on keeping them in a real quick set up, so I might need something to beef up security.

 

[CountryBoy72]

Noticed a few days ago that a coon was in my fenced in area of my chicken coop( there run area, when there not free ranging the property) He was stealing my chickens food. I wanted to get him before he got the idea of taking one of my girls. They're safe as long as they're in the coop and RCM(Royal Canadian Mint) is closed and locked for the nite. Left his little hand prints on my waterer. My wife noticed his evidence that he left behind and he was stealing all my chicken food from my hanging feeder. Went out an bought a Havahart Live Trap. Put out a can of sardines and a can of salmon. Came Back the next day an the trap was tripped, no coon inside. What the heck, was he to big for the trap and backed out once he had tripped it. Or had he tripped it from the outside, because i had thrown a piece of sardine right on the trip plate. He also knocked my feeder off the nail in the rafters that i had hung it from. Alright, off to a friends for a bigger trap and set both traps out the following nite. Took the feeder off the next nite as well and put it in the coop with the chickens. Low and behold, go out this morning and guess who's in my trap. Guess he wasn't to big for my trap after all LOL. Introduced him to a CCI Stinger(.22 LR Bullet) Fertilizer he just became.....Hopefully there aren't anymore of his kind around. Might set the trap out again tonight but, i want to be sure there is no more....don't want to attract them with the sardines either. If there are wolves, bears, or coyotes in the area when we are hunting and we have game hanging we will pee in a circle under and around our hanging game meat. Never lost any meat yet. The radio is probably a good idea too, never tried it....yet

.

 

[GBov]

Sorry to be a leeeeetle off topic, but how do you safely handle coon to cook it? Having read about the worms they can carry its a bit off putting but the thought of a free meal is tempting, to say the least

And on topic, I know now to build chicken knox BEFORE getting my birds so your loss has taught me a valuable lesson. Sorry for your loss

 

[fancbrd4me02]

I have racoons and many other predators; My solution:

1. Strong pen for nightime - This is the best solution, 100% effective if done right.
2. Racoon Live Trap - Conibear & Leg Traps can kill a lot of non-target animals. A lot of people's pets have been killed by them. Humane trap works just as well, and can remain set until a critter comes in, even in a yard with pets and children.
3. A tidy and clear yard, pruned trees near pens & fences, large open space around pens that provides no cover for animals to creep around in.

See, I'm a realist - I live in the country, and with it come's "country animals". I can kill one, but there will just be another that comes along later. I think that it's unrealistic to think that this problem can be solved by removing a predator. Nature abhors a vacuum, so another will show up. If you have to keep killing them, you're not outsmarting them or winning in any way. That's why I trust in exclusion as the best predator control. Don't fight nature, it's a waste of time. Just use some fab man-made products to keep nature away from your birds.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Well I don't know about worms. I know there is some talk about not killing rabbits in the summer time because of worms, but I don't know except for what I was told. I clean raccoons the same as a rabbit, except the skin is real tough and the tail is very long by comparison. The hands bother me a bit also, but I just get that part over with ASAP. To me they taste a lot like rabbit. I once read that rabbit was a rodent and it made sense to me because that would explain the similarity in taste.
I had been told I needed to remove a gland, located under the arms and in the groin area, but I wasn't sure what it was and I just removed this whitish tissue and asked if that was it and told,"yes."
Its not something I enjoy doing, but its available and free and beneficial to have taken out, so there.

 

[GBov]

Quote:
Rabbits arnt rodent, they are in a family all their own

Next time I can lay my hands on a live trap cheap enough I will be giving coon a try, free food isnt to be sneezed at!

 

[rancher hicks]

Quote:
I remembered a movie I saw called "cry wolf" I think. The guy drank alot of tea and ran around his camp area whizzing on everything to keep the wolves from coming to close. So I thought maybe it'll work for my chickens. If you have fence posts or wooden fencing I would just "mark" where ever and keep reapplying as needed. I suppose you could set up stumps from trees around the yard and mark those. The key is to keep animals as far away from you coop as possible. I figure you can't mark to many places.

 

[Cetawin]

I am sorry about your girls. I have not read all the previous posts so you may have answered this...is there a tree near the run? Those suckers will jump from a tree branch. I watched one jump from a tree onto my coop roof one night...that fat sucker jumped about 6 feet. He met the rifle but they are sneaky, determined critters. Use cat food, trap him and kill him.

Good luck.

 

[GBov]

Saying you caught your critter in a live trap and had no gun, what is the best way to kill it?