Ok,sorry for this long question.here it goes:We had three chickens.we live in a town in the suburbs where a lot of people raise a few chickens. We heard lots of stories of racoons killing and eating them but we ourselves never had any trouble. Our chickens loved to roost out side and get to roam the yard,eating weeds and insects. One day we forgot to bring them in at night. nothing happend so we got used to not bringing them in.Big mistake.A racoon got one. We have a small dog (cocker mix) one outdoor/indoor cat and two remanding chickens.what we need to know is: 1.Are our cat and dog in danger and if so how can we protect them? 2.Do racoons hunt during the day? 3.(more of a curiosity question) where do (racoons) they sleep during the day...or night? 4.Anything we can do to deture them from coming and eating our chickens? 5.do we need to stop giving our chickens free range of our (fenced) property and just keep them in their 6 ft. by 6 ft. yard? 6.how early do racoons come out at night? 7. We're probably going to put concrete around the chicken yard because when we first saw the racoon we put the chickens in the coop but he just dug right under it. 8.If we protect our chickens will he just keep on coming and trying to get in? 9.(optional) just name any experience you've had with 'coons. (by the way if you want to you can just answer the questions you know.) THANKYOU SOOOOOOOOO MUCH AND SOOOOOO SORRY IT WAS SOOOOOOOOOO LONG!!
1. Possibly. Bring all animals in at night and do not leave feed around. 2. Not usually, but that is not a given. They will hunt during the day if they are hungry, ill or feeding their young. 3. Wherever they have found a safe niche. 4. Safe nighttime housing and removing all feed from your runs/porches at night. 5. Free-ranging is the most dangerous thing you can do. If you free-range you need to expect some losses. That being said, chickens love free-ranging and it makes them healthy and strong. You need to decide if you are prepared to lose some occasionally to predation. I would never stop allowing my birds to free-range, but I now let them do it only a couple hours a day when I am available to supervise them. 6. They don't have a set schedule, but I start seeing them floating around at dusk/twilight where I am at. My neighbors see them at 10 pm sharp each night at their coop trying to get in. 7. That's ambitious. I have been using a 24" welded wire apron around my coops for the last 3 years and have had very good luck using it. Nothing has ever managed to get in as of yet. Of course I also have electrified netting surrounding the whole enclosure, so either way the chickens are safe from predation unless I let them run around loose. 8. The only way they will keep coming back is if they actually succeed at getting a chicken. If they find a way to catch someone then they keep coming back, but otherwise they will stop by occasionally to make sure everything is still secure and then move along. Since you recently had a loss, I would put the birds on lockdown for a few weeks until things settle down. 9. I live next to a wildlife corridor. I have predator stories coming out my ears. I knew when I got chickens that predation was going to be my biggest concern so I planned accordingly. My planning has paid off. My biggest losses have been the one predator I can't do anything about- hawks. Blasted Migratory Bird Act. Good luck and sorry about your loss.
