Racoons

[richardadent]

I live in Northwest Indiana, as a child growing up we always had at least 30 chickens , never had problems with Racoons.
This year a racoon tore the heads off two hens, didn't eat the hens? I put a trap outside and caught it the next night it actually chewed through the metal of the trap, when I went outside to check the trap he was very aggressive , I don't understand why in all these years never had racoons around now they are here? I reinforced the chicken run with 1/2" x 1/2" wire

 

[Matejka]

I live in Northwest Indiana, as a child growing up we always had at least 30 chickens , never had problems with Racoons.
This year a racoon tore the heads off two hens, didn't eat the hens? I put a trap outside and caught it the next night it actually chewed through the metal of the trap, when I went outside to check the trap he was very aggressive , I don't understand why in all these years never had racoons around now they are here? I reinforced the chicken run with 1/2" x 1/2" wire

Many reasons come to mind. Mainly human population encroaching on wildlife. I think the predators for raccoon (bobcat, coyote etc. ) are being pushed away from civilization, so the coon is flourishing . Also, very few hunters/trappers around to keep coon population in check. Ready supply of food for coons in populated areas.
Those come to mind . Just trap shoot dispose of they. A couple years ago, I caught and shot 14 coons in 17 days.

 

[Folly's place]

Agree!
Having a very safe coop and run is essential, and then free range during the day when it's safe. Chickens are totally vulnerable at night!
Any raccoons hanging around our buildings are trapped and shot, they can live away from our critters and ourselves.
Take in your feeders so there's no food left outside, which attracts many unwelcome critters, especially at night.
And raccoons come in family groups, so you have more than just that one. They also can carry rabies, leptospirosis, canine distemper, and usually a bad roundworm species that can affect, kill humans. And when you've lost chickens to them, the cuteness factor is just gone...
Mary

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I live in Northwest Indiana, as a child growing up we always had at least 30 chickens , never had problems with Racoons.
This year a racoon tore the heads off two hens, didn't eat the hens? I put a trap outside and caught it the next night it actually chewed through the metal of the trap, when I went outside to check the trap he was very aggressive , I don't understand why in all these years never had racoons around now they are here? I reinforced the chicken run with 1/2" x 1/2" wire

We had the same issue last year. Never had them out here, and suddenly we were losing birds. We think someone dumped a pregnant mama "out into the wild" and she had her babies on our property. We lost a large amount of birds the first year, mainly because we were out of state for a week of the chaos. This year we knew the signs far sooner and caught what we think was the mama of last year's catches after I found her third kill (first two were so spread out and presented other signs I thought they were just freak predator wins, especially since we never found the 1st carcass) and pawprints in the temporary ponds we had

Use the smallest wire you can, and make sure that any ground next to pens is too hard to dig under. One of the ones last year dug just enough to get a paw under the wall to grab chicks.

Look into the dogproof paw traps, that's what caught the two from last year. Use marshmallows to bait them

 

[BastyPutt]

Racoons are a perfect vessel for rabies. There is a chance overly aggressive (doesnt include a mama with a litter of Kits) raccoon has rabies.

 

[Pollo Blanco]

Agree! And when you've lost chickens to them, the cuteness factor is just gone...
Mary

Having a young raccoon jump your puppy 100% unprovoked will get the 'cutesy' veneer way gone in a big hurry!
Lucky that juvenile raccoon wasn't very skilled, and also lucky that my puppy was an 11mo Aussie, who thought that it was a big game.