racoons

You can set up "live traps". If you or a neighbor doesn't have one, maybe your local animal control or Fish and Game could help you. You then have to deal with what you catch. A mama can have 2-4 babies this time of year.
In my neck of the woods, they are "legal" all year. It's SSS here. My daughter was in Petco yesterday and saw a woman with 2 baby raccoons on her shoulders! She said they had a bad smell, musky. Some people do try to keep them for pets. :eek:
 
Yup, I had 2 that I raised as pets but they are a lot different than the ones that you would find in the wild. Mine were captive bred for generations. They were bred for raccoon coats!!!
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Bandit & Matahari (aka Madame Horrible-depending on her mood) These coons grow bigger than your average wild coon. 30-40lbs was common.

I had them to the point that they were no longer nocturnal and would sleep with me at night. One wrapped across my head, the other across my feet. (oh my wild misguided twenties!!)

They both recieved annual vaccinations for both cats and dogs. Raccoons are an in between animal (so are bears) their genis species doesn't fit into either canine or feline so shots were given for both =double the vet bill.

I'm much older and wiser now. I have seen a raccoon (not one of mine) gutt a blue tick hound with just one kick of it's hind legs. I've seen them hold a dog under water until it drowns. Whatever you do, never get between a mother coon and her babies. A momma bear would be proud to see what a momma coon would do to protect her young.
 
And even if a dog did catch a raccoon, it's skin is so loose, that it could twist around inside it and attack the dog. Rather scary...
I think in my side of the country that if I ever brought a coon into the store, I would be sent to the nearest asylum.
It was bad enough when I had the nerve to bring my chickens in.
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Some "lady" called the manager and complained.
Live trapping is good, but you can't remove the animal alive from your property.
Make sure that raccoons can't get in at the chicks. That means no chicken wire: hardware cloth and/or welded wire so they can't grab a chick or pull it through the wire. No overhanging trees so they can't climb in. The fencing material buried a foot down and out six inches so that they can't dig under. Have a good padlock on the doors so that that they can't open it and have a feast at your expense. Unfortunately, if you get rid of one predator, there's a possibility of getting another or a worse one.
 
Love the other posts!
By the way, SSS means: shoot, shovel, silence.
My DH trapped a mama in our live trap just the other day. A few days later the 3 babies came out of the tree they had been in, my teen son and I took care of the babies.
No way are those coons gonna be a threat to my chickens.
 
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Definitely a good reason for me to make sure my coop/run is predator-proof to the degree possible. I don't think I could "take care of" a family of Raccoons. I'm a city guy. I wouldn't think twice about killing someone who breaks in my home, but I think I would have nightmares over the raccoon babies.
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-Dave
 

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