Racoons

[Connie]

Had a racoon in my guinea pen about 6am today I heard a lot of noise comming from there pen and went running out bare foot gown still on and there he was I ran back to the house and got my husband out of bed he jumpes up put on my shoes grabs the gun with gun and flash light in hand we ran back to the pen and there he was my husband got one shot one wounded himwe went to the back side of the pen and there he was under the laying boxes I had in there for the hens I had in before them and Bye Bye racoon he was big about 15 to 20lbs he didnt get in my pen where I have 26 12 week old Redstar hen at I hope that fixed the problem Oh yea I am new to this site I have 12 Guines 12 weeks old 1 guinea 7 years old and 26 restar hens 12 weeks old Just wanted to tell some one about the racoon I heard when there is one there will be more is that true?

 

[pipermark]

Hi Connie , welcome, if you can get some live traps from the extension office or humane society in your area , I would put them out, bait it with eggs. Where there is one raccoon there is usually more, and they are devilishly clever when the want to get into something.

The nice thing about traps is that they work even when your not there.

 

[Connie]

Where I live I don't have any countie animal control I am way out in the country closes town 35 miles away But I am going to town today and buy some traps Thanks for the tip and what to bait it with I wasn't for sure what to use for bait Thank you again

 

[Poison Ivy]

You can use cat food, eggs, marshmallows etc..
I usually use cat food they seem to like it best so far. I had a whole family of raccoons trying to get into my pen one year. I ended up catching 9 of them so keep your traps set 24/7. Good Luck

 

[RASTACHICKI]

one less coon is always a good thing!!

 

[spook]

Personally I own my own trap, wouldn't have it any other way. Then I know what I have caught and can shoot it in the trap and bury it.
Again, for Racoons use Tuna fish. Take the top off a can, slip the whole thing right in, place a short fence around the trap a foot or 2 away, as coons can climb, skunks don't. If you get a skunk, throw a blanket over it so he cant see you and Lever 2000 gets skunk pee off your skin (trust me).
For trapping cats, Sardines work best. Its a smell that most have never had.
Skunks like Tuna, sardines, and what ever you toss in.
For wood chucks, watermellon and broccoli.
I learned these from a old trapper. I used to use his traps, he would take my critters away and I'd hatch him chicks in the spring.
Sad day when he passed away, but atleast he taught me how to trap critters!

The other thing is, if you continue to have coon problems, you can put electric fence up, 3 strands, one really low, next one 4 "above and the next 4" above that. Each night, place peanut butter on the fence and regardless to what animal comes near, they are drawn to the smell and zap!
Good luck and welcome to the BYC site, there are a lot of wicked cool people around here!

 

[rooster-red]

How did the coon get in the pen?

 

[mistylady]

Welcome to the board!

With coons you need to be very clever. If you get a Havahart trap then set it so the trigger bar that you push down to set it is towards the wall where the coon can't set it off. Thats what we did and the world is less one midsize bandit. We used tuna to bait it. It made for one very upset raccoon when he got caught. We showed the kids what a real raccoon looks like and showed them that they have big teeth and don't act like those cute things on the cartoons. Then we dispatched him after the kids went in the house. You can shoot through the wire mesh of the cage no problem. Good luck!

 

[Connie]

We had rain yesterday and the ground is very soft they tore through a area that had some older chicken wire around the coop and then dug under the plywood and was in the coop the coop does not have a floor it is durt floor with a roost in it and some laying boxes I thought they got in because I let the coop door open to the pen that has wire around the whole thing and the top is inclosed but afer it got light I found where they entered I also found a site that I realy didn't want I now am minus one Guinea it was had to see every thing when the coon got in it was dark but they also tryd the chicken pen but didn' get in the because there water and feeder was all toppled over glad they didnt get my chickens