Relocate or Retaliate?

[cajunlizz]

Quote:
I would never give a beating for an honest opinion. That is why I asked the question.

I have a very secure tall fence with an electric wire around the top and 2 feet of buried wire around the bottom. I close and lock the coop every night and generally believe in the live and let live theory. If you take out a major part of the ecosystem then things are out of balance. That said - I have completely replaced my chicken flock twice and any weekend away when I can't close the coop I lose them. The expense has changed my mind about raccoons. That & the 4 baby chicks I raised from an egg that were eaten.

I was just wondering what people out there do when they have this kind of problem.

I would find a way to totally make that COOP AND RUN predator proof , better than fighting a losing battle of trying to rid the coons and other predators .

My COOP AND RUN has a 2 ft. trench that DH hand dug himself in 95º temps and buried wire 1 ft. deep in the trench around the whole perimeter of the coop and run . OVERHEAD wire thru out so we dont have to worry aout predators .

So , this way the chickens have FULL access to entire area of coop and run . they go under the coop when its to hot and if its raining . THEY are NOT free ranged , BUT the run is 12x32 and hubby is AGAIN thinking of enlarging it again. I keep telling him , they hav e MORE than enough running , scratching and dusting room .. LOL I think this is his nice way of telling me , he is fixing to purchase more pullets . LOL

 

[panner123]

Quote:
Come now panner, you know a thing or two about trapping and relocating predators....to the local jail!

As I said in the post you refer to, it would have been very hard for me to not just fill in the hole had I found him.

Now the courts have to deal with him. And the people of the state he is being returned to might be feeding him chicken for a long time.

I have been trying to find out where he is being sent to, so I can give those near by the heads up. I would also like to hear what happens to him.

 

[Akane]

Our wildlife rehab neighbor has reassured me over and over again that they won't eat my chickens if they have an alternative food source.

The problem with this plan is unless there is something else killing them they animals now have a food source to multiply on. That means next year you'll have another set of babies from your current babies and then another set from all of the survivors. Which is usually quite high when they have a good food source and a safe spot to sleep. Eventually you are gonna spend more on catfood than it's worth or they will hit the limit of their catfood supply and still be hungry. Which puts your chickens next on their list. We had that problem at the stable. The coons made off with the barn cat food and multiplied. With food and shelter the offspring stayed in the area and multiplied. Eventually we had an army of destructive coons all over the property. Told someone they could hunt them one year and started feeding the cats where the coons couldn't get it. No sign of a coon in the past 5years. With no easy food source they don't stick around anymore.

This property is currently at the coon army stage. They rule the place and have torn all the screens off the porch. I'm planning to pull the 4 biggest and oldest ones (relocate if someone doesn't mind aquiring 4 huge coons on their property and kill if necessary) and eliminate a few of their living spots and food sources so the younger ones will hopefully move on before I put my chickens out there.​

 

[dixygirl]

That makes a lot of sense Akane. I just thought of something. He is a wildlife rehabilitator who tries to save the racoons etc..... Of course he would want you to feed them come to think of it!

 

[chickenfanatic]

thats a darn fact the more u feed them the more there will be i saw on tv this woman started feeding a few and a few years later she had over 50 in florida wowwwwwwww that would be bad

 

[40 acre flock]

luvmychicknkids you have :a good heart There needs to be people like you. "If they dont come out of the woods after mine I dont go in after them" but when they do its to bad I use the 3 Ss. Thats the only harmony I have with a coon. :|

 

[Beekissed]

Quote:
Got one, er, actually two! The brown one is wicked on coon ....

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Score: Coons- 0 My Dogs- 1
Stray Dogs-0 My Dogs- 2
Cat-0 My Rooster- Too many to count!

No more attempts by coon since last year.

 

[Kentucky]

Relocate or to Retaliate that was the question

Actually I to take a more proactive response.

1. Yes, I built a very, very secure and structurely strong coup and pen with a moat and electricified fence.(just kidding about the moat)

2. And yes, I too take a deep breath when a predator invades the area, as it steadies my aim.

MY WIFE'S CHICKENS DEPEND ON IT!

Kentucky

 

[EngieKisses]

We have a cheap radio set on a non stop talk station playing 24 hours a day. So far we have not had any problems with animals, and they are abundant here. However, they do not like to go near human voices are coming from. The radio is inside of my coop, where the chickens are asleep.

 

[ninjapoodles]

I'm considering starting to leave a dog out nights to patrol for raccoons, 'possum, and fox, our problem predators.

I'm sorry to say that I have very little sympathy for the raccoons, because they're not just after our chickens--they make our lives miserable this time of year when they're bringing out their new families. They climb all over our vehicles, scratching them up, they poop in our landscaping and in the bed of Alex's pickup, they get into and tear up everything, and they have even blown out a transformer and caused us to lose ALL power to our entire property before. They're just horribly, horribly destructive. And now that they're suspected of being an additional (to 'possum) vector for Equine Protozoal Myelitis, I just can't bear them coming into the yard. We saw a HUGE one meandering across our front drive just this evening.

We use Havahart traps, and used to trap and relocate to a remote wildlife management area (probably not legal to do, but we didn't know any better), but we don't do that any longer. We consulted with our state's Game & Fish Commission, and after evaluating the situation in our area, the Commission gave us a Depredation Permit for "furbearers," which of course includes raccoons and fox. We were instructed to dispatch them in any season (not just their legal hunting season), as the population of both animals is plenty strong.

It saddens me about the fox, but we do have a 6' chainlink fence around our property, so the fact that he comes into our place is not good. Squirrels are MORE than plentiful, and easy to catch--we even have shots of him catching suirrels on our gamecam. I'm actually hoping he just never comes back, because I'd rather not have to kill him.

I have a zero-tolerance policy for 'possum.