Small coon in coop tonight, r they dangerous?

[Crippledturkey]

The chickens were making a rukkous tonight and I went out to the coop and covered run and noticed 3 hens out in the run with a few of the turkeys. Went in to the coup to do a head count and heard some movement in the rafters, and spotted a raccoon, it was a small one and I cracked him in the head with a mag light and he showed me where he got in. Cannot fix it tonight, but do raccoons kill chickens? The coop is totally secure except for that one little hole about the size of a child's shoe box in the rafters, meant to mesh it in for ventilation but other projects got in the way and we forgot. Is he traumatized for the night or will he be back?
Thanks in advance for all replies.

 

[GA_in_GA]

From everything I've read here, coons will eat your chickens! Block that hole tonight!

 

[thekid]

Yes Coons Kill!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[CapricornFarm]

Is water wet? Just read a few of the posts , people lose chickens to coons every night!

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

closely related to the bear and love chicken, and some really bad news, they leave a scent trail everywhere they go, so they, and other coons follow where they've been. Tomorrow you will have more coons.
That little coon prob has a mama near by too

 

[Chinchilla2]

He might come back. I would stuff what ever you can find in the hole for now, perhaps tack a piece of wire over it for the night and keep an ear tuned to the alert call.

Racoons think chicken tastes just like chicken and will make repeat trips until they get full of chicken, get full of lead, or you close the diner.

 

[Crippledturkey]

went and put a board with a couple of nails over it, will secure it more tomorrow night. I know reading back helps but was kinda weirded out and asking a question gets a reply faster than searching posts, so I thank you so much for your 1 thousandth time replying about coons. I knew they love eggs and now that my mind is calmer I do remember reading a post about them pulling a chicken through chickenwire piece by piece. Again thank you.

 

[Mag16]

I lost 7 hens to raccoons since this summer. I sealed up the holes and I haven't lost any more hens so far.

I thought I had 1 or 2 so I bought a game camera. Turns out I have 4 of the sneaky rascals. I have tried trapping them for a month with no luck. I even put a cinder block on top of the trap and the bait under the trap. They tripped it, moved the cinder block (i have it on camera or I would not have believed it) and left fat and happy.

These were taken 3 days ago

Checking out cinder block

Cinder block gone

Flipping trap for the peanut butter

Close-up

 

[desertdarlene]

Glad your chickens were OK. Coons can actually kill fairly large birds, too. They are a number one predator of poultry.

 

[chickmashnoon]

Naw, they don't kill them, they just eat them while they are alive

Plug that hole as soon and as well as you can!

Coons are agile, crafty, and have a good memory. I can gurantee he will be back and you are sooooooo lucky he didn't do any damage yet when you found him.