Something got my roo! I am just amazed. UPDATE-I GOT IT!! PG 9-GRAPHIC

[Mrs. Glassman]

Quote:
I was wondering if that was the case.

What makes for a good raccoon bait? (other than my roos!)

 

[citrusdreams]

Wet cat food makes good raccoon bait. Good luck!

 

[Mrs. Glassman]

It struck again. This time it got 3 OEGB breeder hens in another pen. Now I am REALLY TICKED.

It ate the head off of two of them through the wire.

One of the three was almost completely consumed. Only a portion of the back & wings left.

The trap was sprung, but it looked like only the belly of the offender brushed it & set it off because it had long white hairs stuck inside.

DH is on the way to the hunting club to meet up with one of his friends. His friend is an avid predator hunter...so he's going to see if his friend will let us use some of his traps too. A neighbor down the road is a coon hunter & has several traps...we are going to hit him up too.

I'm pretty positive this is a raccoon now. I know they are in the area because DH & I hunt deer on the back of our property & our trail cam has caught many pics of the evil little beasts.

By nightfall, my chicken area will look like Trap City.

After I spend the day placing another layer of hardware cloth on my pens, I may take a nap & sit outside all night with a gun.

Oh, It's on & poppin' now.

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

OH MY - I am so sorry. Were the bodies of the OEGB's inside or outside the pen?

I had a similar experience last year. Something got one of my banty hens through the chain link dog pen (with a top). We found the headless body in the vegetable garden and no idea how it got through the fence.

I sure hope you catch the culprit and FAST!

 

[Mrs. Glassman]

They were inside the pen. Everybody stays inside all the time.

 

[dixygirl]

I am so sorry.

Is the pen such that it is just tipped over or lifted to get in? Does it have a bottom or posts anchoring it in the ground ?
Maybe you can beef it up some before putting anything else in it. Looks sort of like the live traps that predators can just flip right over. I would feel like my chickens were bait or sitting ducks if I left them in the center of the yard over night in something like that. IMO that cage would be more appropriate to use when you have to bring a bird inside the house overnight where it is safe. Much too flemsy for housing chickens outside overnight.

Why don't you check on craig's list and see if anyone is giving away a big dog house and then get a roll of welded wire fencing to put around the dog house. Then get a bird net to put over that as a roof. If you do that you wont have losses unless they get out.

Good luck!

 

[LilRalphieRoosmama]

Mrs. Glassman :

They were inside the pen. Everybody stays inside all the time.

OK so the culprit grabbed them, pulled the heads through, bit those off and left the bodies inside the pen? If so, then I'd have to guess raccoon because they are probably the only animal with the hand dexterity to do that.​

 

[AHappychick]

def. a coon, and now that it knows it can reach into your pens it will go around eating and killing at will. It took several months for the coons to figure this out at my place but once they did they struck everynight.

the minimum to do is cover all with harware clothe 1/2 inch. secure it well and make sure pens cant be tipped over in a rage once they can no longer reach in and dine for free.

Sorry.

 

[Mrs. Glassman]

I just got back from the hardware store...I've got a ton of hardware cloth with holes so small, I can't even stick my finger through it. I know it won't stop them, but maybe it will slow them down until I can catch them.

What is worrying me, is that when we were getting the pics of them on the game cam on our property behind our house, sometimes there would be as many as 9 in one pic.

This is one of the few pics I could find...we delete most of them after seeing them. I think the problem might be DH has stopped putting corn in the deer feeder. They are monster big.

The neighbor down the road is a coon hunter with dogs. IF I don't dispatch these evil beasts with glee & malice myself, I may donate them to him to run to death, training his dogs.

 

[AHappychick]

oh good idea. for a long time I have been convinced that even though the males are solitary creatures that they still like to hunt in packs. Although I only ever caught one I think they work in teams one scaring the chooks while the others waits and reaches in when they spook and run about.