DyingPhoenix
Songster
I just want to share my on-going story with folks that will understand.
I'm in a war.
And as you can guess, it seems as if it's far from over! Let me start with some backstory: I bought my first house a year and a half ago. It was also in the country and butted up to the woods, always wanted chickens so I immediately set to building a coop and 'fort knoxed' it as well as the run. Started with 18 pullets and they grew into beautiful, tame pets. I work two jobs to make it on my own and one night I was exhausted from working both and forgot to close the door to the coop. Woke up at 3 am to screaming. 15 dead in one night to a mink. Shot the mink because it was still in the coop trying to kill the last 3. It squeezed into a tiny gap in the run that seemingly only a mouse could fit in. I was gutted over it. All my favorites were dead. I told myself I would keep my chickens SAFE, no matter what.
I put out game cams. The amount of raccoons I see on it is alarming to say the least, but my run is coon proof. They try to get in every single night without fail.
Fast forward. I got more chicks. 3 adults left plus 23 new ones. My new chicks are starting to free range when I'm home, as they are old enough. One day this spring, one adult disappeared. Then a pullet. Then another. This is in the middle of the day, with me home and in and out of the house doing yardwork. Then one day I walked inside to get a drink and happened to glance out the window and out by the compost pile I see a raccoon at noon in the wide open walking around. I shot it.
The next day I keep a closer eye. I see another one by the compost pile ( I had just dumped used shavings from an old coop in the pile ) at around 2pm. Shot it too. I ended up seeing them numerous times. Sometimes they'd even see me come out with the gun and they'd look, then resume digging or waddling around.
Now, the coons are dumping my potted plants, chewing my feed bins until the lids barely fit right and I'm finding their seedy, gross piles of poop all over, especially around the coop. I'm sure they're feeding their babies and desperate. But I'm fed up and I have a feeling that's what's taking my chickens at all times of the day.
Had no idea what I was gonna get into.
I caught a few in cage traps but game cams told me they were trap shy. If they couldn't reach in to take the bait, or roll the trap to eat the bait, they left it completely alone. I bought the dogproof traps and they worked great. So great, in fact, I've been catching them nonstop, every single night, for almost a month and a half! I don't even look out the window to check and see if anything's in the traps. Grabbing the gun when I go out to open the coop door is a normal routine now.
I lost count in the late 20's. I'm sure it's well into the 30's or possibly more. The bodies are piled so high in the back of my property in the woods, people are going to think I'm a serial killer hiding people! I think I'm becoming twisted, lol, as a big majority of the ones I catch are obviously feeding young, I just think-Good, less .22 rounds I have to use!
The only thing I can think of, is I have a close neighbor who's wife was a cat lover. She had about 20 feral cats they fed religiously. I saw at least 10 bowls of feed lined up on their porch. Well, she left him and he has cut off all the cat food. She took most of the cats away that they could catch. He is feeding one cat now, and she comes to me most of the time and eats here.
The coon feeding factory has closed it's doors and now all the rest of us are suffering.
My other neighbor down the road has lived here for 5 years with no top on his chicken run ( he has dogs ) and has had no losses. He lost all his laying hens this spring and has killed 8 raccoons last time I talked to him. He just sits in his yard in the evenings and shoots them with a shotgun.
This morning I had the usual coon. Second trap would have had me a double but there was dirt stuck in the trigger mechanism and the bait was gone so they got a free meal of marshmallows. I'll get that one tomorrow I'm sure.
Have any of you had to deal with pests of this scale before? Please share!
Also mind the mess in some of the pictures. The edge of the property butting up to the woods is still littered with the old owners trash and it's taken a long time to get it picked up but I'm still working on it. They basically had a junkyard.
The battle continues...
I'm in a war.
And as you can guess, it seems as if it's far from over! Let me start with some backstory: I bought my first house a year and a half ago. It was also in the country and butted up to the woods, always wanted chickens so I immediately set to building a coop and 'fort knoxed' it as well as the run. Started with 18 pullets and they grew into beautiful, tame pets. I work two jobs to make it on my own and one night I was exhausted from working both and forgot to close the door to the coop. Woke up at 3 am to screaming. 15 dead in one night to a mink. Shot the mink because it was still in the coop trying to kill the last 3. It squeezed into a tiny gap in the run that seemingly only a mouse could fit in. I was gutted over it. All my favorites were dead. I told myself I would keep my chickens SAFE, no matter what.
I put out game cams. The amount of raccoons I see on it is alarming to say the least, but my run is coon proof. They try to get in every single night without fail.
Fast forward. I got more chicks. 3 adults left plus 23 new ones. My new chicks are starting to free range when I'm home, as they are old enough. One day this spring, one adult disappeared. Then a pullet. Then another. This is in the middle of the day, with me home and in and out of the house doing yardwork. Then one day I walked inside to get a drink and happened to glance out the window and out by the compost pile I see a raccoon at noon in the wide open walking around. I shot it.
The next day I keep a closer eye. I see another one by the compost pile ( I had just dumped used shavings from an old coop in the pile ) at around 2pm. Shot it too. I ended up seeing them numerous times. Sometimes they'd even see me come out with the gun and they'd look, then resume digging or waddling around.
Now, the coons are dumping my potted plants, chewing my feed bins until the lids barely fit right and I'm finding their seedy, gross piles of poop all over, especially around the coop. I'm sure they're feeding their babies and desperate. But I'm fed up and I have a feeling that's what's taking my chickens at all times of the day.
Had no idea what I was gonna get into.
I caught a few in cage traps but game cams told me they were trap shy. If they couldn't reach in to take the bait, or roll the trap to eat the bait, they left it completely alone. I bought the dogproof traps and they worked great. So great, in fact, I've been catching them nonstop, every single night, for almost a month and a half! I don't even look out the window to check and see if anything's in the traps. Grabbing the gun when I go out to open the coop door is a normal routine now.
I lost count in the late 20's. I'm sure it's well into the 30's or possibly more. The bodies are piled so high in the back of my property in the woods, people are going to think I'm a serial killer hiding people! I think I'm becoming twisted, lol, as a big majority of the ones I catch are obviously feeding young, I just think-Good, less .22 rounds I have to use!
The only thing I can think of, is I have a close neighbor who's wife was a cat lover. She had about 20 feral cats they fed religiously. I saw at least 10 bowls of feed lined up on their porch. Well, she left him and he has cut off all the cat food. She took most of the cats away that they could catch. He is feeding one cat now, and she comes to me most of the time and eats here.
The coon feeding factory has closed it's doors and now all the rest of us are suffering.
My other neighbor down the road has lived here for 5 years with no top on his chicken run ( he has dogs ) and has had no losses. He lost all his laying hens this spring and has killed 8 raccoons last time I talked to him. He just sits in his yard in the evenings and shoots them with a shotgun.
This morning I had the usual coon. Second trap would have had me a double but there was dirt stuck in the trigger mechanism and the bait was gone so they got a free meal of marshmallows. I'll get that one tomorrow I'm sure.
Have any of you had to deal with pests of this scale before? Please share!
Also mind the mess in some of the pictures. The edge of the property butting up to the woods is still littered with the old owners trash and it's taken a long time to get it picked up but I'm still working on it. They basically had a junkyard.
The battle continues...
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