Well, a raccoon finally found my hens and took out a total of two out of 5 two nights in a row. One per night. The first hen to go was my barred rock. She was an odd hen in that she chose not to sleep with the others and roosted in a non secured enclosure separate from the rest of the flock.
My mistake was thinking that my coop (housing the other four) was secure from a raccoon who now knew were to get a meal, even if he had to work a bit for it. So, the next night (two nights ago), I rested relatively easy, but woke to the shock of my "secure" coop being compromised. I still don't know exactly how the raccoon got into the coop, but he did, and took one of the remaining four, leaving three.
I couldn't rest well after this, so I set a trap last night at caught the raccoon with some cat food. I was very relieved to catch him. I let him sit in that trap all day today and at the end of the day drove him miles away and dropped him off in the woods. I contemplated tethering the cage and tossing it in the river until it drowned, but I was reminded by a friend that the raccoon was just following his instincts.
I suppose this was a good experience for me, to learn not to take for granted the safety of these animals with predators about. I had to deal with two dead hens, which was somewhat of a powerful experience.
While I am grateful that I was lucky enough to nab the culprit, my flock getting reduced from 5 to 3 in two short nights has taught me to be more wary than I was before.
Dave
My mistake was thinking that my coop (housing the other four) was secure from a raccoon who now knew were to get a meal, even if he had to work a bit for it. So, the next night (two nights ago), I rested relatively easy, but woke to the shock of my "secure" coop being compromised. I still don't know exactly how the raccoon got into the coop, but he did, and took one of the remaining four, leaving three.
I couldn't rest well after this, so I set a trap last night at caught the raccoon with some cat food. I was very relieved to catch him. I let him sit in that trap all day today and at the end of the day drove him miles away and dropped him off in the woods. I contemplated tethering the cage and tossing it in the river until it drowned, but I was reminded by a friend that the raccoon was just following his instincts.
I suppose this was a good experience for me, to learn not to take for granted the safety of these animals with predators about. I had to deal with two dead hens, which was somewhat of a powerful experience.
While I am grateful that I was lucky enough to nab the culprit, my flock getting reduced from 5 to 3 in two short nights has taught me to be more wary than I was before.
Dave
