tragedy

[hayley3]

It's heartbreaking, so sorry.
When my chickens were killed it took me months to get over it, mainly because I felt I had let them down.
I think electric is the way to go to give them something that bites back. Raccoons are so persistent and if you get a family of them, they will find the weak spot if you have one. I have a camera and they were crawling all over the hardware cloth. I also remember reading, you need 1/2 inch HC because a raccoon has a hard time gripping it vs a wider hole.

I had a raccoon peel off the metal outer layer from my garage door to get inside to get to the chicken food. They are formidable predators.

 

[BackyardJulz]

Losing a bunch of babies is hard, and really makes me hate the intruders. I know they are opportunistic, but I’ve had raccoons tear out metal soffit to get in my barn, tear HC off a roof peak, shred mesh, dig under and thru, rattle latches... all of the above, and they (along w opossums and hawks) have killed a lot of my chickens. So, it’s war at my place, both mental and with arms.

Bait the trap w cat food, corn, chicken feed, and have varmint load ready in your .22 the next morning. I use QuikShok as it splits into pieces on impact, not travelling out of the target body. Effective for removal, but shooting is not going to keep other critters from trying the same thing.

Hot wire is really popular around coops in Alaska, roofs, doors, edges, etc. so I thinking that’s my next line of defense. Wire it up like Fort Knox.