Truth About Raccoons & Chicken Wire? Please add your experience

[frogjake]

After loosing one of my ladies in a night time insurgent attack, I got a stronger wire stacked rock all around the base inside and out also covered pen with wire to stop hawks. I put out live traps baited with hunnybuns and caught 9 racoons. I keep the trap baited and have had no more racoons in the wire. I also had a problem with neighbors beagles trying to dig under the fence the rocks cured them of that. I am as we speak in the process of putting a solar powered electric fence around the perimeter of the chicken coop/yard. A local guy who is alot older than me has helped alot with suggestions about the chickens. He was the one who told me about the hunnybun bait. Hope some of these things help someone.
P.S. racoons will travel up to 20 miles to get back to where they were trapped. so unless you want to spend alot of $ on gas just "terminate" them and turn em into fertilizer.

 

[halo]

What do you mean by you put out live traps?

 

[frogjake]

Traps that capture the critter in question still alive. It stays in the cage/ trap until you decide to transport it far away or kill it humanely.

 

[rikithemonk]

From what I read it is preferable to kill the animal because releasing it only makes it more of a problem for other people because the animal now knows t avoid traps. Personally I would never shoot or drown a caged animal. If I ever find myself in that situation I would most likely either call animal control or create a box based on the suicide machine concept. Helium tank hose and a plastic bin. It would just go to sleep nice and peaceful to chase chickens in the next world.

To be honest, I'm very surprised that no one suggested giving the raccoon to animal control. Any reason not to do that?

Riki

 

[A.T. Hagan]

It depends on the gauge of the wire and whether it has begun to rust. Modern chicken wire is mostly of a thinner gauge than the stuff that my grandfather used which is still in place at the farm. I have personally had coons tear a hole through modern chicken wire. The stuff my grandfather used nothing ever managed to rip a hole in except where it had rusted.

For that matter half-inch hardware cloth isn't all the same gauge either. The stuff I get at my local farm supply is of a heavier weight than what my local Lowes carries.

 

[silkiechicken]

The OP started this thread in 2008.

From what I read it is preferable to kill the animal because releasing it only makes it more of a problem for other people because the animal now knows t avoid traps. Personally I would never shoot or drown a caged animal. If I ever find myself in that situation I would most likely either call animal control or create a box based on the suicide machine concept. Helium tank hose and a plastic bin. It would just go to sleep nice and peaceful to chase chickens in the next world.

To be honest, I'm very surprised that no one suggested giving the raccoon to animal control. Any reason not to do that?

Riki

A single shot into the ear is the fastest death I can think of. They fall over dead. Drowning induces panic. Gassing animals usually has them jumping about and gasping for air even if you can't see it. I have option to gas or cervical dislocate mice. I break their necks. A cage of mice jumping around suffocating in approved humane CO2 chambers is much more traumatic to them. Hoewever, no matter the method, learn to do it right out of respect for the animal.

Reasons not to give it to animal control:

1. Why get someone else involved?
2. Cheaper for me to do it vs through third party tax dollars. I dispatch with high powered air rifle that shoots pellets. One shot and done, in the middle of the city. A pop which is near silent and does not require ear protection like a firearm.
3. Faster if I do it... no holding it for hours or even days for someone else to come. The animal is much much less stressed the sooner it is done with, plus no need to transport it. Those things can do damage to anything within arms reach of that trap and the longer it is trapped, the more stressed it will be. If it's going to be dispatched, which these pests all are, why make that task stressful on the animal.

Not wanting to kill yourself or not having the proper tools to do so are the only two reasons I can think of at the moment for why you'd call anyone else to get the job done.

 

[rikithemonk]

The OP started this thread in 2008.

A single shot into the ear is the fastest death I can think of. They fall over dead. Drowning induces panic. Gassing animals usually has them jumping about and gasping for air even if you can't see it. I have option to gas or cervical dislocate mice. I break their necks. A cage of mice jumping around suffocating in approved humane CO2 chambers is much more traumatic to them. Hoewever, no matter the method, learn to do it right out of respect for the animal.

Reasons not to give it to animal control:

1. Why get someone else involved?
2. Cheaper for me to do it vs through third party tax dollars. I dispatch with high powered air rifle that shoots pellets. One shot and done, in the middle of the city. A pop which is near silent and does not require ear protection like a firearm.
3. Faster if I do it... no holding it for hours or even days for someone else to come. The animal is much much less stressed the sooner it is done with, plus no need to transport it. Those things can do damage to anything within arms reach of that trap and the longer it is trapped, the more stressed it will be. If it's going to be dispatched, which these pests all are, why make that task stressful on the animal.

Not wanting to kill yourself or not having the proper tools to do so are the only two reasons I can think of at the moment for why you'd call anyone else to get the job done.

C02 is a completely different animal to helium. A suicide machine is a device that was created by the right to die movement. It is a way for people with a terminal ailment to commit suicide painlessly and peacefully. Helium is among a small group of gasses that do not trigger a suffocation feeling. You simply black out then quietly die. I recommend modifying your gas chamber to work on helium. You will see the mice just black out. No jumping, no panic. I plan on using this concept if I ever have to euthanize a critically injured chicken.

Riki

 

[silkiechicken]

Wasn't aware of the use of helium to dispatch small animals. However, I don't have the power to change our animal care and use protocols and so I stick with cervical dislocation. The animals don't know what happened and go straight to incineration. I actually break necks on all the smaller meat animals too since it's fast and easy to do.

 

[destinduck]

I know this post is older than dirt .But what really amazed me was how only one or two people actually posted what the OP reallywanted to know. That was first hand experience of a racoon getting in thru the wire! Not puliing thru, not digging, not rusty old chicken wire.

I have 1 inch chicken wire around all my pens buried 1foot down and one foot out (this was before I had an electric fence and traps BTW) I never had a coon get in thru chicken wire and they were and still are always around.I live near a swamp. Could they have? Yes but they have to be almost to starvation I believe. We kept pet coons when I was littlle in a chicken wire cage! So my opinion is you would be fine with 1inch chicken wire 95% of the time. Racoons look for the easiest way in. They will find a weak spot like rusted wire like A.T. said. I agree with much of what he said. They can chew thru wood to get in if hungry enough! With the heavy gauge wire( Alot more money) or electric fence you can hit the 100% safety mark. So do I think you would have been safe back then or even now for other people with 1inch chicken wire??? Yes.Yes and I still do.

Kings call must have had some in starvation mode.

 

[debegonia]

I live in Concord, CA in an older section of town where backyard chicken keepers are fairly common. I've had laying hens here for 14 years with only a couple minimal problems with raccoons..... Until now.
Night before last my little golden pheasant hen was roosting about three feet off the ground - up next to the side of her wire coop. I distinctly thought to myself that she was not in a safe spot as I removed their food from the night's rat brigade. Yesterday morning all I could find of my beautiful little girl was a couple small pieces of bone, a lot of blood, and feathers.
The chicken wire that the pen is made of is 1" gauge and there are no significant holes in it or any where in or under the pen. The rotten !@#$%#@@##$@@???s had extruded her, in pieces, right through the wire!!!! There are some definite stretched areas and lots of evidence of a substantial struggle; overturned potted plants and garden decorations, scraped up dirt, etc.
Those little suckers are savages and I am sickened, disgusted and heart broken...
Raccoons most certainly can slaughter birds through chicken wire.
I only hope they don't come after any more of our birds!!!