We went to dinner, and meanwhile a raccoon ate our chicken

[Animalfisherwoman]

Have you figured out where the weakness is in your coop? That seems like the place to start. I'm not sure why killing raccoons is the obvious next step. Better defenses would be much more effective, and less of a hassle, long term.

No signs it broached the coop. There just isn't a run. Enclosing that properly in this amount of space would take up half my backyard--and we've been taking more seriously remodeling plans, getting in a tiny house, etc. ever since the situation with the ILs. They're still in their 70s and require two full-time caregivers, so if we ever need that or even an overnight person, we would have the accommodations.

 

[topochico225]

So sorry to hear that. I once came home from church and found a beloved RIR pullet face down dead.

 

[HomesteaderWife]

Security of the animals is step one, make sure you predator proof well. There are many great suggestions here on how to go about that.

i have trapped raccoons with a trail of chicken feed into a live trap, or canned chicken or fish. A live trap is your best bet and can be reused if need be. As mentioned be prepared to dispatch. If you’re uncomfortable, talk to your state wildlife office and get a number for a licensed trapper. Unfortunately, removing one will not solve the issue of it happening again, so just make sure you take precautions to secure them.

Best wishes and sorry for your loss

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

TY. The other one has hung on so far and is drinking water but hasn't eaten anything yet. I'm worried about syringe feeding because of the beak issue but the drinking is good.

I put down a small dish of mealworms, another with cottage cheese and seed and mealworms, a dish of milk/yogurt with grapes (this is her favorite) chopped on top. She's interested, you can tell, but she hasn't eaten any yet.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

If you trap it either eliminate it or contact a wildlife rescue and they will come and get it. We are rural on a dead end road and have been the recipients of others relocations. Here it is illegal unless you get the property owners permission. No one ever contacted us. Not all relocations are bad but not good either. Some one left this at the end of our driveway. I found a home for it. I think whoever dropped it off was because they knew we had chickens.
View attachment 2674648

Aww...so cute, definitely more so than a raccoon. Bad that they dumped it on you though.

Trappers here can only catch and release. They usually do it at the nearest beach or park, which in my case is less than two miles away. So it'd still be coming into the neighborhood and probably could find its way back again.

So yes, the plan is to dispatch it ourselves.

 

[cmom]

So sorry for your loss. Here there are wildlife rescues. I don't know if they will trap but I caught an owl that had been killing some birds and the rescue came and got it and said they had release areas. Here it is illegal to release a catch unless you get the property owners permission where you plan to release it, but I think that rarely happens. Most people just catch and release. We are rural on a dead end road and have been the recipients of others catches. Every now and then I see a strange car stopped along the side of the road and some may be lost because some GPS's say our road goes through. The county a few years ago did put up a dead end sign but others may be releasing??? Personally I would trap and eliminate. Whenever I have eliminated a predator that has killed any of my birds, before long another will show up. I had covered all of my pens with good heavy duty netting but ran short so bought some crappy netting but I thought it would still deter aerial predators and it did except this owl that went right through it and killed some birds. I put a camera up and moved the birds to another coop and replaced that netting with another piece of the crappy netting because that is all I had at the time. I replace it with some good netting and the owl tried to go through it but got stuck. We managed to get it into a cage and the rescue came and got it. I usually eliminate as I mentioned any predator that kills by birds except birds of prey which are federally protected. Since this one was relocated I have seen other owls. Good luck...

 

[neo71665]

You gonna have to get traps a set them up. Marshmallows are the best bait for coons that doesn't attract skunks. Personally I use cat food or fresh fish out of my pond but I target all predator species. Do not dump your problem off on somebody else.

As for being pets I've owned both skunks and coons as pets. I favor coons but skunks make a better pet.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

Thanks for all your continued replying, everyone.

So, the coon came back. He dragged White Owl's poor carcass out of the trash can and now there are pieces of White Owl all over the backyard.

That was IT. Two hours later, the trap went out with tuna. We caught a young skunk in it, it sprayed the backyard while attempting to hit SO before he finally sprung the trap. We will be going marshmallows next.

No, animal-rights people, this animal isn't here because of human habitation destroying their primo forest habitat! There are actually more raccoon problems in the middle of SF than on Angel Island, an actual state park island, off the Marin County coast.

They used to have one, and they're the state of California, but PR wise it would have just upset these PC babies too much to try any elimination strategy.

So one day these coyotes just show up. There's no bridge, only a ferry, but they just said it was nature and the PC babies shut up. Their raccoon problem went away.

The PC babies don't even want them relocated (not that anyone would want them) because they might have baybees, they're just trying to live, and they were here first.

Yeah! Like RATS!

Whatever. This may be unpopular, but like I said before, the plan is elimination.

Our plan was to go with a pellet option. But then I hear stories about how they just don't go down, not even with repeated shots, and meanwhile the thing is screaming and caterwauling. This is not ideal when you live around lots of neighbors.

The even more unpopular option that people (especially from old-school ag culture) do is drown them. Cage goes into the garbage bin and water gets turned on. OK, I know what people are gonna say about this, but bite/scratch risks are minimized doing it this way.

I'm wondering if dry ice in the bin would do the trick and if so how much would be needed. This would be like a family size garbage bin.

After all, we are in a drought and I feel bad about wasting water.

 

[neo71665]

I use a pellet gun on trapped animals all the time. .117 point blank to the skull puts possums, coons, skunks (if brave enough), minks, otters, and beavers down with one shot.

 

[Animalfisherwoman]

I use a pellet gun on trapped animals all the time. .117 point blank to the skull puts possums, coons, skunks (if brave enough), minks, otters, and beavers down with one shot.

Thanks for this info. I mean, I have heard stuff like this:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...23ab6a-d759-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html

I've heard that you need like at least a real .22 for this, or if pellet a very exotic and rare one, whereas our plan was to just use one of the .177s that we have.