What is stealing my scratch?

[#1California Chick]

Quote:
Don't count on the gun fire to scare off the raccoons!!! your DH needs to point the gun at the raccoons!

Good Luck!
Cindy

 

[Mahonri]

When I was a kid, I found that the working end of a shovel helped send a nasty raccoon to the other side.

 

[plfreitag]

We trap coons and possums (we've had them both make meals of our hens) and give them an underwater vacation. We have a nice pond with a dock and we just tie the trap to it and put it in the water. We also had a weasel get to one of the girls. My question is, why don't they just take the extra cockerels instead and save me having to cull them??

We have a cement floor in the coop, sliding doors to let the birds in and out (it was neglecting to close those doors for two nights last summer that cost me two of my favorite Ameraucanas), and a sliding door going from the roofed-over and screened-in outside area to the run. We found out that the weasel learned really fast how to get through the tiny hole in the top of the screening and he ate one of my nesting moms. Now the place is fortified so nothing larger than a titmouse can get in without us knowing, and I double-check at night to make sure everything is locked up.

The people doors are equipped with a hatch and padlock that is locked at night.

The feed is in 33-gallon Rubbermaid garbage cans with snapping lids. They haven't managed to get in there yet. The scratch grain is in the side shed and it is locked up at night. Once hubby plugged up the place the mice were coming in through a drain pipe in the side shed, nobody gets into our feed any more. Our oyster shell, DE and lime for the coop is in a wooden box that has thin steel paneling. There is another wooden box with hay in it, one for the bedding and one for the bird food, cat food and assorted other stuff, all stored in kitty litter buckets or jugs.

Fortunately we only have field mice here and not rats. However, I was appalled to find roaches in the coop - until I discovered that the chickens think of them not as a threat, but as a snack. Ew.....

....I detest cockroaches. They also like snails, I was intrigued to discover. And they will eat little frogs. I like frogs, so that's a tough one to see, but if the bird catches one, and chases it down, I figure she's earned it.

 

[gsim]

Quote:
He shot the wrong direction. They will return because they know where the treats are now. And they will work in pairs and even do so in daylight.