What to do about the raccoons?

[Sydney65]

.22 is what DH uses. Great relief to my eardrums.

 

[Sams Backyard Flock]

I have my doubts on the carabiner. It is an easy, convienient spring loaded device that a raccoon would probably figure out. I personally use a chain link connector that has the threaded sleeve to close it.

Thank you. I completely agree and spoke to my hubby. We’re going to replace the spring loaded ones with a simple combo lock. Let’s see the racoons figure it out. So grateful for you looking at my pics and the advice.

 

[Buckeye Amy]

Way too much firepower and way too much noise. I'd rather the neighbors on the next 5 acres not hear the shot. You never know if one of the neighbors is the type that feeds the raccoons. The people who feed them don't understand how destructive raccoons can be.

An old .22 long rifle is all you need, especially if the raccoon is already in a trap.

And if you need to keep things real quiet, a .22 short is about as loud as a popping balloon.

 

[thomasj]

Way too much firepower and way too much noise. I'd rather the neighbors on the next 5 acres not hear the shot. You never know if one of the neighbors is the type that feeds the raccoons. The people who feed them don't understand how destructive raccoons can be.

An old .22 long rifle is all you need, especially if the raccoon is already in a trap.

I first went for my marlin .22 long riffle but found it to be missing (that was an excellent riffle) so, I grabbed the closest gun that was ready and that was my 9mm. It took 4 shots to kill the varmint but I actually had to empty the clip. At my age, I can't even point to my nose with my finger accurately. After this, I went into town to replace my 22 riffle with a Walmart cheapie. I put a cheap scope on it and sighted it in to about 15 yards.

As far as loud shooting in my neighborhood goes, my 40 acres is one of the smallest plots in my area and neighbors all around are always shooting at something, whether it is a target, varmints (2 or 4 legged), or hunting. Gunfire around me is a normal daily experience. Loud gunfire at my home is not a problem.

 

[Sams Backyard Flock]

To @Sams Backyard Flock , and in general; that chicken wire door is an easy access point for so many predators, and raccoons will tear it up in a short time. The 1" woven wire will be better, except for rats and smaller weasels, and of course the mice. Also, it's not attached well enough anywhere. Add 1"x 3" boards over all, screwed into that framing.
It's pretty good, but could be better.
Mary

Thank you so much for taking time to look at my pics and advise. I think adding the 1”x3” trim pieces with screws for reinforcement sounds like a great idea. The chicken wire door being inside the covered pin we thought was safe because inside. We’re only using it separate the youngins from the older chicks until they are ready to be integrated. And I didn’t know rats could get into 1x1 square? Mice ok. And we’re going to put metal flashing to cover the gaps is the gate. We still have finishing work to do. And extremely grateful for the input.

 

[Sams Backyard Flock]

It's not that simple. Raccoons are not truly nocturnal. They just operate at night, usually between the hours of 10PM and 3AM because that is usually when it's safe for them to come out. The raccoon family I have in contention, have been seen by me out in the middle of the day going for the guineas' food. If you find that your ranging birds are slowly dissapearing, one at a time in the daytime, it's probably a nearby raccoon grabbing lunch.

When you say just build a nice safe coop for them and lock them in at night, you have to defign what is actually a nice safe coop. This takes a lot of extra planning and time to build and very expensive to do it right.

There is almost no door latch that a man can open that a raccoon cannot also open. They are smart and dexterous. Placing the door latch too high for the raccoon to reach probably wont work either. Remember that raccoon that scaled that 23 story building to the roof? They can climb because of their claws and great strength and the fact that their paws can rotate 180 degrees when they want to turn in the middle of a climb. They climb high because they have no fear of falling like we do. They are like a squirrel when it comes to falling. They can flatten their body and raccoon coat like a parachute so that the rate of descension is minimal and they land pancaked. I am still waiting for the proof of safety for my coop because I sided it with plywood which if the raccoons get hungry enough, they have the power to rip it apart.

I’m learning lot from all of you the real dangers of Racoons.

 

[thomasj]

You can get these inexpensive doors from the box stores, or reclaimed....salvaged....habitat for humanity type places. It's a chicken house......it need not be fancy. At least not when you buy it. What you do to it once its hung is up to you.

???

 

[Sydney65]

We built ours like a sleigh, so nothing can crawl under it. The coop and run are above the sleigh runners, the floor and run is hard cloth. The coop is plywood with old steel siding on the outside from a pole barn he took down, and the door latch is 1/2 way up, out of reach from the ground.
So far, raccoons can climb up hard cloth but not chew through. They can get ontop of roof, but not get in. They could probably dig under sleigh runners if they want to bad enough, but be met by hard cloth with plywood on top of it on the inside. But at night the goonies are in the steel siding coop- and they can't climb up it,can't reach the backdoor latch or the windows. They can reach the run latch, it's a sliding bolt. But I can barely get it open-air have to lift up on the door to a precise height then fight to slide bolt. (Lol sometimes design flaws work out!).
There were many an arguments while it was being built bc he thought I was going overboard, but when you see 4 raccoons between you and your birds, it's good to see their attempts foiled

 

[thomasj]

...the floor and run is hard cloth...
...and the door latch is 1/2 way up, out of reach from the ground...
...and they can't climb up it,can't reach the backdoor latch or the windows

Sounds like a great build at minimal cost. A few questions though. When you say that the floor and run are hard cloth, are you saying that you put down welded 1/2" wire mesh on the floor and covered the ground within the chicken run with this wire mesh? This would keep the birds from scratching around looking for yummy bugs loaded with protein. They also like to take dirt baths and get the dust under their feathers. That helps them with those itchy mites and such.

After seeing the videos of raccoons climbing tall skyscrapers that looked like they had smooth concrete walls, I don't take it for granted that they can't scale anything that I can build. Just the other day, I found raccoon paw prints on the top edge of my pickup lid where they climbed up looking how to open it. Any latches on anything that can be opened should be the type that would lock a human out of opening just as a standard precaution.

 

[Folly's place]

I saw raccoons climbing up our T-111 siding a few years ago, no problem. Locks on everything out there!
Mary