Raccoon invasion

MontyJ

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Early last week Dew called me to the chicken coop. Both in the run and around the coop were signs of digging. At first I thought skunk, because of the way the grass was rolled back. So, I set the box trap alongside the run and baited it with apples. I went to bed wondering just how I was going to dispatch a skunk without making the entire hilltop uninhabitable.

To my surprise, I awoke to a very large coon in the trap. I initially considered raccoons, but the grass being torn up like it was threw me off. In the past 6 nights I have trapped 4 very large 'coons at the chicken run. The trap is empty this morning. So, either the cold front that came through last night kept them down, they have wised up to the trap and I will need to camouflage it, or I have cleaned out the group (which I doubt).

I'm just glad the coop is secure. If they could have found a way in it would have been a massacre.
 

Ridgerunner

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I've got a couple of possum when I thought I was after a raccoon. It's surprising how strong a possum can be. Once I got a raccoon when I know I was after a groundhog. I'd seen that groundhog next to my garden and my corn was just getting ready to ripen. Talk about luck. That raccoon would have done as much or more damage to the corn as the groundhog.

I'm sure you have not wiped the raccoons out but you have greatly thinned the ones that were hunting your property. That's a step in the right direction.

I wired my trap to a piece of plywood to stabilize it, then built this box to fit over it. The only way to the bait is through the front of the trap. Without the cover, the trap and plywood base still fit in a water-filled 55 gallon barrel. I don't know why I haven't got a skunk yet, I've always been able to shoot them, but I figure with this I could throw a sheet of plastic over the trap and top and get it to that 55 gallon barrel. I would not shoot anything in a trap with a shotgun, that would destroy the trap. A .22 is subject to ricochet with all that wire, plus a skunk is so much fur it's hard to find the body under there. I generally aim for the head with a full choke 12 gauge from a distance. I don't do it for sport but I will protect my garden and chickens.


Trap 1.JPG
 

TheSeedObsesser

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We have a bad raccoon infestation here. It's like a zombie apocalypse movie with the zombies being raccoons and in search of chickens and not brains. Luckily we haven't had any losses to raccoons yet (when it comes to the birds, I have run across a rabid one in the garden). There's a 5 ft fence around the entire poultry run, we lock the animals up at night, and the perimeter of most of the coops have been dug out and lined with a whole lot of bricks. We have found some evidence of digging around the garage (we keep some poultry in their), but if anything got into the garage they would run into a large flock of geese (they probably wouldn't last long). The only predators that have easy access to the flock are the aerial ones (mostly chicken hawks) and even those won't attack with geese mixed in with the chickens and ducks. No predator problems yet!
 

Wishin'

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A few years ago we had a coon that came every day at 2:00 pm, and snatched a hen. :he We got and set traps and it ended up being the "cutest lil' baby coon you ever did see":love RIGHT up until the barrel of the gun was in it's face, that "cute lil thing" bared it's teeth, put up it's hair, growled and attacked the gun. :lol: It wasn't so cute after that :gig We didn't back then, but we keep the possum and coon pelts now. I LOVE a possum skin they are sooo soft. Do any of you keep the hides?
 

baymule

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Wow, Monty! Good thing you built a strong coop and varmit proofed it! I have only had one raccoon visit, and Paris, our Great Pyrenees made sure it stayed on the other side of the fence in the neighbors yard. It climbed a tree and looked hungrily at the girls, but the Paris Patrol made sure that is all it did. I am glad you caught 4, there is probably more of them.
 

journey11

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Too close for comfort, huh. I hope you got the whole family of them!
 

MontyJ

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I haven't caught any more in the trap, but that doesn't mean they are gone. The survivors have probably become wary of it. I'll camo it today and move it to a different spot.
 
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