I am pretty much 100% sure now that the construction across the road has displaced a monster which is now preying directly on my chickens. It has been years since we had a serious predator problem around here or really any kind of pest issue for that matter until this last Summer when they started stirring things up, knocking down trees and removing the top soil from that 100 acres plot next door.
Since they started leveling that place out I have had a skunk family move under my seedling shed, a groundhog try and move into the barn, and constant attacks on the chickens. Recently however the attacks on the chickens has reached epidemic levels. They are not limited to night time raids either. I will admit our hens have always been somewhat less than cooperative at times. Seems like there is always one or two that get that rebellious young female trait and convince themselves that anything done to try and protect them is a sure sign that someone is trying to control them.
The first sign the trait has come on is a wayward hen wanting to live as a modern independent carefree sex in the barnyard type gal and she will move into some part of the goat condo instead of the chicken coop. Typically if I go and retrieve her a few nights in a row and put her where she belongs the older hens will put a stop to it. Or if there are more than one that try to taste the "wild" life some night time visitor will make short and messy work of one of them and the other will start behaving when reality sinks in the next day.
This scenario played out back in October but then went further and at some point I went out at 10pm and found a chicken huddle on my porch. When I inspected the coop the pin clasp I used to lock the door closed at night was missing and the coop was open. I lost 3 hens that night but what concerned me was I found all the scattered hens and put all but 2 of them back in the coop. The third hen I ended up losing did not get killed until the next day after sun up. I know cause that third hen was the one I had found on the porch so whatever got her had come back and killed her in broad day light.
We had been doing OK down to four hens and the rooster but the hens were about to give the rooster a nervous break down. He was running around trying to keep them safe and despite his best heroic efforts the hens would still do as they pleased. The day the massive cold wave storm hit I found the rooster trying to get one of the hens back from the goat house and he had almost froze to death. In the week after New Years we lost another two hens, a blond and a black one that liked to wander off and as near as I can tell what had got them took em also in broad daylight in the middle of the wide open yard next to the driveway.
That is disturbing.
As of yesterday I was down to three chickens, the rooster and two hens. I took down the fencing for a chicken run years ago as the girls were always much happier when they could free range but this new predator is not following the rules. As I was filling the stock tanks yesterday afternoon all three were out under my feet and standing next to the coop as it got dark so I decided to give em another 10 minutes or so and carry some wood inside for the night and then come back out to lock em up. When I came back out, like I said no more than 15 minutes later I walk out to a blood curdling scream that sounded like someone killing a peacock only to see an absolute monster of a solid grey raccoon emerge from the coop with the now dead last amicunna hen in it's mouth.
Where the rooster and final hen got off to I never found out last night but this morning I went and asked my neighbor who lives on the other side of this tract they are building on and he told me that yes his flock was scattered and eliminated completely over November and December as well.
When I arrived back home however the Rooster and final remaining hen came running out of the barn to greet me so they survived this latest attack. Not sure what I have available to rig up any kind of pen to keep em contained in today but I guess their free range days are going to be over for a while now if I can get something worked out.
I also am going to go buy some sardines as I have found they work best for trapping coons.
That had to be the largest old raccoon boar I have ever seen. And he has some nerve too.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!
A few years ago, after losing some chickens, I caught what I thought was the only raccoon, but soon found out it was a family. After the fifth was trapped, the problem was gone.
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction was to shoot the raccoons in the trap, and disposing of the bodies. I thought about it, and decided to bring them miles from my house to a large area of open pasture. The pasture is patrolled by hawks and eagles. I hope I provided them with a meal.
I do the wildlife a favor. I kill the marauding varmints, take them down the road a bit, and toss them into the groves. They're almost always gone the next day. If the coyotes don't find them, the turkey vultures do. I get your compassion, but if I catch and release the critters somewhere else, they become someone else's problem! ...Kinda like all the stray cats that end up here at Rancho Whybother!
DeleteI had the same issue, but with coyotes. Here in the Wild West you NEVER leave the coop door open at night. Even then, I lost five new pullets to coyotes when the dogs DUG UNDER the bottom of the coop during the night to access the birds. This was after digging under the fence from the neighbor's property. Then, a couple of days later, I let my flock out to roam at around 7:30am. I went back out fifteen minutes later and Wile E. had made off with four of my mature hens!!! I don't let them out until after noon anymore, when there's enough human activity going on to keep the coyotes away.
ReplyDeleteI did have a 'coon kill four brand new hens last year. They'll reach through the coop run fence, grab their necks, and rip out the birds' crops. The new hens were disoriented and hadn't gone into the coop with the rest. They were in the run, where the 'coon had enough access to grab them.
i read that coons love marshmallows
ReplyDeletegood to bait trap
where there is one male he may have a seraglio?
bring hen and rooster into house at night for the time being?
We have ongoing hawk and owl issues here and a chicken tractor is the only solution as I dislike chicken runs per say.
ReplyDeleteMy next chicken house (now that lumber prices dropped, YAY) will be like my grandmothers. Two chicken runs both covered against hawks, and one is chicken yard, the other is garden.
Reverse every year.
The chicken tractor has been wonderful for pre-planting clean up of my raised beds (built to fit) and post harvest clean up before winter plantings. An air lock style connection to the current chicken house keeps everything going well.
The chicken tractor isn't built to stop a racoon but a daylight visitor will have to deal with my pest remover and my dogs.
Dump the Raccoons off in the nearest housing development. They deserve it. A fair exchange for dumping cats off at your barn.
ReplyDeleteLike all above, a raccoon or family of them. I wouldn't waste my time 're-locating', they can travel back or become someone else's problem. And I'd follow Pete's method. Once the free-loader predator learns where that easy, tasty meal is ... well, you know how it ends...
ReplyDelete~hobo
Well, darn PP. And at the price of eggs, that is real money.
ReplyDeleteEven I, with my "live and let live" philosophy, might take sterner action.
Use a dog-proof coon trap
ReplyDeleteWe always penned ours. They were only allowed out when the humans and dogs were around.
ReplyDeleteCoons interest me - we don’t get them up here in Alberta… or at least, I have never seen one…
I have caught 58 raccoons in 2022. Using Dukes paw trap with corn. West Texas has a lot of coons!!
ReplyDelete