The roof of the chicken run is closed in with chicken wire. This is a good thing because the four red tailed hawks are swooping and calling and having a grand old time overhead and in the general area.
However, the back corner of the run still has a bit of finishing to do (wooden pieces need to be trimmed off, chicken wire needs to be stapled, and a piece of chicken wire has to be "sewn" in where there will still be a gap.
This means that local raccoons can still get into the run at night, which they do. Don't worry, the chickens are locked up tight in their coop by me in the evening. This also means that we had to get out the live animal trap again. For anyone who has a similar problem, the bait of choice is marshmallows, ripped open to reveal their temping aroma. Also, one must block off the sides and the back of the live trap (I used concrete blocks and patio stones) because raccoons can and will reach in with their nimble fingers and extract the bait without going into the trap. As well, a deep container is a good idea (tall yogurt container) to put the bait into which is then wired into place in the back of the trap so they really have to work at getting their marshmallows.
Meet bandit #1:
Meet bandit #2:
The second bandit actually ripped the yogurt container right off the wire.
Don't let those sad little expressions fool you. They are destructive little darlings who would also kill a chicken if given the chance. These two were caught within three days.
For each raccoon, we drove them out to a very secluded seasonal road (meaning it does not get maintained in the winter time) which leads into the woods and is not close to someone else's property and released them (both in the same spot, just in case they were siblings).
I think there is a large mother raccoon still to be caught, but she may be more savvy than her youngsters. We shall see. Either way, a new bait container must be created and wired into place and perhaps three marshmallows with a dab of peanut butter (I'd actually eat that!) might be in order.
Have you ever had raccoon problems? We've had them in the past a few times, and here is the most recent, if you wish to read about it. Please share your stories.
I think the potter and blogger Sandy Miller has..does she read your blog too?
ReplyDeleteHmmm, not sure. What is her blog called?
Deletehttp://painefalls.blogspot.com/ she doesn't blog often....but the posts are long when she does!
DeleteLuckily I have not, but I live in the city. My brother, on his acreage, has had to deal with them. As you say, they are destructive creatures. He generally solves the problem with a 22 rifle. Perhaps not the most humane but definitely effective.
ReplyDeleteNo such thing here. Raccoons do live in the city, too, so lucky you!
DeleteLast year, after 2 successful years with no raccoon problem, over night they ate all the fruit growing on my two pear trees. I have not seen the raccoons but my neighbor assures me it is the raccoons. The same neighbor, a few years ago, had raccoons remove wood surrounding his attic vent, move in and produce young. The raccoons did lots of lot of damage to the house. I am going to buy a trap like yours. Thank you for the tips on bait and patio blocks. You have 3 raccoons to remove and I hope my number is the same.
ReplyDeleteWe know people who had the same thing with raccoons taking over an "attic" space. It was a lot to get them out of there.
DeleteNo raccoons in this country. Must admit they do look so cute but I know from your blog and others that they're nasty little critters. Thank goodness you're smarter than they are and can trap them and set them free far away. Hope they leanrt a lesson. Probably not
ReplyDeleteYou've got some wild animals in your area. Keeping chickens safe is quite a chore.
Deceptively cute. They are pretty smart. They can unlatch things.
DeleteLocal alien won't have raccoons....but will have possums
DeleteWe are suspicious that we have had one or two in our fenced in area containing gardens and fruit trees this summer. :o( Have seen them on the road but never around the house/yard/etc. yet. One morning I went out into the old strawberry patch and saw LOTS of scat. Came in and identified it as most likely raccoon. But saw no damage to the berries on the strawberry plants. ??? A couple of days later had a few bush bean plants (not bearing yet) cut off about three inches from the ground. Hmmmm. So far, that's it. You can better believe we're keeping our eyes peeled and I'm purchasing a bag of marshmallows just in case! Hope you can rid your area of the last of those darling (read destructive) little bandits soon.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep setting the trap every night. Hope they stay out of your garden! (Do you plant sweet corn? They LOVE that.)
DeleteValuable raccoon hunting advice! I hear rumours that raccoons are starting to be spotted in Edmonton but I don't know if this is true or not. Traditionally, we don't have any because we're too far north and they can't survive the winters up here. The only time I've seen a wild urban raccoon is in Toronto, maybe 25 years ago. One evening I happened to be walking past the CBC building downtown and a huge battle-scarred raccoon veteran was limping down the sidewalk like he owned the place.
ReplyDeleteI can just picture it!
DeleteNo raccoons in Australia, thankfully. We have our own bandits that look cute.
ReplyDeleteUghh I just had to wrestle with Blogger in order to leave a comment on my own blog, so hope this works! I did not know you didn’t have raccoons!
DeleteWe certainly do have raccoons... right now 2 sets, a mama and 2 babies and a mama with 3 babies. They come to eat the cat food we put out for the feral cats off the back porch. But we have never had any problems with them. The cats keep their distance, but on occasion we've seen them sleeping with the cats under the fan. But we have no chickens for them to bother. I did see one harassing one of the box turtles once (they come to eat the dry cat food also)... and I went out and ran him off. But ours come anytime during the day...as we pick up all food at night to keep the coyotes away.
ReplyDeleteOh, you are very kind. Much kinder than I am with unwanted guests!
DeleteI am not anonymous! This is driving me batty! - Jenn
DeleteLast year we trapped 9 raccoons, using dry dog food for bait. We relocated a couple, then learned that raccoons are territorial. If there were other raccoons in that area, the ones we moved were probably killed or driven off. And, they will also return to their former home, sometimes traveling many miles to do so. In the end, the only real solution was the "final" one, aka bullet. They had killed most of our flock and were doing great damage to our gardens so we felt we had no choice. I hated it, but felt we had no other viable choice.
ReplyDeleteOh dear/ I didn’t know that. I have heard of people putting a mark of spray paint on the raccoon’s back to see if it is the same one coming back from wherever they relocated them!
DeleteI haven't seen a racoon in years. They would always try and get the lids off our garbage cans when I grew up in Scarborough. Skunks we have by the dozens.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Yes, we have skunks, but more so in the spring.
DeleteOur biggest problem was a groundhog tunneling under the barn for winter. My bil tried and tried to trap her, but finally resorted to shooting her.
ReplyDeleteGroundhogs can make a mess of a field with all their tunneling!
DeleteThey look so sweet and cate. Though I agree, distructive.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think they get away with stuff because of how they look! ;)
DeleteWhen our boat was docked in scarborough, Toronto, the racoons would get on our boat and make a mess. We trapped 5 of them and drove them 20 km away as we were told they will return if you don’t relocate them at least that far.. someone suggested tying a rope on the cage and dropping it in the water for awhile but there is no way we would do that, so we took them for a drive instead. They never bothered us again so I guess they liked there new home in a wooded area north of the city.
ReplyDeleteTwenty km?? Well, we certainly didn't go that far. I guess they are walking back here at right now!
DeleteYes we have. One year we had a lot of them. I had planted herbs in pots on my back patio. Something kept digging them out of the pot. We set a camera and it was raccoons. We also were coming home one night at 3am from a military graduation down south. We pulled into the drive way to find about 5 baby raccoons at the door eating the cat food. I also recently came across a sick one on my way to the garden. The worst year, was when there was a massacre in the barn. Our first coop was built inside the barn with chicken wire (first mistake with chicken wire). After 12 years, they ripped holes in the wire and killed half of the chickens. So many stories. One year, one daughter went to the front porch to fetch firewood, and there was a very large raccoon on the porch. One year I was sitting on the front porch early evening, waiting on my husband to get home from work, and I looked over to the tree line and saw a family of raccoons eating the mulberries, hanging upside down in the trees. We have coyote, fox, opossum, and other animals out here.
ReplyDeleteI'm not loving the "ripped holes in the wire" part of the story. Yes, you've had your share of raccoon adventures!
DeleteI do not like raccoons at all & yes have had years of raccoon visitors. One year we had a large male come lumbering into the yard around 4am to sleep the day away in our very large maple tree. During the day he'd poop from high up & what a mess. So I took to getting up at 3:30am & arming myself with the hose & jet sprayer to "discourage" his desire to sleep in my tree. It was quite a sight, so I was told by neighbours. It never worked & I stopped because of a surprise visit from another garden visitor - skunk! This year we have an abundance of fox families so the raccoon & the squirrel populations are lower & less bothersome this year. ... Mary-Lou =^..^=
ReplyDeletePS - oh the joys of Blogger, hope you got that sorted :)
Oh my, getting up that early to try to rid yourself of a raccoon! Nobody wants to be surprised by a skunk.
DeleteConcerning Blogger, I am able to comment just fine right now because I'm on my old desk top computer. When I try to comment from my phone, that's when I have difficulties. I have no idea why.
Raccoons are so darned (and deceptively) cute -- and such little terrorists! Yes, you get one in the house (they came down our chimney once when I was a kid -- mom and three babies and boy, THAT was tough to remove!). I'm glad the chicks are locked up, the chicken wire in place for the hawks. That has to be scary for you, knowing the circle of life and protecting your gang. Good luck with it all.
ReplyDeleteThis is the first year that I've been seriously worried about predators. We've had an attack maybe twice in the past twenty-ish years. Once, we think by an owl, and the second time by a skunk.
DeleteWe don't get much hassle from those critters here...but then, we don't have any birds. They did have a go at my gardens one year and we found out how wily they were when we tried to live-trap them.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't set up the trap properly, you won't catch them and they'll still get your bait.
DeleteIn 20 years we've had three racoons. The first time was a pair raiding the bird feeders. We put the feeders away and they wandered on. The second time was 10 years ago. We were leaving for Denmark that morning and one came onto the porch. We hid the feeders and baited the live trap with dog food. We watched it for an hour before we finally caught it. It was too dark to take it down a logging road, so we took it 7 miles down the road. My husband was a cop and they would live trap and remove racoons from town. They got the feeling that some looked familiar so they marked them. Sure enough the coons were dang near beating them back to town. Through trial and error they determined five miles was a non returnable distance. Back to the original story. As we were about to release our offender someone was driving down the road. My husband hid, meanwhile I sat on the tailgate one arm on the live trap and waved with the other. After the witnesses passed we release him, never to be seen again. That is my racoons story. Good luck getting mum.
ReplyDelete
DeleteFive miles, you say? I don't think it was that far that we relocated these raccoons. Well, time will tell. Thanks for sharing your stories!