Raccoons!

[AmazingMaze]

We had a massacre on Monday night. Something killed 3 of my chickens. It was awful! We live in a horse community in southern California. 23 years of keeping chickens and I have never had to lock up my chickens at night. We immediately put up a camera and figured a way to lock everyone up. Last night I finally saw the culprits. Raccoons! I've never seen one here, others have, but I guess I've been lucky. I saw two in my videos.
Should I trap and release? I read they can travel 10 miles in a night and come back. Should I leave them and just continue to lock the girls up (I will continue to lock them up anyway in case more show up).
What would you do?

 

[Penpal]

Raccoons are night creatures, but they will come out late in the day when the days are long. The advice above is spot on. Get the chickens in a secure area before dusk. Make sure there is no food for the raccoons or mice. Keep your feed in metal garbage cans if you aren't already. Raccoons will eat anything, so if they can't get to the chickens they will turn to garbage, your garbage, strewn all over the place.

In addition, sprinkle hot pepper flakes at your perimeter, and/or chili powder. This will not hurt the chickens.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

I'm so sorry, that must have been horrible. I agree that you're going to get many different responses and opinions on racoons. I posted about this concern back in 2009 and got all sorts of ideas. Here is my opinion: dont trap and release, it's a temporary fix and you're just not predator proof. I'm pretty surprised that you're just now dealing with this. It looks like you're leaving food out at night and that your run is a "pen." If you're locking them up in a solid coop where they are roosting inside at night, the racoons should not be able to get to them, so that's the first thing. The 2nd thing is give racoons no reason to be there, put up the food at night. I have galvanized garbage cans that I put my feeders in at night, those are easy and racoon proof. I also keep a flood light outside of my coop. That's just helpful but won't keep motivated predator's away. I caught a racoon on my nightcam trying to scale my run which is 8ft. chain link. They can get in any run that is not covered. But in my case, they have no reason to get in there as there is no feed to eat and no chicken dinner. Good Luck!!

 

[mowin]

Trap and eliminate. Those saying rocky raccoon will stop returning are wrong. Coon will continue to roam and check out your coop and run, maybe not as often, but it will check. A coon, or two, attempting to get in a coop at night is going to cause stress and frightened chickens. I will not allow a predator the opportunity to freak out my chickens.

 

[mowin]

In my experience raccoons are more likely to eat feed and eggs than kill chickens. I've had raccoons living in my backyard trees for six years and they've never killed a bird. I would recommend locking up your chickens and putting up the feed, they'll lose interest eventually.
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I personally only keep mine around because they are very friendly and I don't want more aggressive coons moving into their territory. If you live in their backyard you will never completely get rid of them, better to teach them that there's nothing to be eaten in your coop than to relocate them and make them someone else's problem.

No way would I want them hanging around. Rabies and other diseases are always a possibility. I also wouldn't want them to get used to people. That's what makes them more bold and potentially aggressive.

 

[TOR]

They live in a horse community, so maybe that's not an option. I think people should offer other advice just in case this isn't feasible...just saying .

Rule number 1 Coop and run predator proof. everything likes chicken.
If you have rule number 1 dont need rule number 2.

 

[Penpal]

Evadig, I did offer offer advice.

 

[Evadig]

We had a massacre on Monday night. Something killed 3 of my chickens. It was awful! We live in a horse community in southern California. 23 years of keeping chickens and I have never had to lock up my chickens at night. We immediately put up a camera and figured a way to lock everyone up. Last night I finally saw the culprits. Raccoons! I've never seen one here, others have, but I guess I've been lucky. I saw two in my videos.
Should I trap and release? I read they can travel 10 miles in a night and come back. Should I leave them and just continue to lock the girls up (I will continue to lock them up anyway in case more show up).
What would you do?

Hi and ! I am sorry about your hens.
I personally would just lock my hens up very well, others would say to shoot them (I don't know if you could even do that where you live). Trap and release is not fair to the raccoon or anybody else.

 

[TOR]

Might be illegal to release after live trap in another area.
other posters are spot on, lock them up and eventually coon will look for another food source, but does not mean they will or other predator come back.
Coon will move in the day if hungry enough and known food source, but usually move dusk till dawn
Make sure you have good lock coon can undo some locks, like sliding locks.

 

[wrathsfarm]

Trap and eliminate. Those saying rocky raccoon will stop returning are wrong. Coon will continue to roam and check out your coop and run, maybe not as often, but it will check. A coon, or two, attempting to get in a coop at night is going to cause stress and frightened chickens. I will not allow a predator the opportunity to freak out my chickens.

This... I had a coon kill one of my two hens at that time 3 years ago...at lunch time. Got there just in time to chase it off.
I brought the lone hen in the house and trapped the coon that night trying to get into the empty coop .. No coon attacks since, because I keep my trap set alot. Michigan is a no release state by law.

Check your local and state laws to confirm what your options are for trap/release or dispatch, that's your first step and then you can proceed how you see fit.

Edited to delete my opinion.