How to keep raccoons away??

[Sunny Potato]

Hello! We just had a little incident, a raccoon was around our birds and got in with our goose and 2 ducks, luckily nothing happened and we are going to before it gets dark fix the area were it got in and set two traps, we've had raccoons in the past and we first started trapping and then releasing them away from our house, but when one killed our birds we now trap and kill.
But is there any tips or anything that will keep raccoons out, Incase it comes back and gets with our goose and ducks.
Will the goose protect them? He is a Chinese goose and he has protected them from one of our male ducks, male duck tried to get onto one of the gooses ducks and goose nipped at male duck, male duck is fine btw.
I just want to be extra careful and I've had good responses to all my questions on here!

 

[Debbie292d]

We have them but at night the chickens are safe because the coop is impenetrable. During the day, the chickens safely free-range as we have two dogs. By night, we have several solar motion lights too so I think scaring them away at night keeps them away during the day too.

1/2" hardware cloth is what most of us use for patching holes in coop to keep rats out etc. and for making runs out of. I'd go around the pen their in with some of that, and bury 12" of it or bend it at the bottom in an L shape and put pavers on it to weigh it down, for diggers.

The price has gone way down on that since we bought 100' roll a couple of years ago.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Hello! We just had a little incident, a raccoon was around our birds and got in with our goose and 2 ducks, luckily nothing happened and we are going to before it gets dark fix the area were it got in and set two traps, we've had raccoons in the past and we first started trapping and then releasing them away from our house, but when one killed our birds we now trap and kill.
But is there any tips or anything that will keep raccoons out, Incase it comes back and gets with our goose and ducks.
Will the goose protect them? He is a Chinese goose and he has protected them from one of our male ducks, male duck tried to get onto one of the gooses ducks and goose nipped at male duck, male duck is fine btw.
I just want to be extra careful and I've had good responses to all my questions on here!

I have Nite Guard lights on all sides of my pen at eye level for a coon. That has kept most of ours at bay. I did trap two a while back that got two of my babies that were still peeping stage which I heard later on was an attraction for them. We disposed of them as they say it is illegal to release them onto some other property here in Ohio so that they will become someone else's problem. I would not think that a goose would win in a fight with a coon. They are absolutely vicious with those teeth and big claws. I don't know for sure but I would not want to take a chance. Good luck with what you decide to do. Hardware cloth is the only way to keep them out for sure. Once they know there is a food source they will return.

 

[ChicNmom]

Could you get some inexpensive electric fencing and a solar charger or plug in model, pot it around the coop and turn it on while the chickens are in? A few good zaps should discourage them.

Also make your coop as sturdy and impenetrable as possible. We've never had anything get in at night so far. We went for extra sturdy right when we built it. Buried fencing and large rocks under the dirt at the base and hardware cloth instead of chicken wire on the outside.

 

[Sunny Potato]

Could you get some inexpensive electric fencing and a solar charger or plug in model, pot it around the coop and turn it on while the chickens are in? A few good zaps should discourage them.

Also make your coop as sturdy and impenetrable as possible. We've never had anything get in at night so far. We went for extra sturdy right when we built it. Buried fencing and large rocks under the dirt at the base and hardware cloth instead of chicken wire on the outside.

I have Nite Guard lights on all sides of my pen at eye level for a coon. That has kept most of ours at bay. I did trap two a while back that got two of my babies that were still peeping stage which I heard later on was an attraction for them. We disposed of them as they say it is illegal to release them onto some other property here in Ohio so that they will become someone else's problem. I would not think that a goose would win in a fight with a coon. They are absolutely vicious with those teeth and big claws. I don't know for sure but I would not want to take a chance. Good luck with what you decide to do. Hardware cloth is the only way to keep them out for sure. Once they know there is a food source they will return.

I didn't mean to imply that our goose could fight it more of a could he maybe scare it away with his size and such

 

[Luv Ducks]

I didn't mean to imply that our goose could fight it more of a could he maybe scare it away with his size and such

Sorry, I misunderstood.

 

[thistlewick]

Just caught a raccoon on our cameras last night -- nosing about the coop but we have those red blinking "eye" lights and it seemed to deter it from coming anywhere near the coop and he walked off, lost interest. Trapping/killing season isn't until October thru February so would have to get a depredation permit to trap/kill here in NC and it hasn't done that yet, so have to wait and see.

Chickens stink to high heaven and seem to bring the predators lol

If only you could make them smell less!!

 

[TOR]

The problem with trapping an killing them, raccoons, possum etc if you live in area where there is population of them and since they travel there will be more. I use trapping as a last resort and I do not release alive.
Best practice is to make sure your run and coop are predator proof.
Electric fence around perimeter is good for coon, possum as long no trees other objects they can climb to get over. Fox other predators will jump the fence.

 

[thistlewick]

The raccoon did not come back last night, the eyes seemed to have worked.

A possum has come up on our porch 3 nights in a row, sneaky bugger is not getting caught by the camera but we see the droppings. Isn't bothering the coop at all. It's predator proof and they are safe in the coop at night, not in the run.

I have lived here almost 3 years and no predator has dared come close to the house until now, thanks chickens!