Need help deterring raccoons!

[sarahm]

We live in the an urban neighborhood with a fully fenced back yard, where the chickens free range. We had a small flock several years ago, which we lost partly to lead poisoning and partly to a raccoon attack. The raccoon attack occurred on one of the rare evenings when we were out late and weren't home to close the coop early enough. A raccoon crawled into the coop. We subsequently remediated the lead and trapped and killed a couple of raccoons. Haven't noticed any since.

Next week, new chicks arrive. But late last night, sure enough, we saw what looked like a whole family of raccoons crawling up the tree just outside our fence on a neighboring property. There must have been 10 or so. I'm not sure we could catch them all if we tried. So, I am scouring the web for ways to deter them. We also have dogs (who are very gentle with the chix) and so need to keep them in mind in coming up with a solution.

Has anyone tried Shake-Away Large Animal Repellent? Cayenne Pepper? Human Urine? Is it an exercise in futility? Thanks in advance for any ideas!

 

[cstronks]

Sarahm,

As you can see, boarding your chickens up is the safest way to prevent predatory attacks. Trapping raccoons can be dangerous. I have seen some of the suggestions you posted work effectively, and some not work at all. Human Urine does not work on raccoons. Raccoons are notorious for frequenting sewers - which are filled with human feces - so you will do nothing in that regard. Cayenne Pepper works in a situation where the animal has actually bit into something. They will smell the pepper and still give it a go. Animal repellents are effective, but can really ruin a good yard because they smell horrendous. Some are mixes of garlic and pepper and end up smelling disgusting. To be honest, your best bet is to always be sure your chickens are enclosed at night. It costs $0 and, providing you have a sturdy coop, works 100% of the time.

 

[thomasboyle]

The coons by me in NW CT love large marshmallows, so I use a cage trap with an empty tuna can stuffed with marshmallows zip tied to the cage floor. I have caught many coons this way. If I have recently lost chickens, I dispatch the coons. If I have not lost any birds, I relocated them to a uninhabited forest / lake area 20 miles away on my way to work. It may take a while to catch them all, but you'll have to do it or they will attempt to get your chickens.

I finally had to give up free ranging and fence in a large yard area with electric netting. This was the only way I could let my girls roam free without getting picked off by raccoons, foxes and bobcat. The netting will stop anything (except hawks etc) and I have not had any losses since the net went up.

Make your coop bullet proof. I have 2 layers of fencing on each side of the 2x3's I used for building my coop area. The outside is 2"x4" field fence to keep out large animals - bear, bobcat, raccoons etc and on the inside I have 1/2' hardware wire. This keeps anything from reaching in and grabbing a hen. I have not had a single loss inside the coop / pen, even though a bobcat tried. He bent the outside fence up a bit, but the inside fence was untouched. My next improvement is to add netting on the sides of the coop / run, so they have to get by 5000 volts before getting to the other two fences!