Raccoons, rats, and capsaicin

[amarsano]

Has anyone had any luck using capsaicin, as a spray, to deter rats and raccoons? The rats are out of control and I’m working on shoring everything up. I’ve read the Howard article, but it doesn’t mention this as a possibility. I know it deters them eating the food if it’s laced with it.
As for the raccoons, I have. New set of birds who refuse to sleep indoors, generally 20 ft or so in the trees, so I can’t get them down to put them in. I had one that wasn’t doing well and he started wandering out at 2 am and was picked off by a raccoon (saw it on camera) with zero evidence. This was a full sized Swedish black so 6-7 lb bird. Last night as I was checking the footage I saw a HUGE raccoon attack one of my Roos who was sleeping low. I feel so guilty because I thought about throwing him in a coop, but he wouldn‘t stay there despite me continually returning him. I’ll admit I got annoyed and so I let him stay out. I figure the below freezing temps would force him inside, but it didn’t. The coon carried him off. He was a large young roo almost the size of my Brahma, not a small bird and aside from a few flying feathers nothing was left.
the question for them is if I spray my birds with capsacin and spray the area with capsaicin will this deter them? has anyone tried this already? I don’t want to lose my other birds in the trees as they are rare breeds, but feel like I’m fighting a losing battle. Thanks for any advice or anecdotes.

 

[azygous]

You do have some issues. No. Capsaicin won't do what you need. At most, it will make you sneeze and cough and your nose run like a faucet. The animals you wish to repel will suck it up and prey on your flock anyway.

First off, you need to gain control of your flock. People have no idea how easy it is to train chickens to come on command, yes, even down out of a tree. Take a day and devote it to training your chickens. Select a device that makes a unique noise. I use a clicker I bought at Petsmart for $1. Start by tossing out a small amount of scratch grain and clicking the clicker as you do this. The chickens will come running. In an hour, repeat this, a small amount of scratch while clicking the clicker or ringing a bell or whatever you choose as the signal.

Then, the third time, just click the clicker and wait until all the chickens come to you to toss a little scratch grain. In an hour repeat this exercise. In just a few short hours you will have trained your entire flock to come on command. Reinforce this with a little reward of a treat each time you use the clicker to summon the flock.

As for the raccoons, the only defense is a secure run with hardware cloth so the predators can't slip paws through the mesh to grab a chicken. They are able to thrust a paw through chicken wire mesh and grab a chicken and dismember it as they drag the parts through the fence.

For the rodents, I highly recommend roller bucket traps. They sell these traps on Amazon or just the roller so you can make your own trap out of any PVC bucket. The principle is the bucket has a few inches of water in it to drown the rats as they slip off the roller at the top as they go for the peanut butter on the roller. Safe around chickens and you need only toss out the water and dead rodents whenever you get to it. That's the beauty of these traps. They keep working even when you forget to tend to them.

I keep several of these traps baited at all times. They are safe to set up right in your run, unlike spring traps that will injure a chicken or rodent bait that will poison your flock.

 

[GreenJay]

I don't think I'd put it directly on the birds. I'm thinking if it got on any fleshy areas or in their eyes it would still cause a burning sensation even if birds don't "taste" the heat.

Try bribing them into the coop at night? Coop big enough for everyone? I'm not sure how you'd predator proof a tree other than wrapping the trunk in barbed wire to try to prevent climbing. Or build a treehouse coop? That might be a first.

 

[Penpal]

I gave my birds their nighttime/ late afternoon in the coop. Once they are in, close the door. Do they have roosts in the coop? Most chickens like to roost.

As for the rats, I have heard great things about the bucket trap. You can make one yourself with a bucket, rod or wire, and a PVC pipe over the rod or wire. A little peanut butter for bait, and water in the bucket. You can see them on YouTube.com.

 

[amarsano]

You do have some issues. No. Capsaicin won't do what you need. At most, it will make you sneeze and cough and your nose run like a faucet. The animals you wish to repel will suck it up and prey on your flock anyway.

First off, you need to gain control of your flock. People have no idea how easy it is to train chickens to come on command, yes, even down out of a tree. Take a day and devote it to training your chickens. Select a device that makes a unique noise. I use a clicker I bought at Petsmart for $1. Start by tossing out a small amount of scratch grain and clicking the clicker as you do this. The chickens will come running. In an hour, repeat this, a small amount of scratch while clicking the clicker or ringing a bell or whatever you choose as the signal.

Then, the third time, just click the clicker and wait until all the chickens come to you to toss a little scratch grain. In an hour repeat this exercise. In just a few short hours you will have trained your entire flock to come on command. Reinforce this with a little reward of a treat each time you use the clicker to summon the flock.

As for the raccoons, the only defense is a secure run with hardware cloth so the predators can't slip paws through the mesh to grab a chicken. They are able to thrust a paw through chicken wire mesh and grab a chicken and dismember it as they drag the parts through the fence.

For the rodents, I highly recommend roller bucket traps. They sell these traps on Amazon or just the roller so you can make your own trap out of any PVC bucket. The principle is the bucket has a few inches of water in it to drown the rats as they slip off the roller at the top as they go for the peanut butter on the roller. Safe around chickens and you need only toss out the water and dead rodents whenever you get to it. That's the beauty of these traps. They keep working even when you forget to tend to them.

I keep several of these traps baited at all times. They are safe to set up right in your run, unlike spring traps that will injure a chicken or rodent bait that will poison your flock.

I completely forgot about clicker training! I had my original 6 trained, but got lazy when the number of birds went up. I have had some success with the electric traps, but I'll add this in too. Thanks!

 

[amarsano]

I don't think I'd put it directly on the birds. I'm thinking if it got on any fleshy areas or in their eyes it would still cause a burning sensation even if birds don't "taste" the heat.

Try bribing them into the coop at night? Coop big enough for everyone? I'm not sure how you'd predator proof a tree other than wrapping the trunk in barbed wire to try to prevent climbing. Or build a treehouse coop? That might be a first.

I have two 12*5 coops, a 8x6, and two covered insulated runs (8*6). A tree house coop sounds interesting!

I gave my birds their nighttime/ late afternoon in the coop. Once they are in, close the door. Do they have roosts in the coop? Most chickens like to roost.

As for the rats, I have heard great things about the bucket trap. You can make one yourself with a bucket, rod or wire, and a PVC pipe over the rod or wire. A little peanut butter for bait, and water in the bucket. You can see them on YouTube.com.

Plenty of roosts. They may not be as high as they want?

 

[iriedeby]

You do have some issues. No. Capsaicin won't do what you need. At most, it will make you sneeze and cough and your nose run like a faucet. The animals you wish to repel will suck it up and prey on your flock anyway.

First off, you need to gain control of your flock. People have no idea how easy it is to train chickens to come on command, yes, even down out of a tree. Take a day and devote it to training your chickens. Select a device that makes a unique noise. I use a clicker I bought at Petsmart for $1. Start by tossing out a small amount of scratch grain and clicking the clicker as you do this. The chickens will come running. In an hour, repeat this, a small amount of scratch while clicking the clicker or ringing a bell or whatever you choose as the signal.

Then, the third time, just click the clicker and wait until all the chickens come to you to toss a little scratch grain. In an hour repeat this exercise. In just a few short hours you will have trained your entire flock to come on command. Reinforce this with a little reward of a treat each time you use the clicker to summon the flock.

As for the raccoons, the only defense is a secure run with hardware cloth so the predators can't slip paws through the mesh to grab a chicken. They are able to thrust a paw through chicken wire mesh and grab a chicken and dismember it as they drag the parts through the fence.

For the rodents, I highly recommend roller bucket traps. They sell these traps on Amazon or just the roller so you can make your own trap out of any PVC bucket. The principle is the bucket has a few inches of water in it to drown the rats as they slip off the roller at the top as they go for the peanut butter on the roller. Safe around chickens and you need only toss out the water and dead rodents whenever you get to it. That's the beauty of these traps. They keep working even when you forget to tend to them.

I keep several of these traps baited at all times. They are safe to set up right in your run, unlike spring traps that will injure a chicken or rodent bait that will poison your flock.

Those traps work remarkably well!! My friend who had a severe rat problem got about 70 using a bucket. Rat problem was nil for a few years, then they slowly came back!

 

[SamLockwood]

In my experience capsacian doesn't do anything to rats & I've never heard of it being effective as a racooon deterrent. As far as I know nothing really keeps raccoons away once they smell an easy meal. You've either got to dispatch them or you're going to have an unpleasant visitor every night.

If you've got runs attached to the roosts that are secure and having roosts in the coops doesn't attract the chickens, put roosts in the run as well. Roosts should be as high as possible, with some other roosting bars acting as a "ladder" to the high spots. Chickens instinctively want to roost as high as possible. I initially had what I thought was a clever roosting bar setup in my newer coops, and at two weeks old they just used them as a ladder to roost up in the rafters of the coop. I open the coop door to check on them and it looked empty, then I hear a chirp from above and look up to see these rows of little heads and tails.

I have a couple of my old hens that prefer to sleep "outside", plus the more dominant younger chickens want to sleep on the same roosting bar as the "mean girls." In the hot summer months most of the flock slept in the run roosting bars, and the coops were unused.

I've never had problems getting my birds to come: I treat them with scratch feed every couple days so whenever I show up in the yard they tend to gather around. Some days they'll follow me wherever I go.

Teaching them to be herded was a little dicier: the guineas seem to be more receptive to it, some of the chickens freak out and just bolt in some random direction. But most times I can get them to go where I need them to, even if it takes them a while to do it.

If they're refusing to go into their coop, there's some reason for it:

1) There's something they don't like about it: a bad smell, it's poorly ventilated, it's too drafty, or it's infested with mites or rodents that bother them while they're trying to sleep.

2) Bad Things Happened in the coop. My two old girls that won't go into coops after dark are that way because the old coop they lived most of their lives in was garbage. Not much in the way of roosting space and there was an incident when rats and raccoons gobbled up 2/3 of the flock over a couple nights. To the old girls coop + darkness = getting eaten.

3) They weren't kept in a coop long enough to register it as "home." When I got my new birds, I moved them from the brooder to the coop at 2 weeks. And for six weeks they spent nights locked in their coop at night and their days in the run. The old hens I let out to free-range before, and I let the "mean girls" back in at dusk when they wanted to roost. The chicks quickly learned to get back into the coop when the adults came home to roost. In fact, the olive egger chicks would start herding the other chicks into the coop as soon as the sun got low.

It wasn't until they were 8 weeks old I started limited free-ranging with them: I'd let part of the flock out for an hour or two (no more than half), and if any birds wanted to go back in the run I'd let them and maybe let a couple more out. The "outside" birds never wandered to far off because the rest of the flock was still inside.

As each week went by I'd let more of them out for longer and they got the idea what the routine was supposed to be.

I think you've got to do something similar: make sure they have options to roost "outside" and keep them locked up for a few weeks. But first, deal with the rat problem. Rats will eat eggs, eat feathers, bite at chicken's toes, and even flat out kill them. I've had good luck with the more modern rat traps: the "tunnel style" snap-traps as well as the electric ones. But it sounds like you've got a larger scale problem and I've heard bucket traps work really well for that.

 

[amarsano]

In my experience capsacian doesn't do anything to rats & I've never heard of it being effective as a racooon deterrent. As far as I know nothing really keeps raccoons away once they smell an easy meal. You've either got to dispatch them or you're going to have an unpleasant visitor every night.

If you've got runs attached to the roosts that are secure and having roosts in the coops doesn't attract the chickens, put roosts in the run as well. Roosts should be as high as possible, with some other roosting bars acting as a "ladder" to the high spots. Chickens instinctively want to roost as high as possible. I initially had what I thought was a clever roosting bar setup in my newer coops, and at two weeks old they just used them as a ladder to roost up in the rafters of the coop. I open the coop door to check on them and it looked empty, then I hear a chirp from above and look up to see these rows of little heads and tails.

I have a couple of my old hens that prefer to sleep "outside", plus the more dominant younger chickens want to sleep on the same roosting bar as the "mean girls." In the hot summer months most of the flock slept in the run roosting bars, and the coops were unused.

I've never had problems getting my birds to come: I treat them with scratch feed every couple days so whenever I show up in the yard they tend to gather around. Some days they'll follow me wherever I go.

Teaching them to be herded was a little dicier: the guineas seem to be more receptive to it, some of the chickens freak out and just bolt in some random direction. But most times I can get them to go where I need them to, even if it takes them a while to do it.

If they're refusing to go into their coop, there's some reason for it:

1) There's something they don't like about it: a bad smell, it's poorly ventilated, it's too drafty, or it's infested with mites or rodents that bother them while they're trying to sleep.

2) Bad Things Happened in the coop. My two old girls that won't go into coops after dark are that way because the old coop they lived most of their lives in was garbage. Not much in the way of roosting space and there was an incident when rats and raccoons gobbled up 2/3 of the flock over a couple nights. To the old girls coop + darkness = getting eaten.

3) They weren't kept in a coop long enough to register it as "home." When I got my new birds, I moved them from the brooder to the coop at 2 weeks. And for six weeks they spent nights locked in their coop at night and their days in the run. The old hens I let out to free-range before, and I let the "mean girls" back in at dusk when they wanted to roost. The chicks quickly learned to get back into the coop when the adults came home to roost. In fact, the olive egger chicks would start herding the other chicks into the coop as soon as the sun got low.

It wasn't until they were 8 weeks old I started limited free-ranging with them: I'd let part of the flock out for an hour or two (no more than half), and if any birds wanted to go back in the run I'd let them and maybe let a couple more out. The "outside" birds never wandered to far off because the rest of the flock was still inside.

As each week went by I'd let more of them out for longer and they got the idea what the routine was supposed to be.

I think you've got to do something similar: make sure they have options to roost "outside" and keep them locked up for a few weeks. But first, deal with the rat problem. Rats will eat eggs, eat feathers, bite at chicken's toes, and even flat out kill them. I've had good luck with the more modern rat traps: the "tunnel style" snap-traps as well as the electric ones. But it sounds like you've got a larger scale problem and I've heard bucket traps work really well for that.

I can get them to generally come around when I come out because i throw scratch and the like. I had them in a separate coop from 2 weeks until 12 weeks when I slowly integrated them into my main flock. In their original coop, they stayed in without roaming for the first 2 weeks. They were good when they had limited free range. As soon as they were old enough to fly they hit the tree limbs. I swear they just like being really high. The limbs were lower in the original run. Now they are 12 ft + up. They are fliers, easily scaling my 8 ft fence. Honestly it's only the 1 girl that I really want to keep down. We have sooo many roosters, that losing 8 wouldn't hurt. If the weather is REALLY windy (40mph gusts) she will go into the coop. At this point even 28 degree weather doesn't bother her. If I pull her from the 12 ft roost she will go 40 ft(no joke) up the next two nights so we can't grab her.
I'm rather resigned at this point. The coons know traps and work around them. The rats are being killed by the electric traps. They are living in my shed and I have seen no evidence of them in the coops (I have cameras in the coop and a dog who sniffs them out even after they have left). I'm going to use dry ice in the rat burrows on Monday. I have seen some trip wires with noise explosives that I may try with the raccoons. The raccoon traps have trapped 4 chickens, so there's that! at least they were not repeat offenders and learned.
It's been a trial, but apparently rats are horrible around here this year because of the rain.
I also called our state's fish and game and have a list of folks who will come and eradicate the coons. I'm still plugging away. We will see what works.

 

[pcakes]

I’m in the middle of a rat-battle as well. Started seeing early signs of them late October. There’s only one rat on my camera at any given time, and only in the covered porch, not the coop. Fairly certain the rat recently took over a chipmunk burrow, so hoping it’s still excavating and building its nest ~ and that there aren’t too many of them yet.

I have tried SO many different deterrents ~ including cayenne pepper. I sprinkled a bunch in and around it’s main hole, and a bunch more on the litter all around the hole. I used an entire jar in 3 days… I mean, the ground was red. And, I put it in the chicken feed with garlic powder. Didn’t even *phase* the rat.
Then I started removing chickens’ food and water when they go in for the night. Rat started to come out for the food during the day.
Tried flooding its den with garlic water ~ used a tree watering pole to pour 6 gallons - with 2 crushed cloves marinated in each gallon - into it’s hole. Also left out a small bowl of *super* garlicky water. It seemed to like it!
Tried rodent deterrents, filling holes with gravel, traps with peanut butter ~ which it wouldn’t go in despite there being no other food or water. It ate the chicken feathers instead.

I don’t like killing anything, but I finally came to the sad realization that I had no choice.
Started RatX on Sunday night. It’s not poison, so it won’t harm any predators, cats or chickens. It harms only rodents by blocking their sense of thirst. They stop drinking, and pass within a few days. I guess it’s not supposed to be that unpleasant, plus it says the desiccation also helps keep the odor down once they do pass, which would be good.

I leave a bowl out during the day where the chickens can’t get to it (why risk it) and add a second bowl at night when chickens go to bed. We’ve used almost an entire bag at this point.
Rat was going for the feed both yesterday and today, but I haven’t seen it drink once, which is unusual. So it appears to be working. Fingers crossed!