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?

 

[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.

 

[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!!

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Evadig]

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, but even if it wasn't I would never release. My opinion...Your just giving the problem to someone else, by releasing it.
I bury everyone of them.

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.

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 .

 

[wrathsfarm]

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 .

This is true... Not knowing what state OP is in I just offered MY advise, based on MY state laws.
I agree.. knowing your nuisance animal state law is always a first step.
That's all I can offer for advise hence the reason I stated what MY state law was.
Sorry I can't be more helpful than that

 

[No Coop No Problem]

Kill them and feed them to your chickens