Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss Rocky Raccoon Has to Go!

I have a boat-load of raccoons around my pond, eating clams and the occational fish. I usually wait until deer season is over until I let the neighbor trap on my farm, but the population is getting crazy, so I may allow access earlier this year. No problem with the trash. When the occasional raccoon finds it, I leave Exlax around the bags, and that seems to train them to go elsewhere. They ain't dumb!

Well, the raccoons won. My chicken coop and pen was a mass murder scene when I went down there this morning. All had been beheaded.

I cannot figure out how the coons got in. The chicken "run" is made of eight 6x10 foot dog kennel sections set over fencing buried about 4 inches in the ground and connected to the kennel panels. The coop eves are all boxed in and the rest of the coop, except for the chicken door, is very tight. After the last attacks I even put a second set of chicken fencing over the top.

Coons certainly are clever, scheming, and deadly critters.

Geeze, I'm down to just my one-eyed cat and the fish.

Sounds more like a mink to me. They seem to like heads.

I'd think a mink (or other weasel family member) might get in through a much smaller hole than a coon, too.

Mink had me fooled also. I originally blamed the coyotes for all of my poultry losses. I saw a mink run down and kill a rabbit from my tree stand a few years back. They are proficient killers.

I had a feral cat kill a couple of tame woodies a while back. It killed 3, ate the heads and partially buried one. I trapped it, and it was huge. I held it by it's rear legs at my belt and the front feet were dragging on the ground. I didn't know what killed them, but a #1 1/2 foot hold trap did the trick. I was suprised to see the cat!

Ken, have you ever had Geese, some African or Embden geese would raise a ruckus and they don't back down from much.

Ken, now you can get your worms started again. No chickens, no problems.

Always look for the silver lining eh Dave:-)

Good thought. Actually, the worms have been doing a pretty good recovery job this summer. They are just about back to normal. I've had an old cast iron stove lid on top of the container.

As for the heinous critter, I still figure it was a raccoon because of the large scat pile left in the chicken yard. And, my game camera sees more coons than anything else. Sometime it will catch three at a time.




We've always got lots of critters roaming. Like this scroungy canine:



And, this dwarf Black Panther (who appears a little small for his size):

How did the "Granville (Ohio) Lion" make it all the way down to your place?



















Cat carrier?

I don't know if there is any significance to this, and I'm not paranoid most of the time, but the panther's tag is stamped "Raccoon International Golf Club, Raccoon Valley Road." Theo, you wouldn't possibly know anything about this conspiracy, would you?

AP -- as for geese, I just get these occasional Canadian snow birds that stop by for a snack and a poop on their annual journeys.





And, I've always got these two kinds of turkeys around.

Top turkey, yucky...

Bottom turkey, yummy!