For the past week, I’ve been locked in a battle with raccoons that have been relentlessly invading my chicken coop. The toll has been heavy: I’ve lost six chickens, possibly more.
It all started when I found the first dead chicken inside the coop. Initially, I thought a rooster might have killed a hen. But a quick review of the security camera footage revealed that all the chickens had been in a state of panic at around 3 AM.
Determined to protect my flock, I went out and re-secured all the wire fencing, making sure to close off any gaps that a young pullet could squeeze through. I thought I had solved the problem.
However, the next night, I lost two more chickens. This time, the security cameras clearly caught a raccoon in the act. It was a mother raccoon, likely looking to feed her babies.
Upon further investigation, I discovered that the raccoons had dug through the fencing I had buried in the ground. None of the chickens from that pen returned to sleep there that night; they found refuge in other pens. With an empty pen, I set a live trap inside the coop, baiting it with dog food.
The following morning, as I went to open up all the coops, I found mama raccoon caught in the live trap. A wave of relief washed over me as I dispatched the raccoon, believing I had solved the problem that had caused so much distress over the last few days.
I slept soundly that night, only to wake up the next morning to find another coop had been broken into. The battle with the raccoons was far from over.