My Hens

Kodiak450 · October 20, 2008

Last Tuesday I went into hen house to get eggs, replenish the chickens food and give them fresh water. I noticed I only had 9 hens vs 14, there were many feathers all over the place, both inside hen house and out in hen pen.

I found a possible point of entry that perhaps a coon might of navigated in and secured it, also there was an opening under hen house that I put a heavy rock in front of, but didn't think nothing got in under the hen house.

I then started spending alot of time out at night patrolling the oods and my property armed with my .22. I set traps as well. Well after 4 days and nights, I noticed Sat morning that the trap was dragged about 8 ft away from where I placed it and the door was still open, but bait was missing. Then went into hen house and noticed another hen missing. So went to rear of hen house and saw rock moved and then went into hen pen and looked for where this ****er was getting in. I found a hole the racoon chewed through next to the coragated pipe which the chickens use to get in and out of hen house, you couldn't see the hole from outside the pen because it was well covered up. I secured the hole and then used heavy chicken fenceing and nailed it to the outside of the building, making it impossible for the raccons to get into.

Then I reset the trap in different location, this time placing a contractor bag over cage and then placing stones and straw and leafs on top of cage. I also took some dirt and placed it inside the entrance of the cage to cover up bottom of the cage so it would fool the racoon into thinking it was getting access to a food source. II used a peice of bread with grape jelly and a peice of store bought chicken from the fridge. Again repeated patrol routine at night in hopes of spotting racoon and shooting it.

This morining I found the raccoon in the trap, big fat raccoon! He fell for it. I made a video of the raccoon being humanely killed with a .22, but the video has me in a different state of mind using explicit language. Keep in mind I lost 8 hens, thats 1/2 my hens. I had 14 to start with, now only 6. I used to get over 4 dozen eggs within 7-10 days, now I am lucky if I will get two eggs. They killed off all my egg production birds, and whats left is the older hens that most likely aren't really laying any longer. I have to wait till spring to order baby chicks, hand raise them for 1- 2 months, then wait to they mature until they lay eggs again which will be the end of summer in 2009.

This shit has really pissed me off beyond anything imagineable. Some of the hens i lost were trained to come when I called them and were very smart for hens. Some even would eat out of my hands. I have the video uploaded now, and even though the racoon was humanely killed, it is graphic and my state of mind is on kill mode. Imagine losing your pet in the night when it was sleeping and it being killed by a predator.

So if anyone wants to see the video, I will send it to you. PM me if you are interested. I don't want to post it publically and offend some animal lover.

DofD · October 20, 2008

I am sorry that a raccoon got into your hen house and killed most of your hens and that it will take so long to rebuild your flock. At least you caught and dealt with the bugger. Those raccoons are just to darn resourceful and smart. Everyone I know who has kept a flock has eventually had similar happen due to raccoons. I can also understand your anger towards the raccoon. Over time the hens become more than just egg producers.

rvsahs · October 20, 2008

Ah yes, back in the day, this used to happen when I lived on the farm. Once coons get a taste of chicken, they will do anything to break down the door. And they love sweet corn outta the field too, just enough to ruin every ear they pull down. They are clever like a fox! My dad's 16 guage shotgun took care of 'em when I caught them (not very often) at the crime scene.

Kodiak450 · October 20, 2008

I had this one black chicken i named (Crow Bird) because she looked like a crow, she was the latest victim and the last. Anyway she was so funny and smart. Her and Lily (The bird you would see in the video) and is still alive. She would come running out of the hen house when I brought her and the rest of the hens scraps to eat. Sometimes I'd swear she talked back to me in chicken language when she made noises, I would mimic them back at her and she would do it again. She was very soft too! I feel a sense of relief and so did Lily when she saw me do justice on that coon, Lily literally was watching when I shot that coon in the head and was praising me for doing so in chicken language.

There are still more coons to be caught, even though this coon I caught weighed close to 40 pds there is no way that coon took off with 8 birds the first night. I am sure there was a family with him when doing the killing. I reset the trap and have a leg iron trap on the way with coon lure. I watched the video about 10 times already and it makes me feel good knowing that bastard is dead now. The video is pretty good, as you can see the blood gushing out the head onto the ground. If anyone wants to see it let me know and I'll send it to you.

rvsahs · October 20, 2008

I had this one black chicken i named (Crow Bird) because she looked like a crow, she was the latest victim and the last. Anyway she was so funny and smart. Her and Lily (The bird you would see in the video) and is still alive. She would come running out of the hen house when I brought her and the rest of the hens scraps to eat. Sometimes I'd swear she talked back to me in chicken language when she made noises, I would mimic them back at her and she would do it again. She was very soft too! I feel a sense of relief and so did Lily when she saw me do justice on that coon, Lily literally was watching when I shot that coon in the head and was praising me for doing so in chicken language.

There are still more coons to be caught, even though this coon I caught weighed close to 40 pds there is no way that coon took off with 8 birds the first night. I am sure there was a family with him when doing the killing. I reset the trap and have a leg iron trap on the way with coon lure. I watched the video about 10 times already and it makes me feel good knowing that bastard is dead now. The video is pretty good, as you can see the blood gushing out the head onto the ground. If anyone wants to see it let me know and I'll send it to you.

Dave, you outta send it to the folks at PETA! Oh boy, the wails and gnashing of teeth! You could justify by saying you were protecting your personal property/livelihood. I'm sure it would leave a warm feeling in their hearts, like heartburn!

Zembonez · October 20, 2008

I wouldn't know how to keep a chicken alive (and my homeowner's association would have me in jail) but I can't blame you for doing the raccoon in. Crafty little bastards apparently!

Draenor · October 20, 2008

I hope you made a hat out of him.

..Probably good eating too, though I havn't tried....yet....

Kodiak450 · October 20, 2008

No, no hat. I was tired this morning and started to remove his fur but stopped. I was feeding his fat tissues to my hens and they loved it! The ccon is in a bag in my garbage awaiting his destination in some garbage dump. I did try cutting off his head and planned on mounting it on the hen house walls, but don't know where my serrated bigger knife was. I was so pissed off when I first noticed 8 hens gone, then 4 days later two more gone, then it got personal. I was spending alot of time trying to get crow bird to not runaway when I got close enough to her. Lily my favorite bird and is alive and well at one point after working with her I got her to stop with hang signals and was able to pick her up and put her on my shoulders. Ofcoarse I needed to work on her perpetiual pooping. I just was so pissed, because I think when the first 8 were killed i was outside in the back by my fire pit and heard a brief clunking noise in the hen house. I did go up to look at it and saw the light was off, so I figured they knocked down the power strip because the light is on a timer and it was kinda early for the light to be off, but then it was quiet so I went back to the fire.

The hens are so emtionally stressed, this moringing two of them were perched on the rafter where I hang a straw rake from, and they never go up there as there is hardly any room for them. In the video, Lily was watching the execution and she did a (bock cock cock cock) call, it was her approval call for justice. I have a surviellance camera outside the pen and inside the house and an extra light that turns on via RF signal. The one light is on a photo cell device and is set for 4 hours as soon as sun sets. I also have this electronic motion sensor that will trip off an alarm if some thing walks in front of it, but can't get the damn thing to work. I got it for free when I bought the cameras, but it is a POS and hard to get it to work.

Kodiak450 · October 20, 2008

I had this one black chicken i named (Crow Bird) because she looked like a crow, she was the latest victim and the last. Anyway she was so funny and smart. Her and Lily (The bird you would see in the video) and is still alive. She would come running out of the hen house when I brought her and the rest of the hens scraps to eat. Sometimes I'd swear she talked back to me in chicken language when she made noises, I would mimic them back at her and she would do it again. She was very soft too! I feel a sense of relief and so did Lily when she saw me do justice on that coon, Lily literally was watching when I shot that coon in the head and was praising me for doing so in chicken language.

There are still more coons to be caught, even though this coon I caught weighed close to 40 pds there is no way that coon took off with 8 birds the first night. I am sure there was a family with him when doing the killing. I reset the trap and have a leg iron trap on the way with coon lure. I watched the video about 10 times already and it makes me feel good knowing that bastard is dead now. The video is pretty good, as you can see the blood gushing out the head onto the ground. If anyone wants to see it let me know and I'll send it to you.

I don't think they would like to see the video. They would make a stink that it should've been relocated. I beg to differ.

Dave, you outta send it to the folks at PETA! Oh boy, the wails and gnashing of teeth! You could justify by saying you were protecting your personal property/livelihood. I'm sure it would leave a warm feeling in their hearts, like heartburn!

AllBlkdOut07 · October 20, 2008

Racoons eat hens? Wow..never would've thought. I would've thought it was a fox, and maybe the 'coon was attatrcted to the food on the trap, or even tried to get in to eat some of the hens food that might've been left over and it was a coincidence. Sure it was the racoon that did all the killing?

Kodiak450 · October 21, 2008

Yea it was a coon. I thought too it was a fox, but would a fox crawl under a space that is only 6 inches tall and for 8 ft in distance? Plus the first time the bait was taken from trap was the rear of trap. A coon has long claws able to grab stuff from small places. The coon in the trap this morning actually managed to pull in most the the large contractor bag that was covering the top, and those bags are thick! I know there is more coons, as I had 8 hens taken last sunday and no way one coon would be able to take 8 full size hens back to the den by itself.

Last year I saw on my infared camera a baby racoon one night outside on my front pathway. I went out there with my .22, but was reluctant to kill it. I actually thought it was cool as I mimicked a racoon sound and the little guy followed me all around my property. He even took a dip in my small pond. I did do his hissing thing, but also made a baby noise. I got him on tape too, I should find it and upload it and post it for you guys. I eventially led him to the other side of my property so that he would find his family, never saw him again. This coon I took out today was a large male, he must of wieghed 30-45 pds tops. He was well fed as he dined on my chickens (all 8 of them) in the last 7 days.

I hope I catch the rest of them soon! I have a bullet with their name on it, for each of them.

VMax2007 · October 21, 2008

Send it to me in a PM, I wanna see it.

dietz4ibanez · October 21, 2008

I can take care of your coon problem!

dietz4ibanez · October 21, 2008

Some of these images that I am about to show may be disturbing to those that like coons... But while I was on vacation this past summer and after every night the coons managing to put all the trash all over the wrap around deck of our cabin I decided to take action...

And these were the results....

See next post if you dare...