The Day We Caught a Mama Raccoon

For the past month or so, the shed where I keep my chicken feed has been broken into and sometimes the lids taken off the metal cans that store the grain for my chickens. So, I've alternately set a "raccoon repeller," which is a small motion detector that emits a high-pitched sound when it's set off. This has worked very well, but I can't always set the motion detector because occasionally I get home well after dark, and 'coons are out and about just when it's good and dark--about 45 minutes after sunset--and again just before dawn. On these days my chickens are vulnerable to the raccoons until I can get home and lock them up. I have lost several chickens in the past few months, so on weekends and days my husband is home, I've been setting our trap to capture and relocate at least some of the coons. So, I was not surprised this morning when I went up to the poultry yard to find a big raccoon in the trap. She was so upset that she had turned the trap over on its side in her efforts to get out. No coon had ever done that before, and I wondered about it. However, I picked up the trap and set it down in the back yard out of the poultry yard so that we could take care of the coon after breakfast.

As I was fixing breakfast, I looked out my kitchen window and saw another raccoon coming down the path from the poultry yard. It was smaller than the one in the trap, and it would stop every couple of feet, raise itself up a bit on its hind legs and sniff the air. It found the trapped coon and went right up to it. They seemed happy to see each other and sniffed noses through the cage wire. The trapped coon must have been the little one's mama. Well, this just settled the matter. I called to my husband to look out the window to see this drama. Of course, there was absolutely no question now that we would let the mama coon out of the trap so she could be with her baby. However, raccoons are not the safe, cuddly little creatures they appear to be. They are "little bears," related, in a manner, to Panda bears, and we had a mama coon separated from her baby and we were going to go out there and open the trap to let her out. That means our hands would be inches away from this coon, and we had no idea what she would do once she got out. The baby had waddled up the hill and into the bushes as soon as we came out the back door. My husband opened the trap door while I held a long walking stick just in case. At first she was not aware that the door was open, since she was more concerned with keeping her face toward us, but she soon found her way out and took off likity-split. She went in a slightly different direction than her baby, but I'm sure that they very soon found each other and are now well on their way to their home for their daily nap.

I guess I'll have to rely more on strategically placed motion detectors to protect my chickens.

Critter trouble

Last night seemed to be a busy night for animals up around my chicken houses. (Click on the pictures to see a larger, more detailed version.) My husband bought a StealthCam* a few months ago, and we've been "watching" various spots on our property at night. I've captured photos of a large opossum up there in the poultry yard, which I've since trapped and re-located. Last night a younger 'possum came by less than an hour after this huge raccoon. This 'coon his huge. He (or she) has been digging under one of the henhouses trying to get in, and I blocked that up. You can see in last night's pictures that he still shows an active interest in the second henhouse. I think it's a matter of time that he/she will try again to get in there after my chickens.

There are other pictures that were captured last night that did not show an animal. However, it's obvious from the sequence that some animal was messing with the StealthCam. (Motion triggers the camera to take a pre-set series of pictures.) It had to be a large animal since I hang the StealthCam about four feet off the ground. That has me a bit nervous. I'll have to think of another place to hang the camera to try to capture pictures of whatever this animal is. It could be that raccoon coming back a few hours later. I think he could reach that high if he stood on his hind legs.

*Note: Neither I nor my husband are hunters, and we don't allow hunting on our property. We use the StealthCam solely to discover what's going on around our property when we're either asleep or not there. Anyway, it's FUN!

Nighttime visitors

My husband recently bought an infrared "gamecam" that we can strap to a tree or post, program it, and let it capture photos of whatever moves in front of it until we turn it off. It's turning out to be my new toy, and I'm having a ball with it! So far we've captured photos of our cats, raccoons, and possums. At left is one of a raccoon crossing our yard. Usually the critter that trips the shutter is moving so fast that only a part of it shows in the photo. I think there must be a couple of seconds lag tme before the photo is taken. It certainly makes life interesting!

That must be some kind of huge raccoon!

We've been having the usual Spring trouble with raccoons getting into my chicken feed. In past years they've been satisfied with eating whatever small bits the chickens left over from the day. This year, however, they've been breaking into my storage shed and taking the lid off the metal garbage can and feasting on the grain. I put a heavy cement block on the lid, but the first night they moved that out of the way and feasted anyway. They didn't move the cement block the past two nights. They got into the shed by pulling the front wall away from the frame. Yes, they pulled the wall away from the frame and crawled in. That's really not the feat of strength is seems to be since that corner of the shed has been well rain-soaked over the years, and the wood has become soft. However, I never expected them to rip apart a heavy, wire box trap. Makes me wonder what kind of raccoon is still up there. They are not the sweet, cute, cuddly looking "bandits" they appear to be. They are wild animals, and it's best to remember that.

My husband emailed the company that sells the box traps and ordered a new sliding "back door." (This trap has a sliding back door to release the trapped animal.) I included the pictures with that email. I also sent the pictures to a very old family friend who is something of a "woodsman" (not a hunter) to get his take on this ripped trap.

I just can't get over that ripped trap. I NEVER expected to see that. I mean, this trap is big and built to trap raccoons and animals of that size. Life sure is "interesting" out here in the boonies.