HI EVERYONE!

I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TRAP WHATEVER HAS BEEN BODILY REMOVING MY POOR HENS FROM THEIR COOP NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN AND HAVE AS YET BEEN UNSUCCESSFUL.(I WROTE PREVIOUSLY ON THE 'DEPRESSING UPDATE ON MY BROODY HEN'.)I'VE GOT A LG. SZ. HAVAHART TRAP AND SOMETHING KEEPS GOING IN AND TAKING THE BAIT.ONCE IT TRIPPED THE TRAP BUT ESCAPED; THE OTHER TIMES IT HAS STOLEN BAIT WIHTOUT TRIPPING THE TRAP DOOR SHUT.SO,I THOUGHT IT WAS A RAT AND HAVE BEEN SETTING OUT A RAT TRAP THE PAST COUPLE OF DAYS.DAY ONE:RAT TRAP MOVED FROM IT'S LOCATION AND TRIPPED:NOTHING IN IT.DAY TWO:RAT TRAP OUTSIDE THE CHICKEN YARD ALTOGETHER,TRIPPED,AND BAIT STOLEN!!!!THIS COULDN'T BE THE SAME THING THAT HAS BEEN TACKING MY HENS AND EATING 14 EGGS IN ONE SITTING BEFORE MAKIING OFF WITH MY VERY NICE HEN DOTTY,COULD IT?HOW DO I TRAP THIS WHATEVER IT IS?WHATEVER IS IT ANYWAYS? THERE ARE NO HOLES OR TUNNELS UNDER THE CHICKEN WIRE.OUR FENCE IS 6 FOOT HIGH.THANKS FOR ANY RESPONSES I GET!!! IN HIS LOVE,~~~~~~~TRACY~~~~~~~

-- Tracy Jo Neff (tntneff@ifriendly.com), June 27, 2000

Answers

At this point I think I'd say "heck with it" and start laying out poison, a lotof poison. It sounds like you are having 'possum problems (which I consider to be nothing more than really bigugly smart rats) or maybe a raccoon, nothing else I can think of can climb and squirm through holes like you've described. Either way killthat sucker! Try good old rat DECON mixed in with hamburger.

Hope this helps a bit.

-- Dave (AK) (daveh@ecosse.net), June 27, 2000.

Tracy;

You may want to consider using a couple of small leg traps. Tie the bait to the trip plate so it can't be removed easily. It's time to get aggressive before you lose any more hens. I realize that you have no desire to kill but this is defending the lives of your hens. If you do catch the raider a 22 cal. rifle will finish the job for you.

Good luck, you have my sympathy.

Jim T.

-- Jim Tanner (tanner_jim@hotmail.com), June 27, 2000.

Tracy -- You mention that there is no sign -- at all -- of the chickens. No feathers, nothing??? The bait is taken, but no trap ever set off? Is it possible that the culprit is more of the two legged variety??? Any hungry folks in your area? I'd suggest sitting up one night in a window facing the henhouse with a spotlight -- ready to turn it on at the first sign of movement.

-- Tracy (trimmer@westzone.com), June 27, 2000.

Hi everyone!

Thanks for the advice so far!I would like to try the poison idea, but I'm afraid my daughter's favorite kitty would get in.Of course, he's never done that before.I don't have any leg traps,but my brother does.Maybe he'll bring some up this weekend.Tracy,there were feathers here and there but nothing else,and there weren't lots and lots of them.How frustrating this is!I think I will have to keep watch on my coop tonight to see what's up.My 19mo.old son has been sick with mild bronchial pnuemonia so I haven't been up there late at night yet.By the way,is it likely to try to attack me? I'm sure I sound thouroughly daft,but I grew up in Navy housing and don't have hardly any real experience with this sort of thing.I guess I'm getting a crash course now!!!I wonder what I'll have to ask everyone about when I finally can get a few goats! Thanks a bunch everyone and may God truly bless you, ~~~~~~~Tracy~~~~~~~~~

-- Tracy Jo Neff (tntneff@ifriendly.com), June 27, 2000.

JUST A THOUGHT:IF THIS WASN'T SUCH A DEPRESSING SITUATION WITH MY POOR HENS,MY CHICKEN YARD WOULD BE A LAUGHABLE SIGHT!i PLAN ON TRYING EVERYTHING!THIS BEAST MUST DIE!!! SO, I WILL BE IN MY CAR NEAR THE COOP POISED TO SNIPER(AFTER MY HUSBAND SHOWS ME HOW TO USE THE GUN),IN THE YARD WILL BE A MINEFIELD OF BIG,RAT-POISONED MEATBALLS;LEG TRAPS;THE HAVAHART TRAP;AND TWO RAT TRAPS(FOR I THINK I'LL BUY THE CHEAP ONE AND SEE IF IT WORKS BETTER). THIS IS WAR!!!! THANKS EVERYONE~~~TRACY~~~~

-- Tracy Jo Neff (tntneff@ifriendly.com), June 27, 2000.

be very carefull with the poison bait in hamburger as cats, dogs, chickens, ect will eat it.The few times i baited i put the bait in a closed empty rabbit cage. Sounds like what you have is to large to squeeze through the bars though.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), June 27, 2000.

LOL Definitely keep us posted Tracy. :-) What you described is exactly what's been happening to our hens; dissappearing with a feww feathers here n there, trap raided & not sprung, sprung empty trap. Ours is a havahart live trap as well. After a frustrating while, we saw the culprit, a raccoon. We couldn't resort to poison since we have so many cats (we caught a few of them in the live trap :). We saw it take a hen in broad daylight, pulling it through the fence to it's lair. Dad took a shot at it and missed, but last night a friend went out with a shotgun, the thing was in the henhouse (!!!), and when the sucker came out BOOM! Dead coon, finally. It's tail is now drying on the clothesline. *smug smile* Good Luck!

-- Michelle (thepieplace@techline.com), June 27, 2000.

Thanks for the answers everyone!!! I'll put the poison burger in the old dog cage-that way it only gets anything small enough to enter. Glad you got that coon Michelle!!!I tell you I've never been inclined to kill an animal till now![I thought if y2k was bad at least we'd be able to have chicken and eggs...well,the truth is these hens are pretty much egg producing pets!Eventually,I might order some broilers from Murray McMurray,but I won't name them!!!] I sure do want to dispatch this varmint though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks!!Lord bless...~~~~~~~~~~~~Tracy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Tracy Jo Neff (tntneff@ifriendly.com), June 27, 2000.

Dear Tracy, I do hope you find that culprit! It made me remember one time when we lived in another state, our boys would go out to milk the goat and there wouldn't be very much milk; when they would gather the eggs the nests would be empty; vegetables were missing from our garden. We had heard there were two excaped convicts but didn't think much of it since everything was so quiet around our place. Then one night our dog barked horrendously.....one of our boys jumped to the window in time to see a two legged figure quickly exiting out yard. We never had any more trouble.

-- Norma Lucas (trooper806@webtv.net), June 27, 2000.

Tracy:

I'd just about be willing to bet it's a raccoon. That's what got every one of my first hatch ducklings and any unhatched eggs - all in one night. How could it eat so much. My ducks now won't nest anywhere but on a shelf in my workshop.

-- Ken Scharabok (scharabo@aol.com), June 27, 2000.

Tracy, Seems like it's that time of year- we've trapped 4 big raccoons in the last two weeks. Marshmallows have worked well for us. We had to borrow a larger trap from the county, ours was too small and they could steal the bait. Also, from our experience, the poison does not work on raccoons. You could be risking killing other critters that aren't doing you any harm. BUT, as someone else mentioned, the lack of feathers, egg shell remains and dead hens causes me to suspect a two-legged varmint is the culprit! BTW, the raccoons would find eggs we missed up in the hay mow and drop them down through an open trap door to crack them open! We are being more diligent in our egg search now. Good luck to you in your hunt and please keep us posted!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), June 27, 2000.

Id use a couple kill traps, medium and large, If its taking that many, I wouldnt care what it was

-- STAN (sopal@net-port.com), June 27, 2000.

If your traps don't work, and poison is out of the question, you've got two options, kill the culprits, or surrender. If you want to kill them, you can either sit up all night long in the chicken house and shoot em with a shotgun or .22. I personally don't like staying up all night waiting for the coons or possums, so when I start missing chickens or guineas, I install a DOORBELL. You tie tin cans together so they'll rattle if you dangle em from a string. Tie several of these onto the top of the posts supporting the chicen wire. Arrange em so that if anything touches the fence or tries to climb over, it'll knock em off. You can tie long stretches of hay string right above the posts, tying one end off on a post, the other end attached to a flattened can. Place your other "noise cans" ontop. When anything touches the tripwire, it spills the cans. I've also used several scraps of tin tied together on a string, and "just" balanced ontop of the posts, or near the entrance to the chicken coop. I could go on and on, but you get the idea. The key is to "HEAR" the doorbell, if your a light sleeper, it shouldn't be a problem. React with overwhelming firepower when alerted. I keep a 10-22 rifle, with a duct taped maglite on it just for those emergencies. Flick on the switch, and shoot the eyes. Scour the trees and if you see eyes, it's probably your coon or possum.

Apologies to animal lovers. I did give an option, surrender. I love animals as much as anyone, but coons and possums aren't endangered by any stretch. If I see either a half mile from my house, I let em go. If they visit my chickens, they die. Because they'll come back until there aren't any more.

-- phil briggs (phillipbriggs@thenett.com), June 27, 2000.

Tracy,

We had a problem like this. Hubby dispatched two LARGE possums. Don't count on the possum to play dead. They can be vicious. Do you have electricity near the hen house? Maybe motion activated lights in strategic places would help. You mentioned a baby, do you have an electronic room monitor? If it works on batteries, put the transmitter in the hen house. If your sneak is grabbing chickens, there's bound to be some noise.

Good luck.........Mona

-- Mona (jascamp@ipa.net), June 28, 2000.

HELLO EVERYONE!THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR ADVICE!!! WE CAUGHT IT!!!!! I THINK IT'S A 'COON,BUT AS IT IS CURLED UP IN A BALL WITH LOTS OF STRAW AROUND IT,I'M NOT CERTAIN. WE LAID OUT LOTS OF TRAPS LAST NIGHT.RAT TRAPS,GLUE TRAPS, POISONED CATFOOD(SQUISHY SORT)IN THE DOG CAGE,AND THE HAVAHART WITH CATFOOD AND MARSHMALLOWS IN IT.NONE OF THE OTHER TRAPS WERE TOUCHED(EXCEPT FOR ONE CIVILIAN CASUALTY:A SMALL SPARROW IN THE GLUE TRAP: WE CLEANED HIM UP W/OLIVE OIL AND LET HIM GO.) NOW I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING WITH MY 'COON.HE'S IN THE C-YARD, AND FAROOK MY KOOKY ROOSTER IS CROWING MOST PATHETICALLY.I KNOW HE WANTS OUT OF THAT COOP! SO, WHAT DO I DO NOW?IS IT SAFE TO MOVE THIS TRAP,OR IS IT A VERY RISKY PROCEDURE? ALSO, I KNOW I HAVE TO KILL THIS THING,BUT I FEEL SURPRISINGLY MISERABLE ABOUT IT!!! THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE! OH!! SHOULD I KEEP PUTTING THE TRAP OUT AT NIGHT OR NOT? GOD RICHEST BLESSINGS...... ~~~~TRACY~~~~

-- Tracy Jo Neff (tntneff@ifriendly.com), June 28, 2000.

Congratulations on your catch! Since no one else has responded lately, I'll stick my $2 in. (inflation, you know) Be VERY careful if it's a coon or a possum, both can be vicious as someone already mentioned. If you don't want to shoot it in the cage- you would have to try to avoid any working parts so you could use it again; I would advise drowning it while still in the cage. Use heavy leather gloves that will protect not only your hands but your wrists as well. They have claws and teeth! Don't let the growling and snarling scare you , it will do both. You don't want to drop the cage while you're trying to move it.Drop the cage in a big barrel of water and walk away for a while. Best of luck. I hate to kill animals too, but when they've killed mine I get nasty.

-- Peg (NW WI) (wildwoodfarms@hushmail.com), June 28, 2000.

Tracy Jo, We suggest that you invest in a .22 cal. Ruger pistol. At close range (1-4ft) you can just about sew with the thing and it will not richocet like a rifle will. Good luck, John and Pat

-- John and Pat James (jjames@n-jcenter.com), June 28, 2000.

Tracy, Well this has been some exciting reading! I hope you have killed the "coon by now. I have had the same problem only with possums, i love animals too but kill any possum who shows up on the property. I don't know about cons but possums like to live in brush piles. I managed to buy the "wildlife preserve" behind my house and cleaned up the brush piles and finally got the city to clean up their brush pile that was behind it and it has really cut down on the possum population that has enjoyed the fast food service here at my itty bitty farm! I vote for a 410 shotgun it does not kick a lady shooter like the bigger ones and since I only shoot varmits with it the high cost of the shells is not too bad. karen

-- Karen Mauk (dairygoatmama@hotmail.com), July 02, 2000.