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Author Topic: Horrors!! Raccoon pushed over my hive last night  (Read 8105 times)

Offline Livefreeordie

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Re: Horrors!! Raccoon pushed over my hive last night
« Reply #20 on: August 19, 2010, 10:56:47 pm »
Yeah, that is what he said. That once they are trapped, they are much harder to trap again.

I don't care that much. Just waiting for this all to be over. I am more concerned about the neighbors dog getting caught in the trap, and I just called them to keep an eye on their dog today and tie him up tonight. They were not happy, but they understand what I have been going through.

I pray the coon or coons (he set 2 traps just to be sure) are caught tonight and this trouble is over.

Wish me good luck for a speedy outcome

Annette

In some cases yes, but again, coons are pretty dumb. At any rate, good luck, if he is a decent trapper, they should be history pretty quick, coon are very easy to trap.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. ~ Thomas Jefferson ~

Offline annette

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Re: Horrors!! Raccoon pushed over my hive last night
« Reply #21 on: August 20, 2010, 02:53:19 pm »
OK day one:  Nothing in the traps this morning. He placed in cage good raccoon food and an egg and trailed along the ground some kind of lure, so I know he knows what to do.

Offline iddee

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Re: Horrors!! Raccoon pushed over my hive last night
« Reply #22 on: August 20, 2010, 08:19:07 pm »
I have never caught the same one twice. It may have something to do with the sweet potatoes and stuffing.  :-D   :evil:
"Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me . . . Anything can happen, child. Anything can be"

*Shel Silverstein*

Offline Livefreeordie

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Re: Horrors!! Raccoon pushed over my hive last night
« Reply #23 on: August 20, 2010, 10:33:23 pm »
I have never caught the same one twice. It may have something to do with the sweet potatoes and stuffing.  :-D   :evil:

 :-D..I heard that, all God's animals deserve a place right next to the mashed potatoes.
When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. ~ Thomas Jefferson ~

Offline Paynesgrey

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Re: Horrors!! Raccoon pushed over my hive last night
« Reply #24 on: August 21, 2010, 02:39:45 pm »
Several mentioned putting the hives in a dog run to keep coons out. You will need to chainlink the top of it too, or at least use very heavy, small hole chickenwire over the top. Coon will have no problem climbing chain link, pulling light chickenwire apart like taffy, jumping in, filling up, and climbing back out. Lost a gosling a night, and then my 3 best/friendliest laying hens to one that found a weak spot where we had wired around the shade tree in one of our chicken yards before we trapped it out.   :-\ 

Chainlinking the top is a really heavy job, scaffolding would help. But the plus is that if you tarp over the chainlink or heavy dipped chickenwire which is lighter to work with, the tarp will not sag, and it will should shade the bees in the hottest part of the day. You should also have a foundation for the bottom, or the coon can easily dig under. Several feet inside and out of buried heavy wire/chainlink, several feet of metal siding, concrete pad or whatever else folks successfully use to keep their chickens safe.

Offline AliciaH

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Re: Horrors!! Raccoon pushed over my hive last night
« Reply #25 on: August 21, 2010, 02:43:38 pm »
Hot wire around that chain link or chicken wire works really well!  Haven't had any problems with my chicken coop since I added that. 

Offline annette

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Re: Horrors!! Raccoon pushed over my hive last night
« Reply #26 on: August 21, 2010, 06:18:14 pm »
Maybe the sweet potatoes and stuffing work better than what he placed in the trap because here we are on day #2 and nothing in trap.


Offline winginit

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Re: Horrors!! Raccoon pushed over my hive last night
« Reply #27 on: August 21, 2010, 08:45:32 pm »
Annette so sorry to hear about your hives. I always worry about the coons. Around here we've decided we have good ones and then there are the bad ones. The good ones just mess around in the compost pile, but every so often we get a mean, tough-as-nails coon. One broke into the chicken coop every night and killed and ate one hens while the other hens just watched. By the third night we had 3 inch chains around that coop. Remaining chickens were traumatized! Then another one took to jumping off the roof onto the plastic containers of bird seed. The weight of the coon broke the plastic. One time he missed and hit and broke a table. What a racket that made. It had to hurt, but I guess that bird seed was worth it. He came back and destroyed heavier containers.

We hate doing it, but when we get the bad ones, we trap.