We’ve known that raccoons live in our woods since shortly after we moved in, thanks to our trail cam. They are one of the reasons that my husband built the chicken coop like Fort Knox. It is more effective to design to keep predators out, than to relocate or kill them. More predators will just move back into the area. I regularly check the perimeter for predator incursion and this week found that the back door had been broken.

I made a screen door from 2x4s a hardware cloth so during our hot summers I could let a breeze from the cooler woods pass through the coop. It really helps. A regular screen door wouldn’t hold up to raccoons, and neither would poultry wire, which is why, when I decided to leave solid door open at night, I added hardware cloth. The door halves are secured with latches and locks, but the raccoons have been pushing at the bottom right corner of the door until the opposite joint gave way. The chickens are fine, the raccoons still couldn’t get in, but I needed to reinforce the door. I fixed the joint with two new screws, added a new latch on the inside top, replaced a couple of the hinge screws with longer screws, and put a big rock inside at the bottom of the door.

The raccoons have been hanging around the back of the coop. I have a large water dish back there for the neighborhood cats, and I was perplexed when I would clean and fill the dish, and the next morning it would be nearly empty and filthy.

I set up our trail cam and obtained a photo confirming raccoon activity.