How much can raccoons eat?

[strantor]

I have 6 hens who mostly free range but they have 24/7 access to a feeder and it takes them about a month to go through 50lbs of feed. I went on a 1-week vacation and took my dog with me, had a friend come over in morning and evenings to let the chickens in/out. I filled the feeder with a 50lb bag before I left, plus maybe 20lbs of feed that was in there already. After a few days my friend called to say that the feeder was empty, so he filled it with another 50lb sack. A day and a half later when I got home it was empty again.

I get home and find that raccoons have made such a habit of visiting that feeder that they've literally worn a footpath to it. I set up a camera and caught 4 of them in the act but I don't think that can be all of them. They went through 120lbs of chicken feed in a week (I'm considering what they chickens actually ate negligible) but more extreme is that they went through 50lbs in 36hrs.

How many raccoons would you say there are, to have gone through that much that fast? I'm thinking there must be an army of them around. My friend says "you would be surprised how much they can eat, it's probably just the four of them" but I don't see any possible way. They would have to have eaten their entire body weight every day.

 

[MossRoad]

50 pounds in 36 hours, you probably have more than 4 raccoons.

 

[Jstpssng]

50 pounds in 36 hours, you probably have more than 4 raccoons.

My two pigs won't even go through that much, just before going to a better place. Funny thing about raccoons though, if they find a spot like that they eat their fill then go get their friends.

 

[fruitcakesa]

Be happy they are only eating the feed and not the chickens
Coons wiped out my flock years ago.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Raccoons have no off switch. They will eat until there is nothing left to eat.

 

[strantor]

Be happy they are only eating the feed and not the chickens
Coons wiped out my flock years ago.

I've lost at least 10 hens to raccoons in the past couple of years. I assume the only thing that saved them this past week was the readily available layer pellets nearby. Coons are vicious little turds. They'll rip the hens' heads off and just leave the headless body.

 

[strantor]

Raccoons have no off switch. They will eat until there is nothing left to eat.

It sure seems that way! But there is a physical limit to how much food can fit inside one, and 50lbs divided by whatever that limit is, equals how many raccoons are visiting my place at night. I guess there's only one way to find out...

 

[Jstpssng]

I've lost at least 10 hens to raccoons in the past couple of years. I assume the only thing that saved them this past week was the readily available layer pellets nearby. Coons are vicious little turds. They'll rip the hens' heads off and just leave the headless body.

I've had them reach through the wire to kill a bird even though they wouldn't be able to eat them. Crows will do the same. I also had problems with weasels for years. One year they killed 8 laying hens over a several day period, another time they wiped out 32, 2 week old chicks. Both times happened between when I left in the morning and got home that night. I finally moved the henhouse up the the road 1/4 and set it out from under the trees, and haven't had a problem since.

 

[strantor]

I've had them reach through the wire to kill a bird even though they wouldn't be able to eat them. Crows will do the same. I also had problems with weasels for years. One year they killed 8 laying hens over a several day period, another time they wiped out 32, 2 week old chicks. Both times happened between when I left in the morning and got home that night. I finally moved the henhouse up the the road 1/4 and set it out from under the trees, and haven't had a problem since.

My chicken coop is pretty bulletproof. When I've lost hens to coons in the past it was because my daughter didn't latch the door properly after gathering eggs. But I've seen raccoons operate and I'm pretty sure they could get into that coop if they were hungry and there were no easier options on the table.

Never had issues with crows and never seen a weasel in my life. In my neck of the woods, the predators are (in order of threat)
1. My neighbors dog
2. Raccoons
3. Owls
4. Bobcats

I've gotten (3) batches of 1 dozen chicks in the past 4 years and I'm down to 6 hens. None of them have died of environment or disease. I ate the roosters so that accounts for over 1/3 of the losses but the rest were lost to predators.

 

[bcp]

How a raccoon views a chicken coop:

Bruce