Racoons vs Chickens

 We have had chickens for about 3 years now. Every spring we buy new chicks and ducklings. This year is no different. I had 3 ducks from last year, Cherry, Freddie and Dr. Phil. A few months ago when it started to warm up my chickens and ducks started to lay eggs. They do much better when the weather is warmer and the days are longer. they were laying about a dozen a day. Then in June when the weather really got warm we noticed that they stopped laying as much and then Freddie disappeared. The ducks are normally outside of the pen so we didn't pay too close attention to their whereabouts, they always stick come back around. The eggs stopped after about 2 days and I assumed that it was due to the heat as they can also stop laying if it gets too hot. Then after about a week Dr. Phil and Cherry both went missing in the night. We decided that we had a critter although the pens hadn't moved or been messed with. So out with the box traps to see if we cold catch something throughout the night. Baited with wet cat food, honey (cat's don't eat this which is good because I don't want to catch a stray cat or one of my own) and some sweet grain. For 3 nights we did not catch anything although something was taking the food. So night four we make the super buffet and my husband keeps watch from the front porch. About 10:30 I hear the pop of the gun and a few moments later he walks in announcing that he has killed the critter that has eaten the ducks. It was a raccoon. I was expecting my chickens to start laying again now that the threat has gone. They did not start laying again and 3 days later we got our second Raccoon. The shot was clean and the hide was good so we are tanning the hide of this one. That was a week ago, I had one egg this week and finally thought that I was on the way to comfortable chickens and more eggs. Sitting outside tonight, planning our upcoming camping trip, I see a little masked face peeking around the edge of the chicken house. I don't need to go into details but the final result is that we now have 3 raccoons that will not eat another duck or chicken. So I guess the score is even my 3 ducks for those 3 raccoons. I wish they would find food elsewhere as I really do not like killing animals but it is mine or theirs in this case and as raccoons don't lay eggs then I have to side with my chickens.