How do you guys set for coons that live in hay barns. One of the places I trap there is coon poop everywhere on top of the bails and for some reason they just wouldn’t get caught.

They must go in and out of the barn.

watch for in and out locations.

they tend to be in the barns when cold and not as much now

week old coon scat or months old coon scat in a ban it dries out so fast it is a little hard to tell one from the other.

I agree with Boco more of mine have been caught in the path they take between barns than in the barn

look for trails , lots of times it will be about 8 inches off the barn , it isn't the drip edge but it is all beaten down

places they can go under the bottom board of a pole shed

corners
any holes in the floor

if the floor is dirt rake it or sweep it and watch where the tracks appear

the one machine shed has dirt floor , when I first looked at the location it looked like a million coon march had happened in there , day 2 of no catches in the machine shed I swept the tracks and nothing has been caught and no tracks since , so in buildings sign might be old and you can learn a lot sweeping. raking , just moving the dust around with your boot to make a clear area to see new tracks.

Thanks for the input

I use livetraps in barns they work good.

Knew a lady that raised Charolais cattle and she fed a lot of molasses and the coons were literally taking over and coon crap was all over her hay. She had a barn full of cats too she didn't want harmed. There was an old pond that was fenced off from the cattle. I put #11's and slide wires in that pond using feed molasses as bait. Caught 22 in the first 3 nights. No harmed cats and continued catching coons the rest of the winter til bad weather set in then switched to cage traps in the barn, nothing like the first 3 nights though.

The lady was impressed and I had free range of her farm for 3 or 4 more years. She was a great lady, was vice president of a bank and cattle farmer.

As I understand it, Coon urine is highly toxic to horses.

Downspouts are a common access route here on houses.

My first option is usually cages at the base of the structure on the access route. Then follow the trail away from the structure to blend in a few other cages.

Conibear in a bucket

Cages and you can stabilize them with hay but keep in mind a coon can tear anything up it can reach.
If a hole in/out a conibear works but have to watch for barn cats. Cages are safest beat. Set the trail in out on outside of barn too. Follow the trails back to source too. Dens, maybe a creek for water, or some food source.
Jim

this is why there is a zero tolerance , no mercy policy on coons or possum in buildings or around hay at the farm

grandpa lost his favorite horse to the disease they carry and leave on the hay years ago.
he is in his 80s can't drive , can hardly sign his name the shakes are so bad he used to shoot every one he saw

now I trap them.

Don't stabalize a cage trap for coons with baled hay or straw. Your trap will be chuck full of hay or straw. Don't let them reach stuff that they can pull into the trap, rope, twine, burlap bags etc. etc. The coons need to leave the hay barn to find food. There will be trails and also there maybe entry points where the wood and or paint is wore off. Females may well have used the hay barns for denning areas for rearing their young. They can borrow into bales pretty easily and safety is pretty good.

Bryce

Yep throw a few chunks of canned tuna in the back of the bucket and a 220 set in notches cut from the rim of the bucket will catch every coon in the place. Set them up high off the ground on the bales to keep pets out of them.

I had a case where these guys had a chicken barn. During the winter coon had somehow gotten into the heat ducts. I found a spot where they were coming out of the ducts when the heat was on and caught them around that area with DPs. There were four of them, very prime pelts. Some of the best coon I ever caught.

I had one with an unused house on a farm.

the eves of the house were pulled down old wood and the coons were living up in the porch attic , you could see the dirty spots where they climbed the door frame and went over the trim right under the eve
both sides of the door.

ran DPs so that they couldn't reach each other and caught quite a few , I thought I saw a trail going around the house so I had another stuck in that about 40 feet around the side of the house that never caught so they apparently they found the ones stuck in their face as soon as they got down.

In my barn, I set 160's in vertical boxes, with bottom only 4 or 5 inches or so off a solid flat deck, so a coon has to slither under the bottom edge, then push forward with back feet while pushing up with front feet, leading with their nose. They engage trigger wires just past halfway in. No reaching possible.

Bait is put on a shelf up high inside the box. It is left out and baited to train them to enter. Dry cat food left around the base, so easy for them to find. Box orientation screens out dogs and use of something like marshmallows for box bait keeps barn cats out, and they are not inclined to climb up inside a box for a marshmallow anyway. Coon will stand up inside the box to dine in private. Once they get trained to finding that bait, they race to see who gets in first.

X2
Set up the trails. When they leave they are definitely looking for food & will be much more interested in a cage trap