First time poster and also new to trapping. Sorry for the long first post

So I have an abandoned acerage/farm across the road from me. Few months ago we had 20 some chickens get killed over a couple nights. Pretty much decided it was coons from across the road. So the war began. So far I have trapped/ shot with thermal around 15 or 16 coons. The farm is roughly 4 acres with everything from down buildings. A standing building,Vehicles , tractors, tou name it it's there. The old man got sick close to 15 years ago and moved to town amd hasn't been back since. I'm using everything from 160s to dp's, a few legholds Also just got some snares.. I've yet to catch anything in the snares or legholds other then 1 opposum.
Main target is coons but I'm having issues with what I think are mice or rats stealing bait. I've set traps with cat food got to the end of my line and came back to the first trap and the food is gone already. I've tried using golf balls on the dp's but they always seem to get knocked off and the traps not tripped. Using liquid smoke/ fish grease as an attractant and cat food/Masterson truckload coon pellets and bait
Anything else I can try to avoid the rats / mice?

Sound like you have majority of racoons and now need to just do maintenance. Put some conibear and flat sets out not bait dependent. These guys should be along to give better ideas.

Try getting a caller and playing coon puppies sounds with gun at night...this will give you an idea what/how many you are dealing with.

I've tried calling a few times now. During daylight and night with a thermal. Started off with coon fight then switch over to distress. Haven't had anything come to any calling for a few months now

Opossum and skunk will also kill your chickens. Rat and mice will hit your feed pretty good also.

Sounds like you would benefit from a camera watching your DPs. Changing the location may help, sometimes just a few feet is enough for a few nights. A few live traps are easy enough to maintain. Owls can raise heck and become adept to killing chickens on the roost if they can find a way in. A cell cam on the coop programed to only take pics at night would tell you for sure what is going on.

Body traps set in trails and blended in. Set a 220 up off the ground a couple inches. Center the trigger wires on the same height as a coon's head. Put a couple sticks over the top to keep them from climbing over and snapping the trap. Right now you'll get little ones so a long double ended cage trap works great set into trails - two or three in a row if you want to catch them all. Just blend them in. Coon are hungry right now if they have little ones so they will be looking to eat anything. A good camera works wonders to see what it coming and going.

Someone owns that farm and you don't have permission to be trapping on it. Better to be safe than sorry when it comes to trespassing.

I would ask permission before I started doing all the other planning. There is an owner who can be contacted. Four acres is not a farm it is a farmstead and a great habitat for all the species you have named. Who owns the land around that farmstead? Could be the same person or others. If it were me I would concentrate on what I can do on my side of the road unless you get permission and then you can establish a game plan. The area as you describe it is probably a great denning site for multiple species and thus new animals will be cycling in every year.

Bryce

I have talked with the owner hence why I'm trapping there. He used to farm the ground and lived there, but he got sick 15yrs ago and moved to town, leaving everything there and still collecting old cars, tractors, equipment, ect. The 4 acres is just the homesite. Has 36acres of farm ground around it

Put a game camera on your chicken house. That will tell you how many of what is lurking about shopping for chicken.

Second issue........20 birds lost in a couple nights is a lot. If you had 10 to 15 coon working it, very possible. This time of year they do kill a lot in one night. Seems to be the sow teaching youngsters to hunt. Regardless of that, however, is it shouldn't matter if there is 1 or 100, if the chicken house is built right, nothing gets in to kill anything. In addition to trapping, time to do the tighten up.