Chattanooga, TN (surrounding areas) CHICKEN LOVERS

[StacyTN]

Well, I haven't been on here in a bit. We had a terrible attack in two of our pens, three days apart about a week and a half ago. The first was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO awful. I lost one of my blue mottled hens & a black mottled hen, had another (black) get beat up pretty bad & lost about 15- 1-1/2week old chicks, several 6 week olds & 4- 3 month olds. It was total carnage in the pen and needless to say heartbreaking.

Of course, these were all my beautiful bantam cochins. I was having such a great breeding/hatching season & lost two very nice (costly) hens. Of course, I guess the shock has stopped all egg laying & right now I'm not sure I even want to go there again with hatching anymore for a bit. Right now my priorty is just to get the few little ones I have left grown out.

We've been VERY BUSY reinforcing, even more & we have caught one coon so far.

The surviving hen is doing really well & healing nicely but just yesterday I had to seperate her because I guess Buddha realized she was feeling better and started mating with her again, thus opening up her wounds! She really took a hard hit and lost a huge chunk out of her back, no skin left, down to the muscle/meat about a 2x2in size are or maybe bigger. Just don't like her being put up no by herself but it's for the better until she completely heals.

Both attacks happened on rainy nights so I am now nervous when it rains but I hope the additional steps we've taken will prevent anymore intruders.

 

[Jim H]

Dang Stacy, that is awful. I am glad I am enclosing my whole coop/run with 1/2" hardware cloth. We have plenty of coons here. Hopefully they will not get in. So sorry to hear of your problem coon
On the brite side, I am almost ready to start painting, then the cloth goes on. Chicken's are already in their 4 x 8 coop, so they should go right back in at nite. They been in there for a week now

 

[StacyTN]

Dang Stacy, that is awful. I am glad I am enclosing my whole coop/run with 1/2" hardware cloth. We have plenty of coons here. Hopefully they will not get in. So sorry to hear of your problem coon
On the brite side, I am almost ready to start painting, then the cloth goes on. Chicken's are already in their 4 x 8 coop, so they should go right back in at nite. They been in there for a week now

Very good Jim, yes it was awful. You saw how my pens are, totally enlcosed etc. but they found two weak spots in #1 and the second attack something (?, very small hole - appeared too small for coon) dug under the coop in #4 inside the nursery area. We have since, added even more hardwire around all the pens and in the nursery dug a trench inside, put in chicken wire & hardwire & filled the trench with cement.
Plan is too finish off #4 with cement etc. and then start adding the hardwire over the chicken wire that covers all. We have even now added more latches on all the doors. We are keeping two traps batted at all times back behind in the woods.

O and too boot, about a week before that I killed a black snake about 4ft.long, that was inside the second level nursery, that at the time had about 10 babies. It's been an eventful few weeks in the chicken world!

 

[Goose and Fig]

The same thing happened to me last month. We have had so much rain that the coops are sinking and the coons were able to dig under them where they never could before. 6 years they never got in until now.The ground just will not dry out.
I lost 14 English Orpingtons and have a goose with one leg, one with a broken leg, and they got their whole nest that was about to hatch. I am just sick!

 

[RedRidge]

Can I make a suggestion... although I don't know how much property all of you have, but...
why doesn't anyone have lgd's?

We have hawks, coyotes, you name it... I couldn't have my chickens or sheep without my maremma.

 

[Goose and Fig]

We do- Anatolian and a sheepdog. The Anatolian was in the duck pen because she's in heat. The sheepdog was in the house so he wouldn't try to get her.

 

[littlechicklet]

StacyTN- sorry to hear about your chickens. I hope you get everything predator proofed soon. We had an attack about a month or so ago but only lost 2 cockerels. It was then that we figured out our electric fence wasn't working.

I know I am not in the immediate area but I have 4-5 blue and/or black LF Orpington cockerels if anyone is interested. The blues are dark blue. I would post pics but something is messed up and I can't. I also have an Olive Egger cockerel. All were hatched on or around Easter. Just PM if you are interested. thanks

 

[wflynt01]

Sorry to hear about y'alls predator problem. So far this year I have been lucky and had no problems. Knock on wood.
I have been seeing alot of snakes around here this year. Snakes and bugs are awful this year.
Hope your wounded ones get better soon.

 

[amenfarm]

StacyTN- sorry to hear about your chickens. I hope you get everything predator proofed soon. We had an attack about a month or so ago but only lost 2 cockerels. It was then that we figured out our electric fence wasn't working.

I know I am not in the immediate area but I have 4-5 blue and/or black LF Orpington cockerels if anyone is interested. The blues are dark blue. I would post pics but something is messed up and I can't. I also have an Olive Egger cockerel. All were hatched on or around Easter. Just PM if you are interested. thanks

there is a device at TSC that you hook over your ele. fence that shows it's working. Going to get myself when hubby reconnects. I'm so glad I have Jay- jay, I hate to go through what happen to you Stacy, so sorry for your loss. Tractor supply swap day is July 13th.

 

[littlechicklet]

there is a device at TSC that you hook over your ele. fence that shows it's working. Going to get myself when hubby reconnects. I'm so glad I have Jay- jay, I hate to go through what happen to you Stacy, so sorry for your loss. Tractor supply swap day is July 13th.

Thanks. We have a fence checker but had gotten lax in checking it.

So my losses were due to me not the fence.