OK, so this winter my girls have been totally cooped up.
In late fall of last year we lost a duck in it"s pen. well around that time we started getting snow and it was to bad to let them out, well at the end of Jan beginning of Feb we had nice weather, so i let the girls and my three roosters out, i didn't let them out until about 9 a.m. and went to put them up about 5:30 or 6 it was getting dusky dark but not dark. Well i found my favorite white leghorn rooster dead, his neck stripped of feathers and close to a hole. (The duck was found close to a hole too, but it"s back had been picked clean of meat.)
So now i can"t let my girls out, i don't want to lose anymore chickens. My chickens won"t go up at night until it"s completely dark, so what ever it is could get them.....
Does anyone know what i could do to get the predator or get my girls to go up earlier....IF my bigger dog didn't like to kill chickens and ducks I'd about let them free range so they have a better chance instead of the little covered run with no where to go.
In late fall of last year we lost a duck in it"s pen. well around that time we started getting snow and it was to bad to let them out, well at the end of Jan beginning of Feb we had nice weather, so i let the girls and my three roosters out, i didn't let them out until about 9 a.m. and went to put them up about 5:30 or 6 it was getting dusky dark but not dark. Well i found my favorite white leghorn rooster dead, his neck stripped of feathers and close to a hole. (The duck was found close to a hole too, but it"s back had been picked clean of meat.)
So now i can"t let my girls out, i don't want to lose anymore chickens. My chickens won"t go up at night until it"s completely dark, so what ever it is could get them.....
Does anyone know what i could do to get the predator or get my girls to go up earlier....IF my bigger dog didn't like to kill chickens and ducks I'd about let them free range so they have a better chance instead of the little covered run with no where to go.