How Many Eggs Did You Get Today?

[karenerwin]

15 eggs today.
Plus, I finally know what has been attacking the chickens! From the trail cam I put in the enclosed run & now closed off coop area I spotted 2 raccoons trying to figure out how to get the door to the coop open. He had no luck!! Then this evening I was looking around when I locked up the other chickens. We finally caught 1 if the coons the the live animal trap!!! We will dispatch him in the morning. We don't like shooting off firearms after full dark.

I lost track earlier in the week, another hen went broody.

Yesterday - 10 eggs
- 1 guinea egg

Today - 14 eggs
- 1 guinea egg



karenerwin - So sorry to hear about your losses. I hope you can get it, whatever "it" is.
Darn predators.

sounds more like a coon or a cat that could get in through the top

This last one was killed in the big enclosed yard that they range in. This particular yard goes into the woods and is not covered over the top. It's too big of an area to be feasible for us to cover. I am thinking that this hen had not gone in the coop when the others did and that a raccoon or something went over or through the fence ( cattle panels covered on the lower half with chicken wire. The chicken wire is more to keep the chickens IN, than to keep things out.) around dusk. I went out around 8:30 to lock up the coops before I took my daughter somewhere. I had told her I needed to lock up because it was already very dark & I knew we would be gone for a while. Since nothing had finished cleaning out her insides, I think that I must have inadvertently chased off whatever it was when I went out to lock the coop, but did not see her because it was very dark by then and she was down near the back side of the fence. That side of the fence is a little ways into the woods and down a slight hill. The next day when I got home from school I went out to check on everybody and noticed that she was missing. The leaves under her body were dry and it had been raining since sometime during the night.

That's the best I can figure out so far.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

That's fantastic karenerwin!

 

[pennyJo1960]

15 eggs today.
Plus, I finally know what has been attacking the chickens! From the trail cam I put in the enclosed run & now closed off coop area I spotted 2 raccoons trying to figure out how to get the door to the coop open. He had no luck!! Then this evening I was looking around when I locked up the other chickens. We finally caught 1 if the coons the the live animal trap!!! We will dispatch him in the morning. We don't like shooting off firearms after full dark.

Good for you !!!!!!!!! So glad you found them....

 

[gander007]

15 eggs today.
Plus, I finally know what has been attacking the chickens! From the trail cam I put in the enclosed run & now closed off coop area I spotted 2 raccoons trying to figure out how to get the door to the coop open. He had no luck!! Then this evening I was looking around when I locked up the other chickens. We finally caught 1 if the coons the the live animal trap!!! We will dispatch him in the morning. We don't like shooting off firearms after full dark.

Quote:

15 eggs today.
Plus, I finally know what has been attacking the chickens! From the trail cam I put in the enclosed run & now closed off coop area I spotted 2 raccoons trying to figure out how to get the door to the coop open. He had no luck!! Then this evening I was looking around when I locked up the other chickens. We finally caught 1 if the coons the the live animal trap!!! We will dispatch him in the morning. We don't like shooting off firearms after full dark.

Quote:
Great you finally got yum

Friday



14 eggs

4 eggs from the control group

10 eggs from the free range chickens

Temp again 94F degrees till late after noon till the winds picked up and there was too much sand in the air to walk around outside

 

[cabinchicky]

15 eggs today.
Plus, I finally know what has been attacking the chickens!  From the trail cam I put in the enclosed run & now closed off coop area I spotted 2 raccoons trying to figure out how to get the door to the coop open.  He had no luck!!   Then this evening I was looking around when I locked up the other chickens.  We finally caught 1 if the coons the the live animal trap!!!  We will dispatch him in the morning.  We don't like shooting off firearms after full dark.

Good luck on your hunt. Darn coon here sets my guineas off.Going to get it soon.

 

[TJordan]

keeping bird busy it sounds like might be fun
but I still don't want to raise any might have all roosters
and sure don't want overrun my coop if I
couldn't sell them.
4/5 here again

That's why any extra roosters I have that I can't sell or give away become crock pot fodder.

 

[TJordan]

Good luck on your hunt. Darn coon here sets my guineas off.Going to get it soon.

Evil bandits. I lost several last year to one. A opposom as well. A nice gun stopped that.

 

[Gilmore768]

Found this sleeping in a nest box. Apparently chickens weren't too upset about it. They laid their eggs in the nest boxes right next too it. 4/4.

 

[TJordan]

Found this sleeping in a nest box. Apparently chickens weren't too upset about it. They laid their eggs in the nest boxes right next too it. 4/4.

Yikes!!!

 

[karenerwin]

This owl visits the open yard every few nights. I'm hoping it is catching & eating some of the mice!
Here is a really good shot of 1 of the raccoon inside the "enclosed" run. The boards you can see behind & to the left of the picture are part of the coop.
This shot is harder to see but if you look carefully you will see 1 critter at the top of the ramp ( you can only see part of it). Then if you look under the ramp at the far left of the picture you can see the stripped coon tail & a little bit of the body of the second coon.
Edited to add: ignore the date & time stamp on the stealth camera, I did not set them to be accurate. The 1st shot that shows the chickens let out in the morning is stamped 10:23, so the coons were there in the pre- dawn hours. I usually let the chickens out before I go to work, so between 6 & 6:30.