Tell How Predators Got Your Chickens. Save Somebody Else From The Bad Experience

[sled483]

My "chicks" are almost 9 weeks ofl and are still sleeping in the house at night... because:
1.  It is too cold outside at night
2.  The big hens will beat them up
3.  They are too small to fend for themselves
4.  I'm a worrier, too

P.S.  Reasons #1 and 4 are the only valid reasons.  Mostly I like having them in the house and they look so cute sleeping in their pool

If I could I'd let the stay in the house forever! I don't think they would like it and I know my furniture wouldn't like it! So it's off to the coop they go tomorrow, sniff sniff. I have the interior camera up and running. I will feel better now that I can check on them as much as I want.

 

[ochochicas]

It does still get pretty cold here at night (in the 30s sometimes) so I don't feel confident leaving them out if it is that cold. They have been out with the two older hens and seem to get along pretty good. Of course I'm over-protective of the babies. The crazy part is that when I got the chicks I decided that they could be outside all night when they were over 2 pounds. There is one pullet that is way smaller then the others and they are now waiting for her to catch up. The biggest is the RIR - she's huge and is over 3 pounds by now. Her face is starting to turn red already and I'm thinking she's going to be an early egg layer.

 

[MrSelf Destruct]

If I could I'd let the stay in the house forever! I don't think they would like it and I know my furniture wouldn't like it! So it's off to the coop they go tomorrow, sniff sniff. I have the interior camera up and running. I will feel better now that I can check on them as much as I want.

Nice setup. I have IR cameras covering the outside of the coop and the run area but haven't installed one inside the coop yet.

 

[euphoniumism]

Had three chickens in my cute little coop. The younger one was kind of off, she walked funny and was kind of dumb. I had rescued her from a bad situation and don't know what was wrong with her...
Anyways, one night I forgot to close the coop up and something got her. The messed up one. I felt so bad. The other two still refuse to go inside the coop and this was almost, what, a year ago? They roost on top.
I have a rooster now, that I rescued, and he protects the younger pullets that sleep inside the coop, but I still can't get the oldest hens to sleep inside the coop. I think I'm going to start forcing them inside every night once I get out of school for the summer and have the time to do that.

But yeah. Lock your coop every night. Don't be like, "Oh it's just one night, they'll be fine." No... they won't be. I lost the prettiest little blue ameraucana pullet with red feathering on her head because I made a dumb mistake and got lazy.

 

[acates]

I don't think anything could dig under our coop. We put rocks around it because we couldn't afford a harware cloth skirt. We found welded wire on the property when we moved in. Then we covered that with chicken wire. The girls get locked up at night and all doors have multiple locks. All the openings do have hardware cloth. We also have a animal trap outside for raccoon. What do you think? Are my chickens safe?

 

[ochochicas]

I love the recycled/reused coop material! The only thing that concerns me is that is look like there is 2 inch chicken wire covering the welded wire. A predator could reach an arm through and grab one of the chickens if it was too close to the edge.

 

[acates]

I love the recycled/reused coop material!  The only thing that concerns me is that is look like there is 2 inch chicken wire covering the welded wire.  A predator could reach an arm through and grab one of the chickens if it was too close to the edge.

Maybe they would go into the coop or under it. I have that part covered in hardware cloth. I am home almost all the time ( I'm a stay at home mom) The coop is in a spot were i can see it in almost every room of the house. Also I have dogs that patrol the area. So hopefully that's enough. It would be devasting to loose one.

 

[bruceha2000]

I don't think anything could dig under our coop. We put rocks around it because we couldn't afford a harware cloth skirt. We found welded wire on the property when we moved in. Then we covered that with chicken wire. The girls get locked up at night and all doors have multiple locks. All the openings do have hardware cloth. We also have a animal trap outside for raccoon. What do you think? Are my chickens safe?

The welded wire AND chicken wire is probably OK since the welded wire will keep larger predators out, they can't get through it like chicken wire. A coon might still be able to reach through if there is a bird laying against the fence. If you do have coons hopefully the trap will get them. As far as the rocks, I suspect a digger, like foxes, dogs, coyotes wouldn't have too much trouble moving them out just in the act of digging because they aren't that big. BUT, if you have more of the welded wire around, bury some of that and put the rocks back. Those animals are too big to get through the 2x4 welded wire even if the do get through the rocks and dirt.

Bruce

 

[MrSelf Destruct]

Maybe they would go into the coop or under it. I have that part covered in hardware cloth. I am home almost all the time ( I'm a stay at home mom) The coop is in a spot were i can see it in almost every room of the house. Also I have dogs that patrol the area. So hopefully that's enough. It would be devasting to loose one.

I lost a chick around midday. I was about 50 feet away working in the yard with my wife and never knew it happened. The coop was always in plain view. Unsure what got it because there was nothing left. No feathers, no blood, no digging etc...like the chick never even existed. They were in the run which was too high at the time for the chicks to fly over. After it went missing I immediately added a roof to the run.

I agree that a raccoon or something may be able to grab a chick if they are close to the fence. The rocks you have placed around the coop seem like they would be a good deterrent but something that is adamant about getting one of them will dig them out of the way. Hopefully your dogs will deter them though. Might also want to think about snakes. I found a copperhead around 10 feet away from my coop a week ago.

 

[EeyoreD]

I lost a chick around midday. I was about 50 feet away working in the yard with my wife and never knew it happened. The coop was always in plain view.

This is an excellent point. While you being able to see things/be home may prevent a daytime predator from being able to EAT it, it's really shocking how quickly they're able to kill a bird. If you're in the bathroom or focused on a child or something for 2 minutes that's enough time. Even if you by chance see the attack, with many, you can see it but by the time you get to a door and get outside the bird is dead you've just ensured it didn't eat it.

That said. Depending on your region (and time of year) daytime predators are rare-ish. Emphasis on "ish". Usually dogs and hawks/raptors, though I've seen coons and weasels active during the day in early spring. But if you have dogs roaming around during the day (assuming your dogs aren't the kind to ignore intruders) you're probably fine with land-based, daytime predators.

It sounds like you're locking your birds up in a coop but all I can really see from your pictures is the outside of the coop and the run. What does the bottom of your coop look like? Dirt? Raised up on legs with a wood bottom (with sealed cracks)? Your run doesn't look overly huge (not a bad thing just observing for the following) if you're home you may be able to just toss some bird/deer netting over the top. The bird netting usually comes in about a 14x14 foot size. You could just drape that over the top but note that if you're home, you're going to have to deal with the possibility of something swooping down and getting trapped in that net. Invest in some LEATHER gloves.

Really, though, with the dogs around during the day my biggest question is what the actual COOP looks like. Can you give pictures or info on flooring/windows/etc? Of course this just might be me. While I've seen some attacks during the day, my largest loss came at night.