Of course, out of 6 hens only 4 were laying and 2 of them were killed. sigh. I have 5 Golden comets and 1 production RIR. Or should i say had. The RIR and one of the comets is gone. I found them Saturday morning in their pen, dead. I thought it had been the cold rain we had, but no, they were both missing their heads. The outside of the pen (chain link kennel) was covered with bloody feathers. The roo and 4 surviving hens were traumatized. Because it happened between the hours of 2330 and 0800 in a heavy rain I wasn't able to hear anything happening.
Because it looked like the hens were pulled by the head thru the fence, I attached heavy chicken wire on the outside of their pen and added strips of plywood along the edges. I also hung a light in the middle of the pen so I could see and maybe the light would scare off whatever it was.
Sunday morning, around 0430, I woke up to go to the bathroom. When I looked outside to check on the birds, I saw a fox runnign around the pen. I opened my window and screamed at him. It took off, but returned within minutes. I threw on my glasses, sweatshirt and boots, grabbed a riot baton and ran outside, chasing it thru the woods. I was screaming bad things at it, but never caught up to it.
The birds are in a temp pen, I had to evict them from the goat barn 2 weeks ago. I really thought a chain link dog kennel would keep then safe until i could get their new coop done when it finally stopped raining on my days off. Who would have thought they would stick their heads out for a fox to eat? Sigh.
Now I haveto fogure out some way to kill that blasted fox. I got almost no sleep last night because I kept waiting for it to strike. I got home from work at 2330 and had to be back at 0630. No fox showed up, but I know it's just a matter of time. I think I will put a large dog house in there until I can get the coop built.
grrrrrrrrrr
Because it looked like the hens were pulled by the head thru the fence, I attached heavy chicken wire on the outside of their pen and added strips of plywood along the edges. I also hung a light in the middle of the pen so I could see and maybe the light would scare off whatever it was.
Sunday morning, around 0430, I woke up to go to the bathroom. When I looked outside to check on the birds, I saw a fox runnign around the pen. I opened my window and screamed at him. It took off, but returned within minutes. I threw on my glasses, sweatshirt and boots, grabbed a riot baton and ran outside, chasing it thru the woods. I was screaming bad things at it, but never caught up to it.
The birds are in a temp pen, I had to evict them from the goat barn 2 weeks ago. I really thought a chain link dog kennel would keep then safe until i could get their new coop done when it finally stopped raining on my days off. Who would have thought they would stick their heads out for a fox to eat? Sigh.
Now I haveto fogure out some way to kill that blasted fox. I got almost no sleep last night because I kept waiting for it to strike. I got home from work at 2330 and had to be back at 0630. No fox showed up, but I know it's just a matter of time. I think I will put a large dog house in there until I can get the coop built.
grrrrrrrrrr
