4 of my 9 found dead

[gerf]

so this morning i get a phone call from my grandmother that my chickens were dead. so i jump in my truck and drive over there and find 4 of my 9 chickens dead on the coop floor. Carlos my EE, Dragon my RR, Snowball my Black Australorp, and Sissy my Buff Orphington. dragon looked to get the brunt of the attack as she was always the protector and she was in one piece but her neck was completely stripped. Sissy was in the corner with her head taken off, and carlos and snowball looked untouched except their necks were bare and broken.

my last 5 hens are freaked out and missing feathers across their necks. i thought our coop was rather critter proof with having 1/2" chicken wire and concrete poured all around. but after some recent renovations we missed one section. what ever it was it dug under our framing and got in and out. now we have concrete all around as well as sunken wooden boards and about 300 lbs of rock around the whole coop.

my remaining chickens were so scared today they wouldnt even go outside they stayed in the "new wing" all day.they did eat and drink but i feel like crap. i love my birds and am so ticked i didnt build my coop better in the first place.i hope that my newest saftey additions do the trick and my girls are safe. now i need to raise up a couple more babies and hope for the best.

 

[PixieChixie]

So sorry about your chooks. Hard to imagine...

Can you maybe post pics of how it got in? I started my coop today and I want to make sure it's super secure.

 

[SkyWarrior]

Sorry to hear this.

 

[gerf]

thanks for the love. ive had them for over a year with no problems then this

i didnt take any pictures. i wa so mad i just went straight to work fixing it. it dug a hole about the size of a baseball and got right in. but now what ever it was a (weasel im thinking) will have to dig under 6" of concrete and wood

 

[Terrie Mac]

oh no! I don't know what else to say but I'm sorry. So very sad.

 

[SeramasLovers]

First I want to say I'm sorry for your loss. I know how it feels, just recently my daughter's rooster that she recieve for her 1st birthday.. was attack by a possum. through out the moment of finding Rocky (rooster's name) in the chicken coop and holding my daughter as she cried.. all i could think of was to blast that sucker. but it was to late it got away. I investigated the chicken coop , cause I'm sure I shut the door at night time.. but I found out it got in by digging underneath the coop. for days.. I blamed the possum, but mostly I blamed myself for not building a better predator proof chicken coop for our Rocky.

 

[gerf]

ya im really ticked i didnt do a better job. im just hopeing that after this it will never happen again. ill deffinatly be more vigilent when it comes to the surroundings of my coop and run.

 

[KandiandJerry]

So sorry for your loss....I hate when something like this happens.....

 

[gerf]

Well now my parents call my coop fort Knox. It has a lot of concrete, rock, tons more 1/4" chicken wire, and live traps all o over. Last night I caught my first possum and ditched it 2 miles away from the house. Hopefully with what I've done I won't have to go through this again.

 

[sourland]

"Ditched it 2 miles from the house"? It has already returned home.

Unless it was not breathing when you "ditched it."

All wild and many domesticated animals have a strong homing instinct and capability.