A BEAR DESTROYED MY COOP WHAT DO I DO

[bambi]

 

[FathertoFeathers]

The bear has returned twice. Second time attempted to tear into a shed. Last night he returned again and killed three of my chickens. I’ve been up since 3am when it woke me. I’m totally devastated and can’t get the images of my poor sweet birds out of my head. They didn’t stand a chance. I just don’t know what to do at this point.

This time around I managed to fire off a few shots but I didn’t hit him. He had pawed at several places around the coop and tore out the hardware cloth and broke another window. The tore some splinters off the human door before finally managing to knock the latch open. It looked like his single swipe is what killed my poor sweet rooster and a laying hen. Another hen was injured at least slightly, had a lot of feathers missing, but she was too panicked for me to investigate. We boarded the windows up entirely and collected the bodies. The leghorn was in an A-frame coop in quarantine. She was just rescued from a commercial farm and saw grass for the first time ever last night. The bear ripped the walls off of her coop, which had no feed in it, and I have found no sign of her at all. It’s still dark at 6am but am hoping to go look and see if she is around. My heart is just broke. The electric fence did nothing to deter him. He has killed 12 of my neighbors chickens just a few weeks ago and was seen on their property in broad daylight but the game warden has barely lifted a finger in response.

Im so sorry. Ive recently been plagued with loss. Three of my ducklings died and my little serama died on the same day. I hope your doing better.
Im curious to know how do you rescue chickens from commercial places? Id love to do that but have no clue how.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Im so sorry. Ive recently been plagued with loss. Three of my ducklings died and my little serama died on the same day. I hope your doing better.
Im curious to know how do you rescue chickens from commercial places? Id love to do that but have no clue how.

My neighbor is a professor specializing in commercial poultry. He’s not technically allowed to, but when they are done with the egg layers he offers them to me.

I’m sorry for your loss. I’m still feeling my loss too. My injured hen has a broke or dislocated wing at the shoulder joint. I’ve wrapped the wing and am monitoring her for now. I’ve decided if she has no improvement or an impaired quality of life I’ll put her down as I am looking to spend my savings on a much needed new coop, and a vet for her would likely take up half my savings.

 

[RW1984]

Since you know he will be back, follow the three S rule
Shoot, shovel and shut up.
Wait for him to come back, you know he will.
and when he does, shoot him full of lead. Then dispose of the body and don’t say anything to anyone.
Situation like this I would stay up all night to catch him.

 

[MarkJr]

Since you know he will be back, follow the three S rule
Shoot, shovel and shut up.
Wait for him to come back, you know he will.
and when he does, shoot him full of lead. Then dispose of the body and don’t say anything to anyone.
Situation like this I would stay up all night to catch him.

And add anything especially enticing to the coop area so you can make it happen sooner than later.

 

[RW1984]

And add anything especially enticing to the coop area so you can make it happen sooner than later.

I agree with this 100%!!
I had a fox take one of my hens and I saw it creeping about at night. I have 7 roosters and used him in a dog cage after nightfall.
I’ll just say the fox doesn’t come around anymore, my hens are able to free range again and I still have 7 roosters.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

Since you know he will be back, follow the three S rule
Shoot, shovel and shut up.
Wait for him to come back, you know he will.
and when he does, shoot him full of lead. Then dispose of the body and don’t say anything to anyone.
Situation like this I would stay up all night to catch him.

Unfortunately staying up all night is not an option as I have little to no freedom to take off of work, but I have been setting an alarm for every two hours and checking the property. I am keeping shoes and guns at the ready.

I’ve checked and tested the electric fence, turns out it was losing power, but it’s working well now. I’ve rubbed bacon grease on it. I have “unwelcome” mats surrounding the coop and nails protruding from around the doors and windows. Windows have been mostly boarded up, again with more outward facing nails, which wouldn’t stop him, but hopefully at that point he’d be wanting to give up. I have motion sensor lights and have loosely hung metal buckets on the walls of the coop so if they fall the noise might wake me up if I was sleeping.

 

[mommiesrcool]

Unfortunately staying up all night is not an option as I have little to no freedom to take off of work, but I have been setting an alarm for every two hours and checking the property. I am keeping shoes and guns at the ready.

I’ve checked and tested the electric fence, turns out it was losing power, but it’s working well now. I’ve rubbed bacon grease on it. I have “unwelcome” mats surrounding the coop and nails protruding from around the doors and windows. Windows have been mostly boarded up, again with more outward facing nails, which wouldn’t stop him, but hopefully at that point he’d be wanting to give up. I have motion sensor lights and have loosely hung metal buckets on the walls of the coop so if they fall the noise might wake me up if I was sleeping.

i hope you get rid of him soon good luck

 

[aart]

I’ve checked and tested the electric fence, turns out it was losing power, but it’s working well now. I’ve rubbed bacon grease on it.

This should do it.

 

[humblehillsfarm]

This should do it.

i hope you get rid of him soon good luck

I sure hope so. Thank you!