Unbelievable! We are a little numb right now. 2 months ago we had an attack on our baby coop, lost 6pullets and my gorgeous EE Roo. They were around 4 months old. We think it was a large cat, bobcats and Carolina panthers have been spotted in the area. We found a large paw print in the loose dirt that was left, whatever it was partially dug under the fence by the door. The wire fence itself was destroyed for about 1 foot up from the bottom. The roo was killed protecting the 3 surviving pullets, they were huddled on top of each other and he was in front of them.
Fast forward to last week, I went out to the big girl coop where the entire flock was now being housed. It was a day after the snowstorm went thru and apparently we had a lot of wind. The mesh netting that covered the top of the run had come loose and a young hawk had gotten in. It was still in there went I went out to check on the coop.The hawk was dealt with. We lost 2 girls that day out in the run, the rest were huddled in the coop under the nest boxes. I felt like I was unpiling a football dog pile on the 2 yard line, how 19 medium to large size hens got crammed in under there I still haven't figured out. They did not come out easily or quietly!
Then there was today......we stayed in town after church and had lunch with friends. When we got home we changed into our "chicken clothes" and went out to deal with coop chores. When my husband stepped out on our deck he saw stray 2 dogs around the coop, then he realized 1 dog was IN the run. By the time he could grab the rifle and get back there they were gone. They had dug under the fence and mangled about a 3 foot section of fence. All he could see was dead chickens and it was too quiet.....when I got back there and started checking there were 6 live chickens huddled under the nest boxes and 3 huddled at the base of the stairs to the coop. It wasn't until I actually touched them that they "came back to life". Its sad that my girls have gotten good at playing dead. After we rounded those girls up put Vecytericin(sp?) on all the bald spots and bite marks and quarantined them in a large dog cage, we started counting and realized we were missing 2, I finally found them literally in the cement blocks used to build the coop steps, only their butts were barely visible. They are badly injured and I don't think they'll make it, but I treated them as best I could. We now have the cage setup in the old baby coop with 8 injured girls in it, there are 3 non injured but mad girls roaming loose in the baby coop. We spent the rest of daylight hours nailing up recycled privacy fence we had just reclaimed all around the baby coop run. We setup the headlamp in the coop to try and keep the girls warm, we're expecting more bad weather this week. Tomorrow we'll get out there and see who made it thru the night and retreat all the wounds.
When the attack happened 2 months ago, I was so upset, my white cochin died in my arms and I just lost it! Told my husband to find somebody to take the survivors because I was done being a chicken mama! He told me to wait a couple of days before making any decisions and I eventually calmed down. Well tonight he asked if we needed to find somebody to take the survivors, so I gave him back his advice. So we'll hopefully get some rest tonight and tomorrow we take it one day at a time. Say a prayer for my girls tonight. Meanwhile the loaded rifle is by the door........
Fast forward to last week, I went out to the big girl coop where the entire flock was now being housed. It was a day after the snowstorm went thru and apparently we had a lot of wind. The mesh netting that covered the top of the run had come loose and a young hawk had gotten in. It was still in there went I went out to check on the coop.The hawk was dealt with. We lost 2 girls that day out in the run, the rest were huddled in the coop under the nest boxes. I felt like I was unpiling a football dog pile on the 2 yard line, how 19 medium to large size hens got crammed in under there I still haven't figured out. They did not come out easily or quietly!
Then there was today......we stayed in town after church and had lunch with friends. When we got home we changed into our "chicken clothes" and went out to deal with coop chores. When my husband stepped out on our deck he saw stray 2 dogs around the coop, then he realized 1 dog was IN the run. By the time he could grab the rifle and get back there they were gone. They had dug under the fence and mangled about a 3 foot section of fence. All he could see was dead chickens and it was too quiet.....when I got back there and started checking there were 6 live chickens huddled under the nest boxes and 3 huddled at the base of the stairs to the coop. It wasn't until I actually touched them that they "came back to life". Its sad that my girls have gotten good at playing dead. After we rounded those girls up put Vecytericin(sp?) on all the bald spots and bite marks and quarantined them in a large dog cage, we started counting and realized we were missing 2, I finally found them literally in the cement blocks used to build the coop steps, only their butts were barely visible. They are badly injured and I don't think they'll make it, but I treated them as best I could. We now have the cage setup in the old baby coop with 8 injured girls in it, there are 3 non injured but mad girls roaming loose in the baby coop. We spent the rest of daylight hours nailing up recycled privacy fence we had just reclaimed all around the baby coop run. We setup the headlamp in the coop to try and keep the girls warm, we're expecting more bad weather this week. Tomorrow we'll get out there and see who made it thru the night and retreat all the wounds.
When the attack happened 2 months ago, I was so upset, my white cochin died in my arms and I just lost it! Told my husband to find somebody to take the survivors because I was done being a chicken mama! He told me to wait a couple of days before making any decisions and I eventually calmed down. Well tonight he asked if we needed to find somebody to take the survivors, so I gave him back his advice. So we'll hopefully get some rest tonight and tomorrow we take it one day at a time. Say a prayer for my girls tonight. Meanwhile the loaded rifle is by the door........
I wish you the best of luck with handling predators in the future.
