Arizona Chickens

[Angelray]

Worst of the worst in chicken news. Something dug into my broiler coop and all 8 are gone. Without a trace. The rain washed away any prints bit the hole was fairly small. I can't believe all 8 are gone. Whatever got them would have had to leap the fence repeatedly. Looks like they used a trellis i had on the adjacent wall as traction to scramble up, it was broken in a heap. We have a billion coyotes so i guess it was coyotes. I really hope the broilers were sleeping and relaxed when taken. It doesn't look like signs of struggle in the pen.

Aww that's terrible! Sorry to hear about that!

 

[Angelray]

Question folks, Do you let your chickens free range in the rain? I open the coop & they go in & out as they want, but just want to be sure its OK. The polish look terrible with their crests soaked & flat!

 

[WestSideChicken]

Worst of the worst in chicken news. Something dug into my broiler coop and all 8 are gone. Without a trace. The rain washed away any prints bit the hole was fairly small. I can't believe all 8 are gone. Whatever got them would have had to leap the fence repeatedly. Looks like they used a trellis i had on the adjacent wall as traction to scramble up, it was broken in a heap. We have a billion coyotes so i guess it was coyotes. I really hope the broilers were sleeping and relaxed when taken. It doesn't look like signs of struggle in the pen.

I'm so sorry that is horrible! I haven't seen coyotes around our area in a decade.

 

[WestSideChicken]

We got our first egg from our RIR this morning... So now we have two layers! My 7 yr old wanted to claim it was from her chicken since we keep threatening to stew her beautiful but non laying 7 m old EE. However it was a nice brown egg just a bit darker than our BR lays.

 

[flower]

Question folks, Do you let your chickens free range in the rain? I open the coop & they go in & out as they want, but just want to be sure its OK. The polish look terrible with their crests soaked & flat!

My flock has their door open most of the time and prefer to stay inside in their deep litter coop. But today I fed them cooked lentils with spelt outside and they did stay out for some time pecking around for food. I do not like my crested birds to be wet and they seem to stay inside most of the time during rain.

 

[pipemum]

I hear about 3 different packs on my early morning runs. Coyotes galore. Ugh, I'm so mad at myself. I keep going out there and checking to see if I can find any broilers. Still gone, it really happened. Makes me sick. I really didn't think coyotes would come into my yard. It/they dug in on the one weak side, of course. It was buried in by 6" but no chickrn wire or whatnot. Tiny hole, about 4"in diameter.

Thanks for the condolences.

Gallo, I tried pineapple guava a few years ago. Didn't make it but i can't remember if it was a summer or winter death. I'm going to try another one in my more frost/sun protected garden.

 

[pipemum]

I'll stop talking about my dead chickens, one last post. Whatever it was did use the trellis to get over the fence, there's mud all over the wall. Not one clear print. The **** things totaled my trellis and yet another newly planted rose (I keep trying roses, i obviously need to give up). Inside of the coop looks totally peaceful, not one speck of blood or feathers. The critter gave up a hole in one area and found the weakness just over where the coop was buried 6" down. Oh, and I found fresh quail feathers right next to the hole. Dry, so very fresh since it's only stopped rainingthis aft ernoon.

Quail feathers.

Inside of the coop.

Area where whatever scrambled up the trellis. I rehung the broken trellis. The white on the blue wall is actually mud, the flash washed out the color.

The hole, the green grasswas painted level with the soil.

 

[pipemum]

I should explain that under the white plasticboard is heavy gauge wire fence overlaid with poultry fencing. So yeah, if I reuse the coop again, all i need to do is hardware cloth skirt to prevent digging. The rest is secure. Ugh. That one corner! Only weak spot! 8 **** chickens!

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

pipemum, that is a heavy thing to process. We're here for you. A few things strike me as strange. First, do you suspect that something caught a wild quail and brought it to the hole at the scene of the crime to eat it? Could it be completely coincidental and maybe a hawk caught it and ate it there? (seems to be too few feathers for that) Second, the trellis damage and mud seems odd. My experience with coyotes is they are very nimble and don't jump on anything before scaling our wall. But the pic clearly suggests something used it to cross over. Weird. Finally, I'm having a hard time imagining the coyote gaining access through the four inch hole. It may be entirely possible, I really don't know. It just seems odd. I'm wondering if this was the work of a bobcat?

 

[pipemum]

The quail could jave been a hawk for sure, and just a coincidence. There's a covey that hang out just on the other side of the fence, and come into that area of my yard to eat leftover chicken scratch. And yes, it definitely could have been a bobcat, but all 8 chickens? 2 had to have been close to 6lbs. I wish there had been clear tracks. On a slope, I saw claw marks, so coyote, but some impressions were round, so bocattish. I'll probably never know. I keep going out to check the layers. Though the layer coop has hardware cloth skirt, I lined it with heavy rocks today.