At my breaking point

[cottontail farm]

I know this is a problem I've created in part. Honestly just looking for a sympathetic ear at this point because I don't have anyone personally who would really understand my dispair and frustration.
We have lost so many birds this year. 3 or 4 hens, 3 ducks, a goose injured. All of the attacks are at night. Little to zero blood or feathers. From injuries on the attacked but Not dead birds it looks like they are being grabbed from behind.
I have personally witnessed a raccoon dragging a goose around the pen by a wing.
We have on our property: opposums, skunks, raccoons, foxes.
We have "taken care of" raccoons and opossums this year so far.
They are probably climbing over the fence.
I don't have any real place to lock the ducks and geese up and at 8 months pregnant there's not one getting built. I have been cobbling one together but it's not nearly big enough and I feel bad stuffing them into it.
Finding my only "pet" duck missing this morning, after not seeing signs of a predator for a week, was like a kick in the chest. There is another duck with wounds showing the same "attacked from behind" injury.
I just feel so defeated. Every time I let my gaurd down for a night someone gets killed.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I feel your pain, usually when I haven't gotten the buildings locked by dark is how I have lost many. Even when I do, mink have found a 1 inch crack somewhere and kill every bird in the building. If you build it, they will come. Until you have a building you can lock them up in by dusk, you'll continue to lose birds. A raccoon can climb anything. They're one of the few animals that can descend a tree head first and they can climb a sheer wall. If they can do that, they can easily climb a pen fence.

 

[Unexpected chicken lover]

I am so sorry for the losses
It hurts i know. Do you have anyone that can help fortify/build an enclosure? Being pregnant sure does get in the way and doesnt help with hormones when you lose one

 

[Flamens Farm]

OH that is so sad, I am so sorry to hear about the delima you are in. Is there anybody that can help you enclose the top of your pen. That was the only way I stopped the predators from getting mine. Whether it is with fence or netting, I use camo netting over my ducks and fence over all my other pens.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Whatever you do to cover the pen, it can't have any weak spots and netting won't do the trick. I've had raccoons pull the siding off of a building to get to the chickens. What the raccoons didn't eat, the mink slaughtered the rest. It really does need to be built like Fort Knox if you live in places with our array of predators.

 

[MemphisTNChickenLynn]

So sad! We have lost 2 to neighboring dogs... it breaks my heart they are like family... do you have any relatives that could come and help out? Maybe do a Sunday build a coop cookout.. lol. They work and you feed them...

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Excellent suggestion!!!

 

[21hens-incharge]

So sad! We have lost 2 to neighboring dogs... it breaks my heart they are like family... do you have any relatives that could come and help out? Maybe do a Sunday build a coop cookout.. lol. They work and you feed them...

I love that! A good ole fashioned barn raising party!!

 

[Howard E]

OP......how many birds do you have left? If a few, then varmints have already won. If a lot, then you have something to fight for.

Can you share a photo of the pen you have to work with?

There may be ways to defend this with a simple electric fence.....at least in the short run. If only it was possible to get in the truck and come fix it for you, I would.

As it stands now, varmints are having their way and nothing is stopping them. Considering that you have an awful lot on your plate right now, one option is to accept this, hope for the best and if this bunch gets wiped out, accept it and resolve to do better the next time?

 

[centrarchid]

Give a description, ideally with pictures, showing where birds roost and likely points of access to roosting area. Hopefully, you are dealing with a fox based on what you have described thus far. Even with raccoons, you can sequentially up the protections denying your predators access without breaking your back or the bank.