Bad luck with bears and dogs :(

[Monkeybean415]

Just looking for some support- should have posted last week but was too busy dealing with everything to post.

We have layers out in a coop and are doing meaties for the first time so were keeping them in a repurposed dog house since they were only going to be outside for about a month before processing.

Well, a black bear sow and cub came and killed three of our meaties. My husband was home and heard it and scared it off and kept watch to make sure they didn't come back. We moved them to a shed closer to the house that we thought was more secure and then he had to go out of town... two days later they came back and got three more! I had to scare them off myself and was able to get the rest of them into the garage that night and for the next few nights while he was still gone. We now have a small electric fence set up just around our coop until we can get a more permanent solution up.

Then- just yesterday I had my broody hen out with her couple week old chicks and one of the dogs got one of the chicks. The dogs have been great with the big chickens so I thought they'd be ok but obviously not. They wont be out there again together until they're bigger. I feel really frustrated and bad for all our lost chickens.

 

[Chook Kingdom]

Those bears! I really feel for you! I only lost them to crows. Well, I don't trust dogs period with chickens. They can flip on you any time!

 

[Monkeybean415]

Thanks for you reply! We haven't lived here long so aren't used to black bears. Brown bears were around where we were before but they never bothered us I was surprised by these bears and how unafraid they were of us. I do know that ravens and crows can be a problem here too but so far we haven't had any problems. I will definitely need to be more careful with the dogs and wont be letting them out unattended (if at all) with any of the chickens.

 

[Chook Kingdom]

That will be the best to do.

 

[thomasboyle]

Sorry for your losses. Bears can cause a lot of damage, easily ripping apart the best build coops. Sometimes they go for the chickens, other times they are after the feed. I have an electric net fence with a strong charger, and that has kept the bears at bay. Heres a pic of one of the bears who frequents my yard in CT. I see him about once every few weeks as he makes his rounds around his territory.