BDutch's bantam flock & natural breeding projects #5 🪺 🪺 and #6

[Perris]

Add coyotes/canine to this list.
After I posted this I went out and found 7 chicken bodies and a couple chicks missing.
I took the usable meat of 5 hens and one sweet cockerel. About a gallon of drumsticks and thighs, half gallon of boneless breasts.

I was in the house less than an hour.
Of course one was my favorite. She hatched my first meat mutts and hadn't laid much if any this year...I didn't butcher her.

so sorry for your loss

 

[BDutch]

Add coyotes/canine to this list.
After I posted this I went out and found 7 chicken bodies and a couple chicks missing.
I took the usable meat of 5 hens and one sweet cockerel. About a gallon of drumsticks and thighs, half gallon of boneless breasts.

I was in the house less than an hour.
Of course one was my favorite. She hatched my first meat mutts and hadn't laid much if any this year...I didn't butcher her.

Sorry for all your losses.

 

[NanaK]

Add coyotes/canine to this list.
After I posted this I went out and found 7 chicken bodies and a couple chicks missing.
I took the usable meat of 5 hens and one sweet cockerel. About a gallon of drumsticks and thighs, half gallon of boneless breasts.

I was in the house less than an hour.
Of course one was my favorite. She hatched my first meat mutts and hadn't laid much if any this year...I didn't butcher her.

I am so sorry for your loss.

 

[MaryJanet]

Add coyotes/canine to this list.
After I posted this I went out and found 7 chicken bodies and a couple chicks missing.
I took the usable meat of 5 hens and one sweet cockerel. About a gallon of drumsticks and thighs, half gallon of boneless breasts.

I was in the house less than an hour.
Of course one was my favorite. She hatched my first meat mutts and hadn't laid much if any this year...I didn't butcher her.

I'm so sorry.

 

[RoyalChick]

Add coyotes/canine to this list.
After I posted this I went out and found 7 chicken bodies and a couple chicks missing.
I took the usable meat of 5 hens and one sweet cockerel. About a gallon of drumsticks and thighs, half gallon of boneless breasts.

I was in the house less than an hour.
Of course one was my favorite. She hatched my first meat mutts and hadn't laid much if any this year...I didn't butcher her.

Oh no! I am so sorry.

 

[Sequel]

Add coyotes/canine to this list.
After I posted this I went out and found 7 chicken bodies and a couple chicks missing.
I took the usable meat of 5 hens and one sweet cockerel. About a gallon of drumsticks and thighs, half gallon of boneless breasts.

I was in the house less than an hour.
Of course one was my favorite. She hatched my first meat mutts and hadn't laid much if any this year...I didn't butcher her.

I’m just so sorry to read about this! I have had raccoon attacks recently, I lost 2. I hope you can figure out something, I’m rehoming the rest of my flock tomorrow, I honestly can’t imagine life without chickens but i need time to change some infrastructure.

 

[BDutch]

Glad we have no coyotes and raccoons in the Netherlands.

Sorry for this misery @Sequel
I hope you succeed to improve the safety of your coop/setup. Is it a temporary rehoming or do you want to buy new chickens after you finished your fort knox?

What other canine @Molpet ? Do you mean dogs too?
My chickens are at high alert if they spot a dog. And I don't think they make a distinction between a dwarf poodle and a german shepherd. Only our sweet neighbours dog doesn’t scare them very much.

 

[Perris]

I’m just so sorry to read about this! I have had raccoon attacks recently, I lost 2. I hope you can figure out something, I’m rehoming the rest of my flock tomorrow, I honestly can’t imagine life without chickens but i need time to change some infrastructure.

so sorry to hear about your losses and troubles too @Sequel

 

[Molpet]

I’m just so sorry to read about this! I have had raccoon attacks recently, I lost 2. I hope you can figure out something, I’m rehoming the rest of my flock tomorrow, I honestly can’t imagine life without chickens but i need time to change some infrastructure.

sorry for your losses
I have caught 126 racoons since 2021, not sure how much trapping them is helping.

What other canine @Molpet ? Do you mean dogs too?

I seen a fox this spring a couple days after an attack, 4 hens lost feathers but were ok. A lame rooster was tore up and I had to put him down.
I haven't seen any stray dogs in years, but could be a lost pet.
I still have around 50 hens. I keep so many for several reasons and predator losses is one.

 

[ManueB]

@Molpet and @Sequel I'm very sorry too for the loss of your hens and the sweet cockerel.

It seems to me like the predator load is maybe harder to deal with in the US than here. We don't have racoons, coyotes, not to mention bears, which all seem difficult (and expensive) to deter.
It's too bad racoons are such dangerous predators for our chickens. I thought they were actually cute and funny, like Ewoks, when I first saw them in the US thirty years ago, but the overpopulation problem was barely beginning then.

@BDutch how is Black now ?
One of my neighbours recently had losses from a beech marten. He said it came for the eggs mostly, but would attack the hens when it saw them. He managed to trap it with an egg I think.