My husband is away right now so it is just me to look after the chickens. I get home in the dark, 7 or 9 pm. 2 nights ago, I walked toward the coop and went to close the door and low and behold, there was a chicken laying on the ground! He was so still, like a stuffed animal, I thought he was dead or hurt. But no, just chilling after a day of escape. He willingly let me pick him up and I returned him to the "rooster coop". I counted the roos , one was missing. I went into the big coop and I counted the 1 big roo and hens, should be 18, but I kept coming up with 19. Hmmm. Then I noticed one of the roos was in this coop, he must have flew over outside and then just walked right in. Anyways, everything is sorted out now, everyone is back in their place. The next morning, after feeding time, I was inside the house getting ready for work and all of the hens and pullets just started BAWLING THEIR HEADS OFF i ran out to see and a hawk was vacating the area. Everyone remained motionless and I counted..... 15... 16.... 17. Oh no! Where is my little crooked toe BR? I counted 5 times, made myself late for work. Then I found her...... under the lean-to I built for extra security! Everything is ok here. So far, knock on wood, I have only lost 1 to predator, a hawk and that was before I put up the bird fence. Hopefully that will keep them safe. My husband says it is just a matter of time (before they are slaughtered by predators). I hope he is wrong!
Unfortunatley your hubby is right...I too would do a head count each night....over and over again ...I still do a head count ...but only when I want to know how many I have ..so I can minus 10 when hubby asks NOW how many do you have ?????..sometimes I get the odd one that will be late in getting back to the coop before dark and either stay by the coop yard door hoping I'll come by or hide in a tree ....
I don't know your exact situation, but I think a lot of our friends on the forum might need to beef up security. My coop and run are awesome, but I can stand to make a few improvements on their day time free-range areas. If you have a fenced in area for your chickens, you would be surprised what some clothes line wire stretched out across a few places and some deer netting can do to keep them safe from birds of prey...and very fast set up and low cost too.
I can't keep chickens but my best friend runs wire from the top of one side of the run to the other and strings CDs and strips of mylar on it to warn hawks away. I hope you don't lose any of your birds!
