I have (had) 3 free-ranging hens, but over the last few weeks, I have lost 2. By "lost" I mean that only a few feathers remain! I can't find any evidence of what got to them. We live in Puerto Rico and the predators tend to be feral dogs and cats, mongoose, and hawks. I see no evidence of any of these types of predator. Our chain link, chicken wire enforced fence was slightly bent today, but there is only a 3-4 inch space underneath. Can a chicken get attacked and "escape?" Our property borders jungle and open space on every side except where our house is. What predator grabs an adult hen and takes it somewhere else? This is our first year with chickens, so we are new to the game, but we love it! Our two domestic cats love to visit with the chickens, and our dog is a little too "playful" but we don't see any evidence that she devoured an entire chicken on site!
If they flew over, and you are in a jungle-y area, I wouldn't hold your breath. A mongoose could get thru a 3-4 inch gap...
Bury the fence down a foot, and a covered run for their protection when you are not watching them. Sorry for your losses.
Thanks for the info. We lost our last hen today. Not even any feathers or sign of a struggle, she just disappeared. I was watching her most of the day and when I left to pick up the kids, she was taken. There was, however, a large, fresh dog poop near the coop! We have many feral dogs around here, so I'm guessing they would take the chickens for food and not just maul them as most domestic dogs do. I guess we have some work to do in the yard before we get more chicks. boo hoo
Oh, that is very sad Islandchicks... You know the predators, so you can do what is necessary this time around. I think if I hadn't had neighbors with chickens to begin with who gave me very helpful information on building my coops, then I may have lost a lot of birds. Our biggest threat here where I am is raccoons. You have to be dilegint with these guys running around too. They have hands, not paws, like peoples hands. AND they are strong. They can rip chicken wire right off, open doors and simple locks. They'll even dig holes to get in runs. If the wood is cheap, they can shred it also. The next big problem I have are the hawks. I free range my birds by choice, so I know it is a risk. With the over 60 birds that I have had in the last year, only 4 were taken by hawks, so the risk is there, but they are so happy wandering about. So, bury the fence, have a solid floor to the coop, all windows covered with hardware cloth, supervised ranging times. Hope your next try is more successfull.
