Chicken help!

[Chickens_4Life]

Hi, I'm new to BYC. I have 3 22 week old chickens and they were recently attacked by a raccoon. It carried off one of them and another followed it. 30 minutes later, they came back. How can I prevent the raccoon coming back or breaking into the coop? And how can I protect them from hawks? I used to have 4 but one was killed. Please help!

 

[Kailey the Animal Lover]

Make sure that the chicken coop door is securely closed at night, and depending on the size of the run, cover the top with netting to keep out hawks.

 

[Chickens_4Life]

Thanks! Just now, they were attacked by a raccoon again. One of them has a cut on her comb. It is bloody and a little severed, as in cut off.

 

[Kailey the Animal Lover]

Oh! My roo Cicada got attacked by a hawk, and severed his comb a little. I put an herbal anti infection on it, and kept him inside for a few days while it closed up. Make sure no pests get inside of it. Maybe bring him inside for a day or two while it closes up. Closely monitor him for a few days, too.

 

[bobbi-j]

OP, if you could post pictures of your coop and run, it would help us to help you a little bit better. We can maybe help you see where the weak spots are and give you ideas on how to reinforce them.

 

[Chickens_4Life]

I put Neosporin on. Will that be fine? Here is the coop also. Are these O.K?

 

[rosemarythyme]

Do you know where and when the raccoon broke in, or did it not break into the coop and took the chickens while they were outside of the coop? Unfortunately if the chickens were free ranging, that's part of the risk of free ranging versus having them in a predator safe run.

 

[Chickens_4Life]

Ok! Thanks y’all.