chicken pulled through fence

[Buff Hooligans]

When you have fences like chickenwire, with big gaps between the wires, that's a death sentence for your chickens.

Please update your fence with hardware cloth over it before you run for the gun again. Predators will ALLways find your chickens.

It's your job to make your girls out of reach to them.

 

[louloubean]

ya well, we will be updating the fence, and i will be locking the birds inside their houses tonight until that is done.

i would prefer not to be woken up to hear my chickens dying in the middle of the night, but if i do, i am going outside to stop it.

 

[shellilynn]

 

[shellilynn]

I lost two hens last night. This is a 1/4 acre fenced yard so it didn't just pull them from the outside. I am thinking it might have scaled the fence and tried to drag them back out. Any ideas? Would a raccoon drag them to the edge and then scale back over and try to pull them out? Also, any ideas how to stop a repeat?

 

[SleepyHollowFnF]

I've been there. So sad! I know mine was a raccoon because we staked out the coop/run at dusk and caught her trying to get in after three young chicks had been torn through the wire in the same way as your roos.

She died of lead poisoning too.

We left her carcass beside the pen for a day as a warning to any others that may come looking for her.

We have had no returning visits so far.

Does leaving bodies as a deterrant really work? I've often wondered that. I have dead animals (skinning and processing roadkill, then leaving out to collect cleaned bones later) all over my little settlement. We haven't had much of any issue with predators, but when I moved one of my bone buckets away from camp, we lost one of our silkies.

 

[mamabigbird]

I don't think most predators react to seeing other dead predators, but raccoons are extremely intelligent and will not only avoid any place that is dangerous to them, they will also pass that info onto their young'uns. We are in prime raccoon interface territory and they have not returned in the 3 or 4 years since. Neighbour lost all her hens to raccoons but they still avoid ours.

 

[SleepyHollowFnF]

I don't think most predators react to seeing other dead predators, but raccoons are extremely intelligent and will not only avoid any place that is dangerous to them, they will also pass that info onto their young'uns. We are in prime raccoon interface territory and they have not returned in the 3 or 4 years since. Neighbour lost all her hens to raccoons but they still avoid ours.

Good to know. Something left most of one of our hens very close to the coop and I spent all yesterday in a tree with a rifle waiting for it to come back, but nothing. I grabbed the body, hoping putting it out in the same place might entice the predator to come back. But I am doubtful because my scent is undoubtedly all over the place... Worth a shot I suppose.