Chickens acting very strange.....

[cmom]

I agree. A few years ago I had some chicks out in a pen I made for them and a hawk swooped down and snatched one. My husband had is table saw out next to the chicks and was cutting some wood. It happened so fast, he didn't have time to react. After that happened when I put the chicks out, I put netting over their little pen and wire over the melon box.

 

[SarahGfa]

I heard the birds really fussing last night. There was a coyote out by the coops. I got it on camera.

I don't mean to hijack, but how do your chickens know when there is a coyote outside of the coop at night? Aren't they sound asleep? I have coyotes regularly walking by at night, and have never heard a peep from my birds.

 

[mixedUPturk]

I don't mean to hijack, but how do your chickens know when there is a coyote outside of the coop at night? Aren't they sound asleep? I have coyotes regularly walking by at night, and have never heard a peep from my birds.

Prey animals dont sleep soundly unless feeling extraordinarily safe, they sleep lightly aware or only deeply for short periods of time. Mine have also woken me. Most recently for a pack of coons that stuck around a few months til convinced the buffet was closed.

 

[SarahGfa]

Prey animals dont sleep soundly unless feeling extraordinarily safe, they sleep lightly aware or only deeply for short periods of time. Mine have also woken me. Most recently for a pack of coons that stuck around a few months til convinced the buffet was closed.

That makes sense. I read many posts saying that chickens are sound asleep at night so it's easy to pick them off the roost at night, but that never worked for me. If I pick one up at night, they all wake up and run around like mad.

 

[Ms Clucky]

That's funny. I pick one up after they have been asleep for a while and they seem to be in a light coma. I can do anything with them. Cut their toenails, clean butts, cut the feathers out of their eyes,ect.

 

[50-45-1]

. If I pick one up at night, they all wake up and run around like mad.

How much your chickens move around at night will depend on how much light you supply for them to see. When i go out to handle my birds at night i use a small head light. The bird is easy to handle.
If you have electric lighting in your coop (i do not) and turn the light on, thats enough light to get everybody stirred up and moving.
That is why chickens are stationary and easy for preditors to kill at night in a dark coop.
I am not saying for that adding lighting and leaving it on all the time will save your birds from preditors. It will not.
Chickens need to have darkness to sleep, and any preditor in your coop at night or daylight will eventually kill most chickens. They are defeseless.

 

[cmom]

I have night lights in my coops. One way I can tell that the electric wire is on is to look out at night and I can faintly see the lights. They are quite dim lights. I really don't know how they know when a predator is around and sometimes they don't. Sometimes I don't hear anything but will get a predator on a camera. It's hard to see but there is a coyote behind the coops.

 

[jsr5]

I have solar charged motion activated light on and around the coop. One to give me a visual indication if somthing is moving out there and to hopefully possibly give the chicken s a wake up call and the slightest bit of a chance to flee and or fight. I am hopefull that most predators are looking to score a easy meal and the sound of several birds getting worked up might make them sound like a hard meal. Probably a pipe dream but we do what we can for our birds. I doubt anything can get in anyway but the front door has been found open (if you arent careful wood chips will build up and keep door from closing far enough to latch well) it is chicken wire too. well framed chicken wire but it is the heavier gauge stuff and nothing has made a hole in it except me so far.