Chickens taken in the night

[outdoorschick91]

I had come home from a hiking trip to only 2 survivors of an overnight attack. My lavender orpington and autralorp were taken and the only evidence of them was some black feathers scattered all across the yard. We live in Rhode Island and there are tons of foxes, racoons, and fischer cats in this area. I felt like such a failure because now I see the flaws that were in my coop (which was a remodeled dog kennel). There were gaps that I didn't realize animals could even fit in until I saw videos on youtube of how foxes can squeeze into tight spaces and racoons tear wire apart. Since this incident my boyfriend and I have totally redone the coop to make it predator proof. We buried wire underneath the run and stapled it to the base so nothing can burrow under, and built the entire structure from hardware cloth and tightly fastened wood. There are now locks on all the doors and gates and every night I shut the chickens in the hen house. It has been 2 nights now since the coop has been completed and so far so good. I still don't know what took my poor departed chickies but I hope I am doing the right thing now. Hopefully my chickies will be safe and sound from now on, does anyone else have any tips on chicken protection? It seems like alot of raising chickens is from learning from those who are more experienced.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Sorry about your losses. It sounds like you have followed the best advice on the forum for securing the coop. If the culprits have not shown signs of visiting, then your fortifications sound like they are working. I have experienced predator loss, too. It is awful, but when we live and learn.

 

[Luckyduck2]

Sorry about your losses. It's a bummer to lose birds like those. It sounds like you have a fox problem, racoons usually only bite the head off and leave the body, while foxes will take whole birds and only leave some feathers laying around. It sounds like you have a well - built coop now, so that may be sufficient. We live in a raccoon - infested area, and haven't had a problem yet thanks to my dad's excellent carpentry skills. Traps are another option if you need to.

 

[outdoorschick91]

We did try to use a Hava-heart trap to catch the predator but it took the bait without even setting off the trap. It must have been laughing at us trying to catch it, lol. I did look into it though and read that even if you relocate foxes, another fox will always move into their old territory. So I figured the best solution is to just make a fortress of a chicken coop, or what I hope will be a fortress. Here is a picture of what we have now

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[Luckyduck2]

That's the bad thing about most predators, if a trap doesn't kill them, it makes them smarter. (Seems to be the case for me, most of the time.) Nice coop setup! It kind of looks like a fortress...

 

[outdoorschick91]

Yeah, it is hard to outfox the fox. And thanks! We spent so much time trying to get everything right this time, so far the new coop is working like a charm