City girl moved to the country and got chicken's.. HELP

[Hellokelsey]

Hi everyone. I'm Kelsey.
So today I got 4 Silkie bantams and 2x pekin bantams.

I did up their WHOLE run & coop. Pegged the chicken wire into the ground so no fox could come and steal my babies.
I lock them up in their coop for 2 hours, come home and one of my pekin girls have just disappeared! No sign of a fox, ie no blood, loose feathers, signs of stuggle.. Absolutely nothing! I don't understand :'( this makes me so so sad. My poor chook is gone. This is the first time I've ever had chickens and I'm so scared of the foxes getting to them.

The chicken wire is 6 ft high, the coop is like a xxlarge mental kennel with a perch, 2 wooden nest boxes and the flooring is wood shavings.

I don't know what to do. I feel so horrible. She's just vanished!!

 

[BrickWall Honey]

If they were in the wired kennel coop, a coon can reach in and pull them out. How tight is the wire? If in the run sounds like a hawk or other raptor since you can't find any signs. Might want to drape fencing over top of your run also. If it continues, try a trail camera to find the culprit.
Best to you and chooks

 

[txnative]

Chicken wire is not strong enough, or tightly woven enough, to keep most predators out, unfortunately. Something like hardware cloth is a much better option.

 

[roostersandhens]

Sorry about your chickens. You tried your best. It's always sad loosing a chicken. Try using a old shed for a coop, they are pretty predator safe!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Welcome Hellokelsey.

A fox intent on a pressed duck dinner can climb or even jump a fence such as yours. Whether he could do so with a bantam duck wedged in his face is another matter.

Is it Summer or Winter were you live?

What I am really asking is why your focus on foxes if you live in North America where we enjoy such a wide range of poultry predators?

 

[bobbi-j]

I was wondering about location, too. As stated above, there are more than just foxes that we as poultry owners need to worry about. A mink will carry a chicken off, as will a bird of prey if the run is not covered. Raccoons, weasels, coyote just to name a few. Hellokelsey you really do need to replace or reinforce your chicken wire with welded wire or hardware cloth. A determined predator will tear right through your chicken wire.

 

[Hellokelsey]

Hi guys. I'm in Australia, Victoria. So we only really have foxes and cats after out chickens. It is summer at the moment.

 

[marktoo]

No birds of prey there...really??

 

[marktoo]

Just googled it, there are actually there are 24 raptor species & 10 owl species in Australia. Don't know how many of those are in your neck of the woods. One of em is probably your culprit.

 

[goldfinches]

This summer, I had a neighbor's cat run off with quite a few baby chicks before I figured out what was happening. I didn't see any signs, no feathers, etc. And, the others are right, chicken wire is made to keep chickens out of things, like gardens, not keep predators away from chickens. You need a stronger fencing material, cattle wire or welded wire.

Can you keep the birds inside the coop for a while?