That sounds lovely! We have a big chicken tractor that I put in a spot between the barn and the house so there is lots of activity in that area which I think helps but time will tell. Hopefully my little cockerel grows to be big and strong and behaves himself long enough to keep the rooster train rolling haha
Coyotes are opportunistic.They eat whatever they run across.I've had 2 house cats vanish after sneaking out the door. One was a young black neutered male that was blind in one eye and the other was a beautiful long haired calico we had 10 yrs.I boxed my patio in last summer and haven't lost any since.
Raccoons? They would make a good meal. I know a couple that could have fed a pack of wolves
In theory but coons are better equipped to defend themselves than a cat. Having the option of both they'll go for the cats
That makes sense. Their little paws are vicious. We had a mama leave her kits (? Cubs?) in our car port and the little bastards hissed at me when I tried to get in my car. Fun fact: animal control considers them a pest but very few exterminators will deal with them. So that’s nice when they’re trying to eat your suburban chickens
My basset hound immediately started barking and shaking his head side to side when he heard the coyotes ! He thought the sound was coming from the chicken coop because we have a baby monitor there
Yeah, my cats weren't a big fan of the audio either!
I'm so sorry about the loss of your Splash Marans. I can relate...I live in an area where many predators are...such as Coyote, Black Bear, Racoon, Opossum, Hawk, Eagle Weasel, Black Rat and Black Racer Snakes etc... I've been blessed so far and haven't had any attackers when my chickens are free ranging. That being said, I worry about it since we are surrounded by the woods. The Hens love to go into the wooded areas and scratch through the leaves and other debris on the ground. I am in the process of putting up a bigger run since we have grown our flock from 6 to 9 and looking to add a few more hens. We do have one big bad ass cockerel, and he will go to the defense of his ladies even if me if he thinks I'm doing something to hurt them which, I never am. But he thinks I am. lol! But he can only do so much against the bigger predators. God Bless you and your flock. I hope you work it out. We use Electric fence around our coop and run. it's been 2 years and so far, that has worked against coyote, several bears, racoon and a couple of opossum.This isn’t a question so go ahead and move it if I’m posting in the wrong forum, I’m just so frustrated and need to say something about this.
I haven’t lost a bird to a predator in nearly six years and today, while my birds were free ranging, that streak was broken. They hadn’t even been out for more than thirty minutes when a coyote jumped the six foot fence around my yard and took off with my splash Marans. I was in the barn when it happened but didn’t hear anything because I was in the tack room which has a loud portable ac unit for my barn cat. It wasn’t until I went out and saw feathers everywhere that I realized something had happened and checked the cameras.
I’m completely in shock because although I know coyotes aren’t nocturnal animals, I’ve still never considered them a daytime threat. I really had thought my birds were pretty safe in free ranging from everything except hawks and I was wrong.
The worst part about this really is that I know he’ll eventually be back, and while I trust my birds are all safe in their runs, my barn cat obviously isn’t safe to be roaming free. The issue is that it’s going to be super hot this week and the barn traps heat so locking him up in here feels cruel. At the same time I can’t take the risk so I guess supervised outside time is going to become the norm for him for a while
This really is just not how I was hoping this week would start so any words of support would be greatly appreciated as I sit with this
