Devastated -- raccoon attack

[helkat]

I am so sorry

 

[easttxchick]

I am so sorry you lost your babies.

 

[xoxoAnny]

That is terrible, I am so sorry it happened to you and your son.

: I'm sure you were a wonderful foster family to them and they really enjoyed the time they had with you too. Me and my sister (Hay) lost a favorite chick to an animal attack earlier today too and were super sad about it.

Will you be starting over? I have some week old chicks I might be able to donate/let go. Lol I ordered too many and none of my friends who I trust to take care of chicks have time to take care of any. We are in the NJ area, but I have a friend who is going to be in Durham for school in about a week and maybe could have them driven over with her belongings.

 

[JessHall]

I'm so sorry for your family's loss.

We had a similar situation, I

really don't like racoons! But, we did our best to learn from the situation. Best of luck! Please get more chicks, don't give up!

 

[write2caroline]

I am so sorry that happened.

Raccoons are really strong. They can rip through hardware cloth too so even if you had used the hardware cloth a hungary raccoon still would have gotten to them.

I lived in surburban San Jose and Down Town San Jose during College. We had raccoons under my sorority house (KD). The landlord was trapping them, animal control would take them away and another would move right in!

I am not sure which was more distructive, the bums in the trash or the raccoons. We had a lock on the trash bin.

We also had Opossums too. The Sigma Chis had chickens and the opossums got to them the first night they had them in a make shift coop.

Sometimes City folk are surprised that the critters are living among them.

Again, I am so sorry for your loss. I am sure your friend feels bad too.

It is a tough lesson to learn. I would encourage you to raise some more. They won't replace those you lost but you child will already know how to care for them and maybe fall in love with the new batch.

You can talk about how they are different and the same. Talking and Remembering good things about the ones you lost really helps ease the pain of loss and replace it with good memories.

Caroline
JAx FL

 

[teach1rusl]

So sorry about your loss.

I agree with the previous poster (Caroline)...new chicks won't replace the ones you lost, but may help your son move on.

 

[rachelbinnc]

Thanks so much for all your support! xoxoAnny, I wish I had seen your post before this morning... You are so supportive and generous. My little boy and I got online last night, though, and ordered 9 chicks from My Pet Chicken. We enjoyed our first six so much that we are going to try again.

My son is trying to convince me to keep them in the house -- forever! I'm trying to convince him that our chicken coop is going to be plenty safe with the hardware cloth, but then I noticed the post about coons even chewing through that. Wow.

I'm so glad you all are here!

 

[write2caroline]

There are things you can do to help keep the predators out . Just know nothing is 100% successful. You can add electrical fencing, bury wire so they cannot dig under.

My girls are in the wooden part of the coop at night ladder raised and they are shut in. I take up their feed at night. My coop is moveable so I also keep it close to the house at night at away from our woods. Why attract danger.

My worst danger are the roaming cats. During the day I use a water gun to discourage their curiousity. The other day, I had a strange beagle trying to dig in with them that I ran off. My coop looks like an Iron Clad Warship and when I go anywhere I put the sides up. The girls have learned to go up the ladder too when danger approaches.

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I live on 4.73 acres of land but I can't free range my birds with all the day critters and have the night critters too. Only front acre is cleared because the rest is our wooded paintball park.

It is all down to risk management. I try my best to reduce the risk and go on faith for the rest.

My neighbor has a coop in a fenced run and her dog run goes all the way around it.

My other neighbor just has a simple wire fence and her coop is protected by her geese at night.

I have good latches on my coop. Once they are bigger - they can scare off the predators and things that would have eaten them as a chick.

My uncle had a little banty hen that ran off dogs, and once a wolf in Alaska. She even squawked at the occasional Eagle and ducked for cover. They had her for 10 or more years.

Good luck to you. Tell your son that the smell of bigger chickens might make him change his mind about keeping them in the house. My son (16) was thrilled to have his bathroom back as we evicted the chicks from the house to put them in their new coop last night!

Cal
Jax FL

 

[elmo]

I'm so very sorry. I almost did the same thing, putting mine in a cage on our screened in porch, but was too lazy to move the cage out there. Now I'm so very glad I didn't try it. The same thing could very well have happened to my chickens.