Flock decimated.......

[byounghusband]

Well,
It's been a while since I've been here... We started off with 10 hens, two roosters (supposed to be hens too...) and two Pekin Ducks. Both of the roosters went away due to excessive aggression towards us. We did have one check hatch and it was a rooster too. He is COMPLETELY worthless as we have lost 6 hens and both ducks are gone due to predators. Some completely gone, no trace. Some signs of a struggle, piles of feathers, etc. I have seen a coyote on my game camera at night, but all birds have disappeared in daylight. We do have all of the normal predators, Bobcats, Coyotes, Hawks, Owls, Skunks, Raccoons, Possums (?)... We don't do much free ranging now because our property seems to have become a fast food restaurant for whatever is preying on our girls.
And to top that off, excessive heat here in North Texas has claimed three more hens.
We're down to one hen and one rooster.
Once it cools down a bit, we're gonna regroup and start back up again. Gonna MISS those duck eggs!!! And the Chicken eggs too.

 

[Trish1974]

So sorry for your losses.

 

[Hopperkiller]

Coyotes take mine between 10 am and 2 pm within feet from the house. Roosters are no match for coyote. Their blitz attack scatters them and faster than his alarm call. He will gather the hiding hens and try to corral them for safety. Mine continues to try to keep his flock together but they split up with different ideas. He will chase smaller animals like the cat and rabbits away but dont expect him to stand up to large predators.

 

[Latestarter]

Sorry to hear of your losses, but I must say, and not to be harsh, as long as you continue to do the same thing, you can expect the same results. I hope by now you've learned that you can NOT free range your birds unless you are physically out there watching over them to protect them, and to try and determine what is killing them.

Until then, you need a very strong run, adequate in size for the numbers of birds you'll be keeping, covered with bird netting to keep airborne predators at bay, and with skirting to keep diggers out.

Wishing you better luck/success moving forward.

 

[ronott1]

I am so sorry about your losses!

Check out the learning center for predator protection ideas that you can apply to your place.

Predators are terrible! Big and there is no rooster that can do more than warn the flock and sacrifice their life to buy the hens time to hide.

He can only do that once too sadly

 

[keesmom]

A rooster MAY be able to take on a raptor, but there is nothing a 2 foot bird can to do to stop any of the larger predators. I've had 2 complete flock wipeouts during the day. Once to a fox and the second time to coyotes. My bet would be on one of those being your issue.

 

[Hopperkiller]

Sorry to hear of your losses, but I must say, and not to be harsh, as long as you continue to do the same thing, you can expect the same results. I hope by now you've learned that you can NOT free range your birds unless you are physically out there watching over them to protect them, and to try and determine what is killing them.

Until then, you need a very strong run, adequate in size for the numbers of birds you'll be keeping, covered with bird netting to keep airborne predators at bay, and with skirting to keep diggers out.

Wishing you better luck/success moving forward.

I adjusted their free range time, shot at coyotes, and reinforced the coop since i caught them at noon trying to dig in. I was happy to find the reason why chickens were disappearing. Cant work on unknown reason. The coyotes are staying out of rifle range so a shot every now and them reminds them. The rooster is wearing himself out keeping the hens together so all is working out. At 113 degrees im not confining the flock. They need to be in my flowers bed with the trickling hose doing their thing.

 

[Latestarter]

Glad that you have changed your approach @Hopperkiller I appears that you have done what's necessary to stop predation on YOUR birds. I hope it has been 100% successful. Now the OP has to do the same with their situation. Therefore I stand by my original post.

 

[dpenning]

Sorry for your losses. I'm not that far from you so I know what you mean about the heat but we haven't lost any to that yet. One day they actually got locked in until noon as the battery died on my automatic pop door and I didn't notice until noon. Fortunately it was only expecting a high of 100 that day so it wasn't too bad by the time I saw them. I've been leaving the pop door open at night until I can get a new battery and have been worried but so far no predators have gotten into their run which is not totally enclosed, just 4' farm fencing.

I saw your original coop build thread, did you ever expand your run so you can just not have them free range until the predators find a different buffet?

Well,
It's been a while since I've been here... We started off with 10 hens, two roosters (supposed to be hens too...) and two Pekin Ducks. Both of the roosters went away due to excessive aggression towards us. We did have one check hatch and it was a rooster too. He is COMPLETELY worthless as we have lost 6 hens and both ducks are gone due to predators. Some completely gone, no trace. Some signs of a struggle, piles of feathers, etc. I have seen a coyote on my game camera at night, but all birds have disappeared in daylight. We do have all of the normal predators, Bobcats, Coyotes, Hawks, Owls, Skunks, Raccoons, Possums (?)... We don't do much free ranging now because our property seems to have become a fast food restaurant for whatever is preying on our girls.
And to top that off, excessive heat here in North Texas has claimed three more hens.
We're down to one hen and one rooster.
Once it cools down a bit, we're gonna regroup and start back up again. Gonna MISS those duck eggs!!! And the Chicken eggs too.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

It’s not the roosters job to to defend YOUR flock,yes,he is helpful it spotting and caring hens to safety,but not every rooster is goign to attack a predator,and even if he did,it isn’t likely he can stop a predator of may sort unfortunately,at the end of the day it’s us owners job to care for the flock and defend them.