Heartbroken Newbies

[fairydoddmother]

My husband and I are new to the backyard chicken craze. We got 7 chicks...we got some great info from this site to make a brooder and we enjoyed building a small coop and chicken run to transition our flock into. We ended up with 5 hens and 2 roosters - the biggest being a Bantam rooster with furry feet named Optimus Prime by our little boy.

They are about 3 months old and we enjoy having them in the backyard with us. Our cats were interested at first, but now they could not care less and are often in the backyard with us. In the middle of the night (our cats stay inside at night) something spooked our flock and 4 of them flew away.
3 returned, 1 very sick, but she made it. This left us with 6 and we got great pointers to clip their wings.

Last night we lost 3 (2 missing and 1 confirmed dead). We were unsure if it was a raccoon (one lives down the street) or a stray cat (we live in the older part of town and there are lots of strays).

But tonight we confirmed it was a raccoon - we heard squawking and ran out to see that he had killed the smaller rooster and had Optimus Prime in his mouth in a tree. He dropped Optimus on the roof, but we couldn't save him.

We were lucky that our smallest hen, named Baby, made it out and flew to the top of our swing set. She is secure for the night but I am so sad about all of this.

How soon do I need to get new chicks so that Baby is not lonely and depressed? And besides setting traps and having animal
Control come out, what do we do about the raccoon?

Any advice is much appreciated. We love this new hobby so much but are both a little heartbroken tonight.

 

[drumstick diva]

Sorry for your loss. At dusk chickens should be locked back up in their coop for the night. A covered run would keep them from flying out. and keep them safe during the day. Have you checked out the Learning Center? It is the best place to start a chicken education. It would also be a great idea to peruse the Coops and predator sections for information on keeping your birds safe.

When you clip a chicken's wings, it's like declawing a cat. You take away it's best defense.

 

[Cynthia12]

Yes, those babies need a good safe coop/run enclosure. I don't have to worry about wild critters around here..knock on wood. I supposed raccoons could come our way. I let mine free range in the day..did have a Ferrel cat come in broad daylight and get one of my pullets..now that was a surprise to me to see a cat with my pullet. Then, when we caught it in a live trap, could see it was Ferrel. Mean! Anyway, haven't had anything more happen, for yrs. now, so my coop is open and the gate to the run. Knocking on wood. Our neighbors are the same way. They let theirs run right into the neighbors yard..neighbors don't mind.

 

[N F C]

Welcome to BYC!

@drumstick diva has given you some good advice...the best way to keep your birds secure is to lock them in their coop at night and keep them in a covered run during the day.

As for adding new members to the flock, once you have made any revisions you need to your existing set-up, you can get more any time. You'll want to keep the new ones in isolation for 3-4 weeks to be sure you aren't introducing any illness or pest infection. Using the "look but don't touch" method of integration works well, you can section them apart with simple temporary fencing so they get used to each other before being tossed together.

Good luck to you, I'm so sorry you've lost your chickens...that's never easy but it happens sometimes and all you can do now is learn from it.

 

[BantamFan4Life]

Welcome to BYC! I'm glad you joined us!

 

[Kelsie2290]

Hello and Welcome To BYC! Sorry about your losses. X3, a good predator proof coop/run is the way to go. If you have racoons in your area, even if you trap the one causing problems now, there will be more coming around sooner or later.