- Sep 16, 2011
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Been following posts and gaining knowledge since last April. Many thanks for this great place! I've been helping at a friends farm with his meat and layers for a couple years and decided last winter to have a go with some layers for our family. In April we got a mix of 24 day old Rhode Island Reds, White Leghorns, Americauna's, and ?Golden Star? pullets from our local feed store. They were doing great! All were friendly and fun to interact with each day.
Sadly three weeks ago a fisher got into the run by stretching in the window screen and walking through the opened door between the run and coop. It slaughtered every last bird by tearing the neck then left them in two piles to rot.
It was devastating to discover this the next morning. I had assumed it was a marten that got through the narrow opening made by stretching in the screen. I placed a game camera in there the next night and saw what it really was. A 34 inch long fisher came back to admire what it had done and or take its provisions. The camera was set facing the wall and it was easy to measure the lines of siding the animal stretched across as it very simply walked up the wall.
So here I sit without chickens for now. We plan on starting over next spring. Time is needed to get over this loss and I hope to take care of this problem first, and started by putting hardware cloth over both windows of our coop and using wire to tie this to the roof hardware cloth of our run.
Thanks again to all for the wealth of information shared to everyone!
Sadly three weeks ago a fisher got into the run by stretching in the window screen and walking through the opened door between the run and coop. It slaughtered every last bird by tearing the neck then left them in two piles to rot.
It was devastating to discover this the next morning. I had assumed it was a marten that got through the narrow opening made by stretching in the screen. I placed a game camera in there the next night and saw what it really was. A 34 inch long fisher came back to admire what it had done and or take its provisions. The camera was set facing the wall and it was easy to measure the lines of siding the animal stretched across as it very simply walked up the wall.
So here I sit without chickens for now. We plan on starting over next spring. Time is needed to get over this loss and I hope to take care of this problem first, and started by putting hardware cloth over both windows of our coop and using wire to tie this to the roof hardware cloth of our run.
Thanks again to all for the wealth of information shared to everyone!
