Help!!! Hens Ravaged!!!!!

[BackroadGirl57]

A raccoon got in my hen house and dragged away my favorite. The other two were slaughtered and just...... left. The roosters are unharmed. How do I keep this from happening again???

 

[50-45-1]

Sorry for your loss!
To avoid this from happening have a secure coop for night time roosting. No holes or gaps over 1/2 inch.
Racoons for the most part are night time marauders so safe coop is a must.
Chickens are blind in the dark and are easy pickings for anything that gets in.

 

[RedwoodCoastChick]

That kind of senseless slaughter is so heartbreaking! Bad enough to lose a beloved chicken to a hungry predator, but for the invader to kill others and abandon their bodies - GAAH!!! I'm so very sorry this happened to your flock.

Raccoons are the WORST! (Except for bears, also indiscriminate killers of flocks. Many of our neighbors have posted on Nextdoor about bears destroying their coops and killing all the chickens, but we live in a rural, forested area that was the bears' home first, so we need to take precautions. But raccoons seem to be everywhere these days, urban and rural!)

Definitely need secure 1/2" hardware cloth over every coop opening (ours is covered top, floor and sides) and strong, secure doors/nest box access/etc.

Short of a combination/key/electronic lock, raccoons can open most kinds of doors/latches with those oh-too-clever hands of theirs! Most latches and bolts are easy-peasy for them. We're using sturdy steel carabiners on all our coop and run locks and latches - so far, so good, and we have lots of raccoons, possums, grey foxes, skunks, some coyotes, and 4 bears who show up on our wildlife cameras all the time. (We had to electrify the 7-foot wire deer fence around the garden/chicken yard parts of our property to keep out the bears.)

I hope you'll be able to beef up your security to be raccoon-proof and rebuild your flock soon. Your roosters must be lonely...and maybe traumatized.

 

[BackroadGirl57]

Thank you for the advice and for caring.
When I rebuild my flock, I'm going to try to get my dream chickens: two Silver Laced Wyandottes, A Brahma, and a Welsummer.

Will those breeds do well where I live? I am in northern VA.