Help in stopping a predator!!

[cutechick53]

2 nights ago, we think a dog broke into my cousins coop. (I was watching them and put my chickens with theirs as I was going out of town the next week. The next morning we found all 8 of their chickens dead. I have five and they got killed to, even in a separate pen. Only 2 survived, the giant cock that had fought back, and a hen that had to be culled, her wound were so deep. This has happened twice with their chickens before, and I'm going to help her with her coop. Any suggestions on keeping the predators away? Help is much much appreciated as we are both gonna have to start two new flocks!

 

[centrarchid]

Picture of setup needed.

 

[chickienuggers]

We had a fox that was coming into our yard and scoping out our hens, we caught it on game cam. She kept returning, so we asked the ODWF about it and they said that fox will kill every single chicken in one fell swoop and carry off only one to feed her den. She does this with the plan to carry them back one at a time. The general consensus is you can trap it, and relocate her, but she will come back no matter how far they relocate her from you. Your henhouse will be forever known as a food source in her memory. You can trap her though, put a metal trap by the coop and place a piece of raw steak in there and also sprinkle cat food in there. That will get her. It may take a night or two. Put a game cam up with a memory card. That will tell you exactly what is happening at your coop. We got a Moultin brand game cam from Amazon for only 50 bucks, and it takes excellent videos! It is motion activated. We have a computer that we can put a card in and see the videos it takes and then delete them. When we go out in the mountains to view the trail cam videos, we just carry our digital camera and stick the card in it to watch the videos and then delete them. It got bad reviews from many people, but ignore those because people don't realize that when you turn it on you have to click the mode switch down slowly and then look at the led screen for it to say all four zeros and then do the countdown from 10. If you don't do that, it won't take videos. Anyway, good luck!

 

[cutechick53]

Would the trap kill the fox? (Or in my case dog)

 

[chickienuggers]

All it does is catch the culprit, then you gotta figure out what to do with it.... what you are comfortable with doing is up to you... but let me tell you....ANY animal that gets used to a certain food source WILL return over and over.... s consider carefully what you are gonna do with whatever you catch.... it wouldn't be in a trap set by the coop if it were not looking to eat your babies.