Help me! Something ate a chicken.

[momofchicks]

I went out to feed this morning and found a head in the middle of the run floor. The body was layed open on top of the nesting boxes, there were feathers everywhere inside and out. And the culprit left a rather large pile of poo. Maybe a red fox or something. Anyway, now what? How do I protect my babies? Okay, they have a house that is made of wood about 6' tall, 4' wide and then they have a coop area outside that is 10 x 10 x 10. I could make a door on the house, but we camp every other weekend someone would have to come over every night and morning to let them in and out. Could I put chicken wire across the whole floor? Can chickens walk on chicken wire, will it hurt their feet? Do you think the animal could be strong enough to break through the wire if we staple it to the bottom of the run and let it lay on the ground? Help me. I have to figure something out today, I'm sure he'll be back tonight.

 

[tiffanyh]

Im sorry.

Probably the easiest way to protect them is to create a door to your coop and shut them away at night and let them back out in the morning.

What is the run made of?? The only wire I would trust completely to leave out at night is hardware cloth or a combo of welded wire and chicken wire.

You can wire the floor, if will be okay on their feet, but what is your run roof made of? Most predators will climb right over the top. You can do the curtain of wire where you lay it outside the run on the ground. Be sure that is where the aniaml got in though or your efforts will be a complete waste.

Again, sorry about your chickens. We have almost all lost one or two to predators over the years, it stinks.

Oh and be sure to take care of them closely tonight, whatever it is will be back most night for a while looking for more.

 

[momofchicks]

It definately dug under the coop/run area. I call the house where they sleep in the wooden box area and the coop is the run area that they eat in, sun bathe and dust bathe in. Here is a pic. I have 8 chickens left and it is just begining to be egg laying time too. This will probably pro-long the eggs from coming now. The roof and everything has chicken wire very securly attached just not the floor area.

 

[tiffanyh]

Then I say go for it with wiring the floor, either inside or with the curtain. although I would still be pretty careful to see if something can get in tonight. Can you board them up in the box tonight after to wire the coop floor up and put some food in the middle of the run and see if by morning it is gone?

 

[Poison Ivy]

You might need to lay out some wire about a foot out from the run area and lay some rocks on it to hold it down. But you need to layer some more wire around the bottom half of your run to make it hard for it to rip a hole in. Have you thought about a putting a hot wire around the coop and run?

 

[Jenski]

Wow. Not locking up the chix at night leaves them open to all sorts of predation. Everything loves to eat chickens! I would imagine you'd have to get that run tighter than Fort Knox if you're going to leave them alone over weekends. Digging underneath and running metal sheeting or fencing under ground would be my long-term suggestion, as would using 1/2" hardware cloth instead of chicken wire.

Good luck, and sorry for your loss.