HELP! My chickens are getting killed!

[centrarchid]

Show a picture of roosting arrangements and how something like a raccoon might try to access. Eventually you want to exclude predator form interior of run and coop but for short-term you might be able to reduce losses by making so roosting birds are not accessible even if varmint gets in with birds.

 

[Simmonsfunnyfrm]

Possums, skunks, and raccoons eat the heads off and leave the bodies. Coons will do a lot of feather plucking too. When I had the owl problem, it would actually crawl under the chicken wire to get them, the roof is solid. I would guess you have a coon problem though.

 

[City farm]

We have (had) 7 young chickens (about 18 weeks):  two roos and 5 hens.  The roos seemed to be getting along fine, although one was definitely more dominant than the other, and we were hoping to keep them both. Two days ago we got our first egg.  Yesterday morning we went out to let them out (they free-range during the day) and the more submissive roo had been attacked and mutilated.  Needless to say, we were devastated and assumed that the dominant roo killed him.  This morning when we went out, one of the hens had been attacked as well.  She was still barely alive, but we put her out of her misery.  Is this the rooster and/or other members of the flock killing each other?  Our coop has been very secure up to this point, and I don't think predators can get in (but I'm a newbie, so what do I know?).  Any advice would be greatly appreciated, as I want to take steps to make sure we don't lose any more!

. Did they grow up together? Or did you bring in a new chicken lately ??:/

 

[Elektra2167]

We had a bad coon problem, they were reaching in at night and grabbing the girls. It was horrible
Set traps and have caught oh a dozen probably in the last year. I know my coon skin pile is growing nicely.
We also ran a low electric wire around their pen, that seems to have helped too.
Hope you eradicate whatever is attacking the hens.

 

[theadrick33]

The coop is "open" with roosting poles 2 ft. off the ground under a sheltered portion (dog wire covers non-sheltered portion). Definitely planning on upgrading SOON!

The good news is, after securing some questionable areas of the coop, we still have all 5 remaining birds this morning!

All 7 were hatched together and brooded together. No new additions. There were definitely 2 separate groups within the order, and the two we lost were the more submissive roo and his favorite girl.

 

[thehickchick]

Oh no! Is your coop made with regular chicken wire?? We had coons pull them thru the wire. Try hardware cloth or double stacking the wire. Best of luck.
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