Hi, From Huntsville Alabama

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Project Blue

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Apr 13, 2025
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Hi, I've raised chickens for many years and had been perfecting my project Ameraucanas to fit my own SOP (sex linked, larger bird/egg and a mutant color) and then disaster hit. A couple of years ago, I trimmed my flock down to one roo and maybe 8 hens for the winter. The roo had a freak injury to his leg that my vet decided to put him down. Big mistake keeping only one roo. After that fiasco, I got back to breeding and wound up going in a different direction with my project since it took forever to get a replacement roo since I didn't want to with BBS breeding. My hens had aged but I got a new flock going where they really were some kind of dilute BBS. The new roo was as close to pink as a chicken could get, with very dark red hackles and saddle and a pale dove gray tail. None of my birds had spotting or checks. I also had chocolate hens, one original old hen, and the others all related to the first flock but outcrossed with another roo, but were all very pleasing to me and I had high hopes for the future. All dashed by I believe a bob cat. Two coops were torn into by something extraordinarily strong and every single chicken completely eaten or torn apart into small pieces. Fortunately there were some eggs left in the nest boxes, unfortunately it froze the night before collecting. I managed to hatch 3 chicks from the slaughtered hens, and also got 4 chicks hatched from someone I gave a roo and 4 hens to earlier. Then another 4 from the same person. I also got 4 black chicks from online eggs. Not a color I wanted to introduce but their confirmation was too good to ignore. Unfortunately I incubated the eggs from my original hens with the donated eggs and am not completely sure who is who, so I'm starting fresh with a motley crew of cheeps and here I am.
 
Debbie292d said:
Hiya, and welcome to BYC! :frow

So sorry for your losses. :hugs

1/2 inch hardware cloth is pretty much standard for predator prevention. If you need any help beefing up your coop/run, we have a forum that you could post in. https://www.backyardchickens.com/forums/coop-run-design-construction-maintenance.9/

Good luck with your future breeding ventures! We're glad you're here!
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I've raised chickens for 20+ years battling everything from raccoons to minks. My coops are fortresses with buried wire and metal sheeting and two layers of hardwire. I'm guessing bobcat because I saw a big cat like track, but I'm not sure. One coop was surrounded by chainlink fencing. Whatever, opened the coops was incredibly strong and agile, as it made big holes and snapped through 1/2 hardwire like nothing. After something makes a hole at night where the chickens are, it's a predator buffet. Oddly, later, my neighbor's cat was dead in the big coop a week later with a lot of blood around the neck area but not eaten. That neighbor suffered losses as well. I still have not fixed the big coop
 
Project Blue said:
I've raised chickens for 20+ years battling everything from raccoons to minks. My coops are fortresses with buried wire and metal sheeting and two layers of hardwire. I'm guessing bobcat because I saw a big cat like track, but I'm not sure. One coop was surrounded by chainlink fencing. Whatever, opened the coops was incredibly strong and agile, as it made big holes and snapped through 1/2 hardwire like nothing. After something makes a hole at night where the chickens are, it's a predator buffet. Oddly, later, my neighbor's cat was dead in the big coop a week later with a lot of blood around the neck area but not eaten. That neighbor suffered losses as well. I still have not fixed the big coop
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Could it have been a bear? We get everything, including bears, here, but nothing can get at them in the coop at night. By day, they free range, and the dogs are out there. The coyotes are the things that scare me the worst as we hear them every single day for 9 years. One day they're going to be extremely hungry and not care that we have two dogs.
 
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