How many chickens have you lost?

[cat1994]

I have just lost on chicken to a predator. It was about 8 years ago, the chicken was a lil yellow mix bandy hen named Henny Poo. She was my very first chicken ever; I hatched her from an egg. She loved me just as much as I loved her, but I was young and naive and didn’t really realize how strong those predators are. So one night around 2:00 am a big coon bit the lock to her pen and broke it. She was bit on the breast and the hip before my dad got out there, grabbed her out of the coons mouth, and than shoot the coon, killing it. He woke me up and told me what happened, I ran done the stairs to where she was and she began to talk quietly to me, almost like she was singing b/c she was so happy to she me. Despite us trying to save her, she had to be put down; she died in my arms, talking to me softly to the very end. Needless to say, I was very heartbroken and had revenge on mind. So all my pens for my fowl from then on have been and are very, very, very predator proof, I also have a really good dog that patrols around my chicken yard at night, she has killed every predator that has ever tried to get to the fence. There was a fox that caused a problem a while back, but it was swiftly taken care of. So I will continue to build up on protection for my fowl so I will not loss another so easily.

 

[terrilhb]

Lost 1 1 week after we got them to a snake. (before we knew about hardware cloth it was 1 week old) than lost 12 in Oct to a dog. It just killed them did not eat them.

 

[philintheblank]

6 to a dog... rehomed the other 2 after that. it was the day after easter.

 

[frizzleman74]

i just lost a 11 of my 6 and a 1/2 week olds to i think a weasle today

 

[speckledhen]

Have had chickens for going on 6 years now. No predator losses yet in spite of free ranging (I credit my roosters), though I'm sure my time is coming.

 

[tinychicky]

8 total in six years of poultry keeping: one due to unknown causes in the third year, her sister due to sour crop last year, two roos to my neighbors friend's stupid mutt dog

, one roo to a bad infection, one roo to CRD, one hen from worms and one hen who ingested insulation this year

i've also given away a total of four roosters. i suppose i'm lucky to have lost so few, but all my animals are named and loved, so it makes the loss seem all the greater

 

[Yetti]

I had a builder over this morning to give me a quote on a new barn. he told me he woke up to find a family of coons killed and dismembered 27 of his chickens. he said his little girls found them first.

 

[heather112588]

3 killed by a fox

- i caught him a month later in a trap.

Have killed and chased off many others since then

 

[WillieBoy]

In five yrs i've lost two full grown BIG New Hampshire Reds to a cat.

 

[Mzyla]

Last summer I lost few little chicks to Hawk.
This year one chicken died by her self.
And that was my fault, because she was broody and I didn't forced her out of the nest to eat or stretch out....
I was just putting food/water near by, assuming that she will eat. Obviously she didn't.....
Now, I won't repead the same mistake.
I have another broody sitting and I'm going to her every day, taking her out of the nest and putting her on a green grass, so she can nibble and get some fresh air...
The learning is endless!