I have lost 13 birds in 3 nights!**UPDATE** POST #1

[HarlansHollowFarms]

Quote:
Please refer to post #12

That is mypoint...just listen to those who agree with you!

 

[Capone]

very sorry for your loss. you know i never lock my buddies in there coup. i just have a very secure door and the chicken wire from my run is dug down about 18 inches. after 3 years ive never lost one bud. just a little tip from a friend

 

[nelly]

Sorry for your loss. I lost one of my girls last year. Since then when it is to hot and i want to leave the coop open I leave on a radio. I put it on the public station that is all talk. I havn't had any problems since.

 

[purpletree23]

When it is very hot here I hate to lock up the girls at night but I do. I put hardware cloth on the outside of the windows so i could keep the glass part open. I also put vents at the top of the coop so air can circulate better (also covered with hardware cloth) and I found a solar powered fan. You let it charge all day and then turn it on at night. It made a big difference in the coop temperature.

Hardware cloth is very strong and when you cut it with wire cutters DON'T bend the sharp edges down. I figure that if a raccoon wants to get in that bad he's really going to shred his hands to get the hardware cloth off.

In case anyone doesn't know what hardware cloth is you can google it. It's hard to explain.

I very sorry for your loss. Keep a good eye on the ones that are left.

 

[juliawitt]

How tragic! We are new to the chicken world....but my husband and I were talking about this very situation. We lock up our girls every single night! However, we get some really muggy, and hot summers. When I mentioned to my husband that I was worried about next summer, he told me that he had all ready researched and found a thermostatically controlled vent fan to place in the roof of my henhouse. When the temperature gets to a certain degree it will kick on. We also may put up fans on brackets.
So sorry!

 

[Southern Chickens]

Quote:
I had the wire dug in about 12", but she didn't dig, she just bulldogged her way through the run door.

Quote:
Those are great ideas! I will try both, in the future!

 

[Cetawin]

Oh gosh I am so sorry. It is strange that the dog would suddenly start killing them. Maybe the other dog prevented it previously and now that doggie is gone, they are fair game. Was your other dog the alpha by chance? If so, I would suspect that is the reason why now the dog is killing them....alpha dog kept it from killing them before now.

I am so sorry you lost your girls.

 

[Southern Chickens]

Quote:
The other dog, 'Bama, was very alpha to her. He was more or less her dad. She was born on our property and he was the only male dog here, other than her brothers. He did protect the birds now that I think about it. That is weird, huh? I didn't think about it like that before!

 

[christa7032]

I am so sorry about your girls. I know how you feel. I have lost 4 of my six this month to (what I think is) a skunk. Its horrible and like you said, no one understands. My husband keeps warning me to not get too attached to my girls but I can't help it. Its too hard to see them killed when I have raised them since they were a day old. Hopefully your new precautions will work. Please keep us updated.

 

[gafarmwomanPam]

I am sorry about the loss of your chickens.
We live in a very rural area where there are a lot of different predators. In the last month we have lost 6 chickens, 4 Call ducks, 3 grown Muscovy and 2 baby Muscovy ducks plus 1 of our Embden geese. All the ducks and geese are in a pond.
It is very discouraging. There are so many coyotes in this area plus hawks flying everywhere.
Here is a picture of the geese when we had 5. Now we have 4!