I lost a chicken to a coyote 😞 What can I do to protect my hens from further attacks?

[Starburst]

Hi, everyone. So, today I lost on of my favorite girls, Saoirse, who was a beautiful Welsummer, to a coyote. I’ve been on vacation on an island, but one of my neighbors saw a coyote run by with one of my chickens in its mouth. The caretaker of my chickens had misunderstood when I was explaining that I usually free-range my chickens, but that she didn’t need to as there are a lot of predators and I wanted to be in the safe side. Well, they unfortunately thought I meant that they should free range the chickens. I’ve had a coyote come and try to get my chickens three times this month. The chickens have always been in their run when this happened, though one time they were startled and flew out of the run, but they all survived. However, today the coyote snagged one while they were free ranging. Aside from no longer free ranging the girls and covering the run, what else can I do to keep the coyotes out of my property and else should I do for my chickens safety? Thanks.

 

[sourland]

You might want to consider hotwire around the pen. I'd be waiting with a shotgun.

 

[RoosterML]

You might want to consider hotwire around the pen. I'd be waiting with a shotgun.

X2

 

[orloffer]

Hi, everyone. So, today I lost on of my favorite girls, Saoirse, who was a beautiful Welsummer, to a coyote. I’ve been on vacation on an island, but one of my neighbors saw a coyote run by with one of my chickens in its mouth. The caretaker of my chickens had misunderstood when I was explaining that I usually free-range my chickens, but that she didn’t need to as there are a lot of predators and I wanted to be in the safe side. Well, they unfortunately thought I meant that they should free range the chickens. I’ve had a coyote come and try to get my chickens three times this month. The chickens have always been in their run when this happened, though one time they were startled and flew out of the run, but they all survived. However, today the coyote snagged one while they were free ranging. Aside from no longer free ranging the girls and covering the run, what else can I do to keep the coyotes out of my property and else should I do for my chickens safety? Thanks.

I am sorry you lost a bird, and especially while you are not present and able to do anything about it yourself. Other than that, I hope you are enjoying your vacation!

 

[Starburst]

You might want to consider hotwire around the pen. I'd be waiting with a shotgun.

Thank you for your advice. I don’t have a shotgun, but I think I might have to get one with all of these predators

 

[Starburst]

I am sorry you lost a bird, and especially while you are not present and able to do anything about it yourself. Other than that, I hope you are enjoying your vacation!

Thank you so much. Your kind words comfort more than I can express

 

[IamRainey]

So traumatic to lose a bird you've cared for. I'm so sorry it happened.

If a coyote found a meal, they'll be back. And the memory of that success will probably last a long time as all they have to do all day and all night is feed themselves. I'd stop the free ranging for the foreseeable future and stick to daylight hours when you're there to resume it.

Then make sure your enclosure is secure. If you don't have hardware cloth dug in at least 12" to prevent a breech by digging then it's time to secure the perimeter 12" out. I use 12" concrete pavers for that. Butt them up tight to the enclosure and to one another. A load of heavy rock also works if you have that available.

If you need to add a roof, do that too. They can leap as high as 8'.

So sorry for your loss. Glad you didn't have to see it, at least.

 

[Starburst]

So traumatic to lose a bird you've cared for. I'm so sorry it happened.

If a coyote found a meal, they'll be back. And the memory of that success will probably last a long time as all they have to do all day and all night is feed themselves. I'd stop the free ranging for the foreseeable future and stick to daylight hours when you're there to resume it.

Then make sure your enclosure is secure. If you don't have hardware cloth dug in at least 12" to prevent a breech by digging then it's time to secure the perimeter 12" out. I use 12" concrete pavers for that. Butt them up tight to the enclosure and to one another. A load of heavy rock also works if you have that available.

If you need to add a roof, do that too. They can leap as high as 8'.

So sorry for your loss. Glad you didn't have to see it, at least.

Thank you for your kind words. I had just moved the chickens to a new, sturdy coop, but the run didn’t have a cover or wire on the ground, so I’m contacting my neighbor to see if he can do something for now at least while I’m gone.

 

[Folly's place]

So sorry for your loss, it is so hard when this happens.
In addition to having a really safe coop and run, consider electric fencing or electrified poultry netting to expand their space during the day safely. neither protects from raptors, but will do well for most ground predators.
I also don't have my birds free ranging when there's a farm sitter situation; easier for the caretaker to have the flock in all the time, and safer for the birds. It's too bad that there was confusion about this, so next time have things in writing too.
Mary

 

[kcan2]

So sorry about your girl! It is times like this that make you hate nature...
I second the vote of using pavers up against the edges of your run. I laid down hardware wire skirting, laid my pavers over the top of the skirt around the edges of the run, and secured them against the edges with landscape pegs so no animal could pull them backwards. Hope that makes sense! Try to enjoy the rest of your island time for the rest of us!