I lost my first chicken last evening! ule

[karissapaul]

Don't read about the horrors. If your plants are big enough then you can put them in and your garden will love it. Hawks love to eat chickens so do raccoons and other scavengers.

 

[ButtonquailGirl14]

Oh, I'm so sorry! I was so hesitant to look for her because I feared I would walk upon so horrible sceen. I'm so sorry that happen to your Hazelnut

thanks. it was terrible having to see my chic torn in half, she was so pretty! my little Ameraucana pullet. R.I.P

 

[karissapaul]

thanks. it was terrible having to see my chic torn in half, she was so pretty! my little Ameraucana pullet. R.I.P

oh no!!!!! Where I live we don't h ave a lot of preditor's but we do have bears and wolfs.
should I be scares?

 

[Olivekat07]

So sorry for all of your losses! I had a hen named Copper die last year. It was so sad.

Here is a picture,

 

[Bettyboop7499]

Don't read about the horrors. If your pants are big enough then you can put them in and your garden will love it. Hawks love to eat chickens so do raccoons and other scavengers.

I'm sorry I don't understand? If my plants are big enough? Then I don't have to worry about the chickens and what about seeds?

 

[karissapaul]

Put a fence around the seeds. Or just don't to it then!

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Chickens love to scratch loose soil and bath in it. They will tear up seedlings and scratch up to eat all your seed. A garden has to be well established before allowing birds into it. Even then you have to keep an eye out for dust baths as over time will make large bath pits that will dig up larger plants. Fence the garden, allow birds in afternoons once it's established.

If you allow birds to free range your always at risk. My birds are always in a fence, electric or chain link, and with that have lost a few over the years to hawk or racoon climbing over chain link if I'm late getting home to close the coop door.

 

[Quackers3211]

To me it honestly sounds like an owl that got your hen. If it wasn’t dusk or later than it may have been a hawk but I’ve had the same thing happen but with 3 ducks and all where taken by an owl. A bob cat would have gotten more than one( unless the bob cat was small) and so would have a dog. Dogs just go crazy killing as well as foxes when it comes to chickens. I had a dog come into our yard and it killed 4 hens before I caught it. It just kept chasing after them but I thankfully new the dog and was able to command it to come back. Coons only eat the head, neck and breast of a adult chicken.

 

[Flamens Farm]

I am so sorry to hear about everyone's sweet babies that were lost. I tried to free range my chickens and guinea's, it did not turn out good for me either. Now they are all in pens with fenced tops. Between the owls, hawks, opossums, dogs, coyotes, raccoons, bobcats and snakes, I had lost quite a few, the owls even got a few of my cats and kittens. My neighbor lost half his chickens and all his turkeys a couple of weeks ago. My other neighbor lost all her chickens. We have a 20-acre field between us and them and we thought it would be fine to free range but I decided for all my babies sakes to stop immediately!

 

[Bettyboop7499]

To me it honestly sounds like an owl that got your hen. If it wasn’t dusk or later than it may have been a hawk but I’ve had the same thing happen but with 3 ducks and all where taken by an owl. A bob cat would have gotten more than one( unless the bob cat was small) and so would have a dog. Dogs just go crazy killing as well as foxes when it comes to chickens. I had a dog come into our yard and it killed 4 hens before I caught it. It just kept chasing after them but I thankfully new the dog and was able to command it to come back. Coons only eat the head, neck and breast of a adult chicken.

I was thinking some kind of bird because of the lack of carnage..never would of thought an owl..just some feathers and gone. I know with free range you're taking a risk but they seem so much happier being able to roam free.