Just lost our first chicken tonight....

[IdyllwildAcres]

I had one decide to explore the top of my 7' fence the other day, I clipped one wing before letting her out again I did not want her teaching the others her bad ways... So glad your girl is safe.

Gary

 

[Sunshine Flock]

While a hawk or owl may not be able to carry a full sized bird off, they will definitely kill them in your yard, and return to them to snack on them. I lost 3 full sized birds to a Northern Goshawk in a short length of time. This forced me to change up my management style. They now have a large run that is covered with poultry netting during the non snow months, and a much smaller covered winter run. They get to free range when I am able to allow them to do so, but are otherwise protected from hawks.

Do you know which brand of netting you're using? I know people say hardware cloth is best, but we have to watch our pennies, and for now poultry netting is better than nothing, and it does make a difference.

I've read reviews online of the different brands and don't know which one to choose.

 

[Folly's place]

Poultry netting or chicken wire will keep raptors out of your run, but other predators won't have any trouble getting through it. Any coop and run upgrade is worth the effort! Mary

 

[Lil_Boots]

I'm glad you found her, that happened to us one night, one of our girls hid under the deck after a scare, she refused to come out, not even to go to the coop for the night, I stayed in the living room with the deck door open lol. Next morning she was waiting for the rest of the group to come out and graze with her, she was fine, I was tattered . Glad it worked out though.

 

[chicken_chicken]

The run is covered but the chickens were free ranging at the time when we lost her. Now I'm out there constantly counting them to make sure they're all there! So far so good, she hasn't tried to escape since. I'm trying to avoid clipping her wing but that is going to be my next step if it happens again.

We used hardware cloth on our coop and run, it is more expensive but we actually found it for a somewhat decent price on Amazon, a few months back.

 

[Mary's Backyard Chickens]

IM SOOOOO GLAD U FOUND HER!!!