Loosing chickens

[dodgewoman]

I feel like we were not meant to have chickens we keep loosing them! We have lost 5 alone since march! 2 to my flipping dog b/c they escaped and I didn't know it. But the others just randomly disappeared into our woods. Probably gotten by a hawk or something of the like as I never find the bodies. So does anyone else here seem to loose chickens all the time or am I alone in this? We started with a great flock and now we are whittled down so much.

 

[ny mason]

It sounds to me that you just need to step up security.

 

[dodgewoman]

Yes, one that my dog got today escaped from our makeshift run. We are working on building the old run bigger to include them into it as well. We have had some other life issues get in the way of that. The other one he got was after they had free ranged for a few hours at night and my husband miscounted. She never made it back into the coop at night and I didn't know. The others just disappear while free ranging and I know that's a risk with free ranging and why I only let them out for a few hours now.