Losing Chickens With Electric Fence

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DyingPhoenix

Songster
May 12, 2016
140
219
136
Dewitt, IL
Went away for the weekend and come back to one of my pens compromised.

The pen has no top ( work in progress ) but is 6ft tall welded wire with 3 strings of electric wire around the base that really packs a wallop. I was honestly surprised something was able to climb the wire without touching any of them. Here's a pic.

0618181501.jpg

Most of the fence is more snug to the welded wire than where I took the pic. Less of a gap between them.

Today I added a new wire at chest level. The top will be on the pens by the end of the week.

I'm thinking a raccoon did it. Nothing dug into the pen and it doesn't look like a bird kill. The two bodies were found still in the pen, the heads and some of the torso eaten. The wings were also torn off and gnawed. The birds are young and still like to sleep in piles. It looked like the kill took place at the pile and then they were dragged under the coop ( its on legs ) and eaten there. I'm grateful it didn't kill them all in one shot but it looks like one died Saturday night and then another last night. I'm also missing two young silkies entirely from the next pen over which is the same setup.

I'm getting ready for tonight. Hoping the extra wire above will help. I'm setting up a trail camera. Does this sound like a raccoon? I can't imagine a opossum doing all this but I'm honestly surprised it didn't kill everyone in there. There's a Tom turkey in a third pen next to them, they are all connected. The Tom was left alone.
 
I imagine a raccoon can jump over the electric wire? Or maybe it got shocked and didn't care?
There are no other ways in?
 
GHO all the way on that based on carcasses alone. Fencing looks good and tight against raccoons. If you have a game camera, leave set it up to watch one the carcasses in the pen. Tie carcass down. If GHO, then it will keep working carcass until light enough to climb fence with.
 
Nope. The fence has no other ways other than up and over. Would an owl really tear off the wings and heads entirely and drag to a corner underneath the coop? The chickens didn't have any feathers plucked either. It didn't seem like any bird of prey to me. I figured they would pluck feathers and strip the meat from bones.

The heads, and most of the torso of them are just gone entirely. The lower halves are untouched. They are just a lower half with legs... So to speak. The wings were laying across the pen. The two bodies were both dragged and stacked in the corner on top of each other but the lower one was further decomposed.
 
GHO all the way on that based on carcasses alone. Fencing looks good and tight against raccoons. If you have a game camera, leave set it up to watch one the carcasses in the pen. Tie carcass down. If GHO, then it will keep working carcass until light enough to climb fence with.
What is gho?
Oh nevermind, read the OP's reply.
 
I have a similar set up - only over the top I have aviary netting. So, I am interested to find out what got to your flock. Mine are locked up at night in their coops.
 
I have a similar set up - only over the top I have aviary netting. So, I am interested to find out what got to your flock. Mine are locked up at night in their coops.

I actually have netting I ordered online special that I was going to put over the pen but just the other day changed my mind to wire instead. Now I definitely am going with wire. I hope I can figure this out.
 
How low is the first wire and what is the spacing between the wire and the fence. In the picture it looks like around 6 inches which is enough for a raccoon to climb behind. If the fence doesn't provide a good ground as it climbs there will be no shock.
 
Did you confirm that electric fencing was energized?

Doesn't sound like the work of a raccoon ... they wouldn't leave a chewed body behind ... they would take it with them ... and more likely more would be dead/missing.
 
The distance between the electric fence and the welded wire is kind of wide there, yes about 5 to 6 inches. It's at its widest point there as that T post isnt as snug to the fence line. The rest of the fence is within 2 to 3 inches. Some of it is even closer.

The fence is definitely hot. I touched it this morning and I definitely don't want to repeat it. Do you guys think the heightened wire will still work as well? I could always add a second wire that's ground like an inch below it but it's just that many more handles I have to make in front of all the pen doors. The new wire is very snug to the fence. Something climbing has no way to get past it without touching that one.
 

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