Lost all but 2

[wegz15]

So the other day my wife went to let the chickens out and yelled for me to come out. We had 9 total chickens, and all but 2 were eaten/killed. Not all of the chickens were eaten. Some were just killed and had marks around their necks. All that was left was the wings, rib cage, head, and feet. I'm assuming the intruder crawled up and got in through the soffit of the coop. I am currently working on sealing the coop up really well as we rebuild our flock. I'm assuming it was a raccoon that climbed in.

 

[ivan3]

Hey, ya, wegz15, welcome to BYC. Sorry it is under these circumstances.

Description of carnage certainly is consistent with that vermin (coon). They do like to worry soffits: https://www.backyardchickens.com/se...sort=relevance&order=descending&Search=SEARCH

There is plethora of raccoon avoidance/suppression/`retirement' info. here. Hope you find it helpful. Besides hardware cloth (attached with wood screws through washers) over potential entry points, I'd also suggest a baby monitor in coop (only useless if no one is home) and live traps/dog proof foot traps (they prefer easy meals).

 

[snowflake]

coons have been a problem for a lot of folks this yr. I find it helpful to remove all food from coop and run at night, they like easy, so don't make it easy. once they have a taste for chicken you need to make sure they can't get in. I plan to electrify my coop and run this fall, I have read so many posts of people loosing chickens to coons. I know they are out there we have just been lucky.

 

[Greyfox Farm]

. once they have a taste for chicken you need to make sure they can't get in.

A DEAD coon can't get in.

. Duke DP + .17HMR = safe birds.

 

[cjsmom]

So sorry for your loss. I would be devastated.

 

[lalaura]

I agree coon. Or fox. Foxes dig and usually go for the necks first

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

Down here we havent really had a coon problem this year but that sounds like what you're dealing with. our problem this year has been hawks


Electric fencing does work, but it can be a royal pain to make sure you're not grounding out and losing voltage. our fence output currently is 17KV. it shocks just about anything and will arc out over an inch. but we go have a fence charger rated for 50+ miles on 6 miles of total wire. i have a switch so the run is only hot at night. so far nothing has gotten in... as far as 4 legged critters. Redtail hawks were dive bombing through the wires i had strung over the run. now i have leftover chicken wire over the whole run.

 

[Twizzlebee]

We had a terrible coon problem this year. They killed all 9 of the chickens in our 'fancy' flock(All the more rare, expensive breeds) And ate the toes off of 18 of our 20 SLW chicks in a rabbit hutch outside, thankfully only 3 were killed from them. This all happened within a week. We just sealed our coop in and shut the chickens out of the run at night now and haven't lost any in the past 2 months. It got to the point where the coons would lay on our porch at night, and we counted about 7 coons hanging around our property. 5 of them were a mom and it's 4 teenage babies, and once we trapped and disposed of the mom, none of the babies have came back, and with the family we had come out here over 2 nights to hunt, we've managed to shoot 4 other adult coons. No predator problems now, other than our pitt bull, but that's irrelevant.

 

[MarineCorpFarmr]

Yeah early season shooting seems to have kept issues down round here too. still manage to shoot the occasional coyote that's sniffing around. 10 coons 4 fox bout a dozen coyotes and 4 hawks. Funny you can shoot a hawk to protect livestock, but you go to prison if you capture and keep it. target practice.

 

[wegz15]

I live in an urban setting so I don't think shooting is an option. They didn't get in through the run. There was no digging. I believe they climbed through the soffit and into the actual coop. I have recently out up hardware cloth, but we've been keeping the last 2 in the garage. Its been too cold for the 2 at night in a big coop.