Lost one

[Erin80]

One of our 14 week old Ameraucana's disappeared tonight.....our only pullet, the other Ameraucana is a cockerel. We have no idea what got her. Our pullets and hens have always free ranged without any issue. We have tons of coverage and they all stay close to the house. So now I'm extremely paranoid about my other ones. We do have an outdoor run attached to their coop, it's a good size, but obviously doesn't compare to ranging. I suppose we will be needing to keep them in there.....they are going to be SO so mad. I don't want to lose another bird though. How can I make their life in the outdoor run exciting? Lol. I feel like my silkies might get picked on as well in there by my barred rocks.
We are so sad tonight. Her name was Boots and she was so sweet.

 

[MagpieDucks]

One of our 14 week old Ameraucana's disappeared tonight.....our only pullet, the other Ameraucana is a cockerel. We have no idea what got her. Our pullets and hens have always free ranged without any issue. We have tons of coverage and they all stay close to the house. So now I'm extremely paranoid about my other ones. We do have an outdoor run attached to their coop, it's a good size, but obviously doesn't compare to ranging. I suppose we will be needing to keep them in there.....they are going to be SO so mad. I don't want to lose another bird though. How can I make their life in the outdoor run exciting? Lol. I feel like my silkies might get picked on as well in there by my barred rocks.
We are so sad tonight. Her name was Boots and she was so sweet.

Maybe you could still do supervised free-ranging?

 

[Frutfarm]

We let ours "free range" in our acre or so fenced area during the day and they go into their coop on their own at night. It's generally safe-outside of the random neighborhood dog that finds a way into the yard. Night time we just can't have them out. We had bantams that decided they wanted to roost in trees instead of their chicken tractor before we had the coop built and owls, opossums, raccoons, and all sorts of other predators started taking them out. Once we built that coop the remaining birds immediately wanted in there at night. Chickens are just too defenseless in the dark. As long as someone is home, free range away and peek out there.

 

[Erin80]

Yes, I just talked to my husband (and my oldest daughter who is 9 and heart broken as Boots was her chicken) and we will do free ranging when we are home and outside. I'm really paranoid now.
Our yard is fenced, but there was a massive flock of what we thought were turkey vultures flying low above our yard today which was so odd...maybe there was a hawk or two in there with them....we googled it and the ones we saw all looked to be turkey vultures so we didn't feel overly concerned. Apparently we should have been.

 

[Frutfarm]

Hawks are almost always hanging with the vultures and since there are usually many vultures the one or two hawks up there kind of blend in. They usually are flying a little higher than vultures and have wings that do a forward "V" while the vultures are opposite. They're also a bit smaller and lighter. We also had Bald Eagles where we used to live and the juveniles were even more difficult to pick out!

 

[microchick]

I'm so sorry for your lost. Unfortunately there is risk as well as benefits to free ranging your flock and even caged birds can fall victim to predation. I don't free range simply because of predators the worse being a fox that killed our neighbor's entire free range flock this spring in order to feed her kits. We also have dogs that are not bird friendly and well chickens are idiots bless them. I Fort Knox my flock and have considered standing guard over them in order to let them out to eat bugs but in all honesty a fox will hang back and wait patiently until you turn your back for an instant and then grab itself a free meal.

As for bantams, I have a young pullet that is a Houdini. My run is covered but this girl was finding a weak spot in the netting and having herself a good time in our orchard. I wound up clipping both her wings.

If you give your birds plenty of run space, cover it with netting and run a hotwire around it your birds will be safe. You could also construct a portable chicken tractor for them if you want to give them controlled freedom. Trust me. If you give them things like apples, squash, pumpkins or other veggies to peck at. They won't be bored.

 

[Dayrel]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

I keep mine in a chicken tractor most of the time and they only get out for supervised free ranging. That turned out to be a good thing today. My girls started making a racket this morning and when I looked outside, there was a hawk on the ground looking for a way into their run. I could have easily lost one today.

 

[Erin80]

Thanks everyone. Our outdoor coop is like Fort Knox, lol....my husband built it himself and nothing is getting in there. I know for sure they are super safe in there, I just feel bad for them since they're used to ranging all day.
Our main concern here is birds. Our yard is fenced, and our dog (Weimaraner) is out there all the time with the chickens....however we took him with us for a car ride after dinner to get ice cream...and I'm positive that's when the chicken was taken. So frustrating.

 

[Erin80]

Oh my gosh. I went out to the coop this morning to let the chickens out into the run.....and there's Boots, sitting on top of the coop!!! She was hiding somewhere in our shed, must have been roosting outside the coop but in the shed (coop is in built into part of our shed). I am so relieved!!!!!

 

[MagpieDucks]

Oh my gosh. I went out to the coop this morning to let the chickens out into the run.....and there's Boots, sitting on top of the coop!!! She was hiding somewhere in our shed, must have been roosting outside the coop but in the shed (coop is in built into part of our shed). I am so relieved!!!!!