Missing chicks

im sorry for your loss... it must be hard losing a chick....

What time did it happen? and are they in a coop with a run or free range?

 

I lost one Americana recently and I saw a fox that night on my 2 acres again like u searched everywhere and found no feathers as u usually would so I assumed it carried the chick off. I know it's hard and I sympathize but its a risk of the true free range. As soon as the rain stops were building a large enclosed area and covered for them to eat in.

 

I have a fort in the woods that I turned into a coop. The trees keep hawks from swooping in. (When I first started this we had our coop in the open area of our yard and when free ranging a hawk swooped in and hauled off our full grown hen). So we have a fenced in garden where we keep chicks till they get big enough to be integrated into the big house. We had a hen hatch an egg and moved her and the chick into our protected garden. One day the chick was - poof - gone. I know it was a hawk or owl. I was CRUSHED. I no I put cheap fencing over the top of our garden and fully chicken wired the garden fence.

I have a small hatch door that I open in the morning and close at night. During the day our chickens free range in their large fenced in area, and tree covered. Well I was feeling comfortable about security and started not closing the little trap door. One night a small predator got in and drug out a full grown chicken and was killing it. The ruccus from the other chickens woke me up and the predator left but I lost my americauna. Now I religiously lock the trap door at night.

After putting up all the fencing, our neighbors weiner dog dug under the fence and mauled 4 of our chickens. So, I predator proofed the entire fence with ground wire.

I have learned in this first year of raising chickens that you do the best you can, then you lose one, then you patch that hole. Eventually you hopefully patch most holes that you never knew you had in your security.

But like the lady at the feed store said, you either free range or you don't. And her analogy was that she would rather live a short life of freedom then to live a long life in a small confined space. And I agree, but I am still taking ongoing measures to stop the entry points of predators.