I consider my coops and run very, very secure. I've done a lot of work over the past year to ensure so, with the exception of one weak spot, which I will get to later. I haven't had many issues this year with predation, and it's made me a bit complacent, which became apparent this past week.
I have two elevated main coops that share a 750 sq ft run and two brooder coops with their own runs - one being a TSC coop that is inside my main run and another being the underside of one of the main coops that has its own 36 sq ft run that can be closed or left open to the main run. I have a bantam Brahma that is raising some guineas and they have been sleeping there, and since they are integrated with the flock (babies are about 3 weeks old now) I had been getting lazy about closing them up to segregate them at night (complacency habit #1).
This past Wednesday I went to go open up the main coops and heard the mama in one of the big coops clucking away. A peak inside and her babies were not in there and I was immediately worried. Complacency habit #2: not doing head counts at night. I didn't know if she'd lost them all the day before while free ranging or something. I went over to the brooder coop and as soon as I opened the outside door (not the one that opens into the run, as that one was already open), I saw two huge black things. The one closest to me was a snake with a huge lump in it. I looked in the back corner of the coop and saw all five keets huddled in the corner. I felt the snakes lump and confirmed it was an egg, which was extremely fortunate - usually nobody lays in there. It was so full from that big egg that it didn't try to eat any of the babies. I pulled it out and set it aside to relocate (I really have no problem with snakes) and got the other black lump out. It was one of my BYM pullets, dead from unknown causes. Note to self: check the brooder coop daily and be sure to close it up at night when there are broodies and chicks in there.
Moving forward. Mama refused to go back in the brooder, understandably, and four of the keets were big enough to hop up on the roost to sleep with her. The fifth I am having to put in the TSC brooder with 25 chicks at night because it is a runt and cannot make it up onto the roost.
Complacency habit #3: On Friday and Saturday night I sometimes leave the coops open so I can sleep in a bit later. This past Friday I made sure the keets were in their proper places before heading to bed. I came out on Saturday and there were only two keets, not counting the one in the TSC coop. I was stumped. They were not tiny enough for a snake to eat both and make it out of any of the snake sized spaces in the run, which is chainlink covered in chicken wire, especially after noting how lethargic a snake becomes after eating. I searched high and low with no sign of bodies or a culprit. There was no indication of fright or scuffling by the adults. My other thoughts were fox and raccoon, but why would they take two babies and not mess with adults? The whole situation had me concerned and paranoid.
Proceed forward. Last night I had coops locked up, two babies roosting with mama and the runt guinea in the TSC coop. It was running around crying for mama and I wanted to make sure it didn't try to sleep down in the run part. So at 930 last night I went out to check on it and make sure it went up in the little coop with the chicks and everything was secure. I opened the run gate and a huge gray cat was chewing on some squash I had thrown out to them. He darted out through a 3" gap between the run and coop. I knew that gap was there but hadn't taken the time to fix it, aka Compacency habit #4: not attending to repairs and potential weak points as soon as they are identified. Well, I'm happy to finally know what happened to those poor babies, though I think dying by way of cat must be pretty terrible, considering what I've seen my own cat do to small creatures. In hindsight, the only other bird I've lost this year from predation was one of my favorite little bantam cockerels when he was about 8 weeks old and I think it was sometime between Friday and Sunday (see complacency habit #2). I wonder if he was the cat's first victim. I also wonder if it killed that pullet last week and the snake scared it before it could take her body. Ironically, I think the snake's presence is what protected the guinea keets the night.
Also falling under complacency habit #4, I usually have two game cameras focused on my run so I can be aware of lurking potential predators before they can become a problem. One camera's batteries went dead about a month ago, and the other's memory card went bad a couple of weeks ago. I would have known about the cat much sooner if I had my cameras up and running.
I also never really considered snakes to be a potential problem where I am and now I know better and will need to make some modifications.
I thought I would share my story and "lessons learned" for the benefit of all, even though it sort of shines a bad light on me.
I have two elevated main coops that share a 750 sq ft run and two brooder coops with their own runs - one being a TSC coop that is inside my main run and another being the underside of one of the main coops that has its own 36 sq ft run that can be closed or left open to the main run. I have a bantam Brahma that is raising some guineas and they have been sleeping there, and since they are integrated with the flock (babies are about 3 weeks old now) I had been getting lazy about closing them up to segregate them at night (complacency habit #1).
This past Wednesday I went to go open up the main coops and heard the mama in one of the big coops clucking away. A peak inside and her babies were not in there and I was immediately worried. Complacency habit #2: not doing head counts at night. I didn't know if she'd lost them all the day before while free ranging or something. I went over to the brooder coop and as soon as I opened the outside door (not the one that opens into the run, as that one was already open), I saw two huge black things. The one closest to me was a snake with a huge lump in it. I looked in the back corner of the coop and saw all five keets huddled in the corner. I felt the snakes lump and confirmed it was an egg, which was extremely fortunate - usually nobody lays in there. It was so full from that big egg that it didn't try to eat any of the babies. I pulled it out and set it aside to relocate (I really have no problem with snakes) and got the other black lump out. It was one of my BYM pullets, dead from unknown causes. Note to self: check the brooder coop daily and be sure to close it up at night when there are broodies and chicks in there.
Moving forward. Mama refused to go back in the brooder, understandably, and four of the keets were big enough to hop up on the roost to sleep with her. The fifth I am having to put in the TSC brooder with 25 chicks at night because it is a runt and cannot make it up onto the roost.
Complacency habit #3: On Friday and Saturday night I sometimes leave the coops open so I can sleep in a bit later. This past Friday I made sure the keets were in their proper places before heading to bed. I came out on Saturday and there were only two keets, not counting the one in the TSC coop. I was stumped. They were not tiny enough for a snake to eat both and make it out of any of the snake sized spaces in the run, which is chainlink covered in chicken wire, especially after noting how lethargic a snake becomes after eating. I searched high and low with no sign of bodies or a culprit. There was no indication of fright or scuffling by the adults. My other thoughts were fox and raccoon, but why would they take two babies and not mess with adults? The whole situation had me concerned and paranoid.
Proceed forward. Last night I had coops locked up, two babies roosting with mama and the runt guinea in the TSC coop. It was running around crying for mama and I wanted to make sure it didn't try to sleep down in the run part. So at 930 last night I went out to check on it and make sure it went up in the little coop with the chicks and everything was secure. I opened the run gate and a huge gray cat was chewing on some squash I had thrown out to them. He darted out through a 3" gap between the run and coop. I knew that gap was there but hadn't taken the time to fix it, aka Compacency habit #4: not attending to repairs and potential weak points as soon as they are identified. Well, I'm happy to finally know what happened to those poor babies, though I think dying by way of cat must be pretty terrible, considering what I've seen my own cat do to small creatures. In hindsight, the only other bird I've lost this year from predation was one of my favorite little bantam cockerels when he was about 8 weeks old and I think it was sometime between Friday and Sunday (see complacency habit #2). I wonder if he was the cat's first victim. I also wonder if it killed that pullet last week and the snake scared it before it could take her body. Ironically, I think the snake's presence is what protected the guinea keets the night.
Also falling under complacency habit #4, I usually have two game cameras focused on my run so I can be aware of lurking potential predators before they can become a problem. One camera's batteries went dead about a month ago, and the other's memory card went bad a couple of weeks ago. I would have known about the cat much sooner if I had my cameras up and running.
I also never really considered snakes to be a potential problem where I am and now I know better and will need to make some modifications.
I thought I would share my story and "lessons learned" for the benefit of all, even though it sort of shines a bad light on me.
