MY CHICKENS ARE GONE TONIGHT!

[Chickielady]

@Chickalish

Oh so sorry for your loss !
This must have been so hard to deal with, I had mink attacks for a few days, they kept coming back even in broad daylight and although we finally found their way into the coop, they did manage to kill 4-6 Blue Jersey Giant pullets.it was devastating !
Also lost a few birds to a bobcat, and had to study up on each predator to learn how they operate.
I know how it leaves you helpless and heartbroken.

 

[bobbi-j]

This is the hard part about keeping chickens. Everything likes chicken! Predator attacks aren't necessarily a question of "if", but "when". Predators can even find their way into the most seemingly solid of coops. I went for 4 years without an attack. I've lost chickens every year since then. Lost them free ranging, and lost them while they were locked in the coop and run. I currently don't have any chickens right now, due to heavy predation this past year.

OP, I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[perchie.girl]

Sorry for your loss @Chickalish I am coming in late... As a chicken keeper here in San Diego myself I have lost three complete flocks to predators. Dogs in the city and Coyotes Bobcats and Raccoons in the mountains.

In the city I lost a cat to a red tailed hawk. The only thing you can do is reinforce and fortify fencing.... Here in the desert once livestock moves in the predators line up for the buffet.

The worst offenders are Coyotes.... Coyote fence or no jump fence works but you have to get creative to build one yourself. Cyotes will climb over chain link or dig under... My last flock was taken four or five years ago I wont be getting chickens again till I can rebuild the Poultry house and fortifiy fencing which will include electric fence run both on the top of the fence and on the bottom about nose height.

The run will be 24 x 50 and covered with Aviary netting designed to keep birds in. Its a reasonable cost too. No free ranging... sigh... and I have eighteen acres. My last flock was over thirty.... They were gone in seven days... Coyotes...

For what its worth we do have foxes here... They are not red they are colored like dark coyotes. All forms of owls from Ground owls that live in sandy areas, Great Horned Owls, Barn Owls, Flammulated Owl (fit in your hand), Screech Owl, Spotted Owl, Long eared Owl, Short eared Owl, and Saw ette Owl.... this info came from SDSU site but most of them I knew already. http://map.sdsu.edu/group2007Spring/group2/Typical Owls.htm And thats just owls... Most are mouse eaters...

I have spent the last fifteen years doing research on predators and Trying to perfect my methods for keeping chickens.... While I realize perfection is unobtainable The more I reach for it the better I get.

Please console yourself that there really was nothing you could have done. The best way to cope is to resolve to reinforce....

deb

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Good news about owls. The USFWS may come out and kill your Bared Owls for you. It seems that those evil lumberjack cretins were not killing off those poor oppressed Spotted owls but rather the Bared Owls are so closely related to Spotted owls that these two sub species are interbreeding and the resulting offspring's look very much like bared owls. So to PROTECT owls the Federal government decided to kill what is essentially all the Spotted owls in the Pacific North West that are not spotted enough. The offspring pf Spotted and Bared Owls are not hybrids because these offspring are fertile. I can't make stuff like this up folks.

 

[perchie.girl]

Good news about owls. The USFWS may come out and kill your Bared Owls for you. It seems that those evil lumberjack cretins were not killing off those poor oppressed Spotted owls but rather the Bared Owls are so closely related to Spotted owls that these two sub species are interbreeding and the resulting offspring's look very much like bared owls. So to PROTECT owls the Federal government decided to kill what is essentially all the Spotted owls in the Pacific North West that are not spotted enough. The offspring pf Spotted and Bared Owls are not hybrids because these offspring are fertile. I can't make stuff like this up folks.

SMH....

 

[Chickalish]

Thank you Perchie.girl. My run is bullet proof, so I have no worries now that I don't let the others out.I have plans to make a much much bigger run this summer, since I can't let them out anymore.
Right not it is 6X9 entirely enclosed in 1/2" hardware cloth, and 1 foot deep underground and 2 feet out from the run. I know 1 foot doesn't sound deep but we jackhammered to get it that deep, we are one a granite hill.
Although it Is large enough for my 3 girls, they are not the best of friends and I'd like a few more so.

 

[Below frigid]

Sorry for your loss @Chickalish I am coming in late... As a chicken keeper here in San Diego myself I have lost three complete flocks to predators. Dogs in the city and Coyotes Bobcats and Raccoons in the mountains.

Livestock Guardian Dog? Coyotes may dig under but won't be leaving under their own power.

In the city I lost a cat to a red tailed hawk. The only thing you can do is reinforce and fortify fencing.... Here in the desert once livestock moves in the predators line up for the buffet.

The worst offenders are Coyotes.... Coyote fence or no jump fence works but you have to get creative to build one yourself. Cyotes will climb over chain link or dig under... My last flock was taken four or five years ago I wont be getting chickens again till I can rebuild the Poultry house and fortifiy fencing which will include electric fence run both on the top of the fence and on the bottom about nose height.

The run will be 24 x 50 and covered with Aviary netting designed to keep birds in. Its a reasonable cost too. No free ranging... sigh... and I have eighteen acres. My last flock was over thirty.... They were gone in seven days... Coyotes...

For what its worth we do have foxes here... They are not red they are colored like dark coyotes. All forms of owls from Ground owls that live in sandy areas, Great Horned Owls, Barn Owls, Flammulated Owl (fit in your hand), Screech Owl, Spotted Owl, Long eared Owl, Short eared Owl, and Saw ette Owl.... this info came from SDSU site but most of them I knew already. http://map.sdsu.edu/group2007Spring/group2/Typical Owls.htm And thats just owls... Most are mouse eaters...

I have spent the last fifteen years doing research on predators and Trying to perfect my methods for keeping chickens.... While I realize perfection is unobtainable The more I reach for it the better I get.

Please console yourself that there really was nothing you could have done. The best way to cope is to resolve to reinforce....

deb

 

[Happy Chooks]

First, I'm sorry for your loss. I've been there many times. Each time, you learn how to better protect them.

Every time I have lost a chicken to a hawk, there has been a feather pattern from the hit. About a 6 foot circle of feathers.

Bobcats will hunt in that time, and since they break the chickens neck, they don't leave feathers. If it is a bobcat, it will keep coming back. They are very smart and impossible to deter. I lost 23 to a mother bobcat teaching her young to hunt. She knew when my dog was inside, and that is when she would attack. They climbed the fencing. (not the wood, but the non climb wire)

 

[Peppercorngal]

I am so sorry to hear that you lost some of your best friends. It's so heartbreaking and it will take time for you to adjust to not having them. I understand, it's happened to me too. Do I understand correctly that this happened before dark? If so it may help to just have a fence 4 ft high or so around your "free range" area. Yes, it's a lot of work, but I had to do it to keep coyotes from coming in the day, rushing the flock and taking my girls. My coop and run are predator proof but I love to free range them and they love it too. With the new fence I haven't had any problems from fox, coyotes or wandering dogs during the day. Here's a picture of my 50x50 foot free range fenced area. Good luck in the future, again sorry for your loss.