My hens are gone. RIP, my beautiful friends.

[ArizonaNessa]

I am so sorry for your loss but you can't give up. Take your time to emotionally get past what has happened, fix your coop and get some more chickens. I too had my entire flock killed due to stray dogs. I spent 3 days curled up in the bed crying and then I got MAD. Everything got fixed and I got even more chickens than before. Eight years later, I still cry when I talk about "Conda" my EE because she stood her ground and tried to protect the others. Don't beat yourself up. You are not a horrible person. As for getting full grown laying hens instead of chicks, you can look on your local craigslist. There are usually people in every city on craigslist with birds they are selling or maybe someone at your local feed store knows of someone close to you that sells started pullets or layers. It is going to get better as time goes by.

 

[Four Acre Bliss]

Thank you all for your compassion. It is making me feel a bit better. I'm sorry for all those of you who have already had this experience ... it is not an easy one.

 

[NGT ANGL]

I am so sorry for your loss

. Here are the links to two places that I have used to buy pullets and starteds and I am in Locust Grove, not too terribly far from Madison.
http://www.bucabucfarm.com/
www.twinofarm.com

 

[Sunny Side Up]

Please let me add my sympathies, and my condolences

Losing your birds to raccoons is especially difficult because of the horrible mess they leave behind. Hindsight is always 20/20, don't beat yourself up with the woulda-coulda-shoulda-s. You & DH did your best with the knowledge you had and will learn much from this painful lesson. And we all will too, and many other chickens will be spared this fate.

Forgive yourselves, forgive the raccoons, wish them well with what will be their last supper of your chickens. Rebuild and restock.

Also, check out the link at the bottom of the page to BYC's sister site The Easy Garden. Good gardening takes practice & experience too, and I'm sure you can find ways to make your next garden grow better for you.

 

[valentinebaby]

When you raise anything from the time it's a baby, you can't help but get attached to he/she. I am so sorry to hear or your loss. I live in a country type setting and took extra precautions to secure the run and coop by using 1/2" hardware cloth (found at Home Depot and Lowes) - you can see what it looks like on my BYC page. Just this weekend, I finished putting the hardware cloth on the top of the run and should start sleeping a bit better now! I highly recommend it. I know it prevented some animal (probably raccoon) from entering the coop at night because I had left some items on the window sill and they were all knocked off the next morning.

I also recommend you check out your local breeders on Craig's list - that's how I found my girls. I was able to get 12 chick/pullets without having those "packing peanuts" the commercial breeders use and I was able to see the way they were raised and taken care of.

Keep the faith! You've worked too hard to let one night destroy your dreams of a backyard flock!

 

[georgialee]

I'm so sorry for your loss. My local craigslist usually has at least one ad for hens.

 

[AmyRey]

Awwwww.......

(((((((((((((((((you)))))))))))))))))))))

Here in Georgia, our state's Department of Agriculture distributes a free semi-monthly publication called the Consumers and Farmers Market Bulletin. People all over the state with agriculture-related merchandise for sale can list their items. Perhaps your state has something comparable?

I found some poultry through Craigslist, too but it was never the breed/ages/gender I wanted. It may take a while, but you'll eventually find what you're looking for. In the meantime, work on that coop.

So sorry about your girls.

 

[4 Love of Baby Chickens]

Don't beat yourself up Bliss. The same exact thing happened to me last year.

I lost over 10 chickens in the Coon raid on the third week of June of '08. Six laying hens, my pet RSL hen and 3 pure BR chicks from my own stock. I was left with only one pure BR hen and two Ameraucana hens plus a RIR hen with her six Ameraucana babies.

Some of my friends came over and we made a brand new coop. But my troubles weren't over.

Over the next few months I had lost 5 more of my chickens to Coons that kept getting in my coop. I lost my RIR hen that had won 1st place in the poultry judging contest at the fair. I was SO mad then. I must've screamed for 5 minutes.
The very next night I lost my 2 Ameraucana roosters Teddy and Charcoal. I climbed up in the loft above my coop and put about 12 or so tires where I was postive where they were coming in. It worked. Ever since then I haven't lost a single chicken except for yesterday. I think that a snake got one of my nine week old baby chicks.

 

[eggchel]

What an awful morning it must have been for you. Im sorry about your pullets.

Check the ads here in the BST section and see if anyone has any pullets for sale.

You can also check with local egg farms. Often they will have some 18 month old hens for sale cheap.

 

[Brindlebtch]

I am so sorry for your loss. What a terrible experience! But I agree you can't give up! Get some started hens in a few days or weeks.
You have my sympathies.