Sometimes I feel it's a never-ending battle to keep my girls safe and alive.
They are in a secure pen/coop, last year I lost all but a couple to my neighbor's dog who (after repeated requests to please keep the dog under supervision) managed to work the fence over and over until she got in. I got four new girls to replace the 6 I lost. Lost one to illness (she was elderly), then I was down to 7... then the day before yesterday I entered the coop in the morning to find one girl dead, blood around her neck area. The coop was sealed tightly so I assumed she'd had a fight although I'd never had that happen before. I should have thought it through more because no other girls looked as though they'd been fighting.
The next morning I went in and discovered two more dead, one without a head so plainly there was a predator. I live in a wildlife corridor and almost daily I see some sort of predator. Mink, weasel, fisher, bear, lynx... I get them all, not to mention the usual cast of characters like coons adn foxes. My coop was sealed shut. I have hardware mesh on the windows, around the foundation... and the girls stay in a pen outside that's covered. But there is an incredibly small opening around the front door that the beast must have used.
Now I'm down to four girls, and I set them up in my basement in a make-shift mini coop of a dog ex-pen around a kiddie pool I filled with shavings. They seem very happy, actually, but I will eventually have to get them back out once I seal up the coop this weekend.
I'm actually really afraid to lose the rest of my girls. One is very old and I'm embarrassingly attached to her. She was from my original first flock and has seen a lot in her day. Just when I think things will quiet down and they'll be safe, something still manages to fool me.
I live in northern Vermont, so it's very cold and snowy here. I purchased an electric mesh fence that I thought I'd use as a perimeter around my pen once the snow is gone next Spring. Just wondering whether anyone has any ideas how I can make the girls safer. It's really heartwrenching when I lose them! And I hear perhaps the electric mesh fences aren't all they are cracked up to be?
They are in a secure pen/coop, last year I lost all but a couple to my neighbor's dog who (after repeated requests to please keep the dog under supervision) managed to work the fence over and over until she got in. I got four new girls to replace the 6 I lost. Lost one to illness (she was elderly), then I was down to 7... then the day before yesterday I entered the coop in the morning to find one girl dead, blood around her neck area. The coop was sealed tightly so I assumed she'd had a fight although I'd never had that happen before. I should have thought it through more because no other girls looked as though they'd been fighting.
The next morning I went in and discovered two more dead, one without a head so plainly there was a predator. I live in a wildlife corridor and almost daily I see some sort of predator. Mink, weasel, fisher, bear, lynx... I get them all, not to mention the usual cast of characters like coons adn foxes. My coop was sealed shut. I have hardware mesh on the windows, around the foundation... and the girls stay in a pen outside that's covered. But there is an incredibly small opening around the front door that the beast must have used.
Now I'm down to four girls, and I set them up in my basement in a make-shift mini coop of a dog ex-pen around a kiddie pool I filled with shavings. They seem very happy, actually, but I will eventually have to get them back out once I seal up the coop this weekend.
I'm actually really afraid to lose the rest of my girls. One is very old and I'm embarrassingly attached to her. She was from my original first flock and has seen a lot in her day. Just when I think things will quiet down and they'll be safe, something still manages to fool me.
I live in northern Vermont, so it's very cold and snowy here. I purchased an electric mesh fence that I thought I'd use as a perimeter around my pen once the snow is gone next Spring. Just wondering whether anyone has any ideas how I can make the girls safer. It's really heartwrenching when I lose them! And I hear perhaps the electric mesh fences aren't all they are cracked up to be?
