My poor chickens:(

[farmgirl1995]

Well. Last year I had around 81 chickens and I have 4 now. I did everything I could think of to keep them from gettin eaten but nothing worked. It's sort of discouraging and has me thinking about getting out of the chicken hobby, as much as I love them. The 4 I have now follow me around but they're so skittish they won't let anyone pet them or anything. Has this crap happened to any of you guys?

 

[maybejoey]

Do you know what is getting them?

 

[welasharon]

What are you keeping them in?

 

[kaybats]

Oh geez.... how incredibly sad

Do you know what was getting them????

 

[farmgirl1995]

Everything. Possums, raccoons, dogs, cats, weasels, etc. At first we had them in two big coops and there really weren't any problems until we started to free range them. Then they started getting eaten. So we built large runs on both coops. We never had any problems with one coop but the other was just crazy. It was a chain link fence with poultry netting on the top and boards at the bottom so nothing could dig in. I have no idea how things kept getting in there but they did and pretty soon I had just a handful of chickens left.

 

[teach1rusl]

If you enjoy chickens, don't give them up. Instead, invest some time/money into building a secure coop for them. A small flock would be easier to keep safe/protected.

 

[ozark_chickies]

Quote:
I had it happened to me 20 years ago. I had 50 something birds, and one day a pack of the neighbors dogs killed 15 or so birds. After that it went down hill. The remaining dogs kept coming back, and things were taking them off the roost, and getting the eggs, and killing the chicks.We were free ranging, and my former husband didn't want a run. We had a coop, but anything could get in. So 20 year later, with a new DH, I have chickens again. We free range, but have a run for when we arn't at home to watch them. Our coop is closer to the house, and we are working daily to make it more secure. I missed having birds, and I'm happy to have them again.

 

[ozark_chickies]

Another option you might try is live traps we keep 2 live traps set every night. We have relocated coons, ferrel cats and catch the occasional chicken if my dh forgets to trip them before he leaves for work. After being traped a couple of times our pet cats have figured out they should stay away from them.