Please advise... :( Chicken killed tonight

[Alhelm]

Hello all. I'm new to keeping chickens and I've tried hard to protect them. I have or had 8 Dominique hens. This is the first death I have faced and want to know if there is anything else I can do to keep them safer. Their coop and run are secure with half inch hardware cloth surrounding all of it. The coop and run are surrounded by an 8 foot tall metal wire deer fence enclosing an acre of garden and it has about two feet of hardware cloth along the bottom, half buried
. I have 4 strands of electric twine wrapped on the outside of the deer fence the lowest line about 6 inch from the ground that stays on all the time. I have another electric poultry net I use to keep the girls in one section of the garden at a time. I don't have a lot of cover from aerial predators but I set out 7 small lean-to like things and left corn stalks etc in place. The girls have been loving roaming and foraging within their electric netted zone with no incidences since July. Today I found one in tall dry asparagus brush near the electric net ( which was not hot today). Feathers everywhere, head gone, neck eaten clean just bone left. No other parts eaten. We are surrounded by farmland and woods in Virginia. I think it may have been weasel, hawk, owl or raccoon. Do you think if I keep the poultry net on it will stop a weasel? Would it help if we got a rooster? Will they fight or scare off weasels and racoons? I plan to keep the girls in their little run tomorrow until I can be outside with them until they go in their coop for the night. How long would a predator stick around to get a second chance at them? Is there something else I can do?
Thanks for your feedback, I have already learned a lot from all of you

 

[LavenderDaFlerf]

Sounds like a hawk. Sadly there's not much you can do to deter them other than make a covered pen.

 

[Alhelm]

Sounds like a hawk. Sadly there's not much you can do to deter them other than make a covered pe

Thanks.. I will try to expand the covered section

 

[STACEYH]

HELLO
I'm sorry for your loss. I would put netting up to keep hawks away. Yes, a rooster would defend the girls.

 

[Alhelm]

HELLO
I'm sorry for your loss. I would put netting up to keep hawks away. Yes, a rooster would defend the girls.

Thank you. Ok if a rooster will give them a better chance against a weasel I am all for it

 

[6BeachChicks]

I’m so sorry to hear that.you would need a predator proof run to help your other girls.

 

[LavenderDaFlerf]

Thanks.. I will try to expand the covered section

How big is your current covered run? One way I prevent most attacks is letting them out of their covered section very irregularly after keeping them closed up for about a week after the attack. That way the hawk gives up waiting and then doesn't know when their going to be out or not.

 

[STACEYH]

If a hawks sees them he knows they are there. Hawks watch their area all the time. It will keep coming back and trying different times. Do you have hiding spots for your girls to get under when being attacked? Roosters also sound off when he sees a predictor giving or try to give the ladies time to hide.

 

[gtaus]

I put up bird netting on top of my chicken run. Bird netting is pretty inexpensive. I live on a lake and have hawks and Bald Eagles overhead all the time. For the past 3 years I have owned my chickens, there have been no attacks from haws or eagles with my bird netting in place. A solid covered roof for my chicken run would be too expensive because I would have to build it strong enough to withstand our snow loads. Anyway, the bird netting prevents attacks from the sky.

It sounds like you had a hawk attack, but if it was a weasel, then you have other concerns and the only thing I know that can keep out those varmints is 1/2" hardware cloth all around with predator netting on, or in, the ground to prevent digging. But it sounds like you had a hawk attack. Good luck.

 

[Alhelm]

How big is your current covered run? One way I prevent most attacks is letting them out of their covered section very irregularly after keeping them closed up for about a week after the attack. That way the hawk gives up waiting and then doesn't know when their going to be out or not.

That makes a lot of sense. I let them out and watched them the whole time when I got home today. The covered run is 12 X4. Coop is 6x4.