Please help!! 11 dead chickens

[Sixpets]

I am so sorry for your loss.

It could of been a raccoon, coyote, or opossum. I had a raccoon come and get 2.

Again so sorry.

 

[blackswamp]

I would bet mink or coon. I don't know if you have a Rural King around but the have 40% off of there game cameras.

 

[btguy]

i have had a similar problem with coon, possom and fox, they have chewed through plywood,(possum) broken and pulled away wire staples, and in one case actually ripped through the wire itself after i had secured all other access too well for them, i started with 15 and still have two and the saving grace is actually the 1x2 horse wire from home depot. after the last attack left the coop unusable the run made with this everywhere (including under the wood that makes up the walls and as flooring so they can reach the grass but keeps anything from burrowing in) has held together well. im in the process of building a new coop up to this same standard. they make some heavy staples or u nails (far too big for a staple gun) that i go crazy with and then put trim over and i use screws EVERYWHERE else. i have also started using repellents (if they work i cant tell) live traps (steady stream of coon and possum leaving the area) and poison (has not worked and may not since we have to be careful about the cats) im hoping to find some electric fence at a yardsale this summer to hook up to a light sensor to 'light up' anything that approaches after dark (using the sensor to provide a little extra light in the run during winter with 2 flood lights). i think the best thing is probably just to build them out and then use the electrics to deter any prolonged attempts to find a weakness in your construction, and put wire on EVERYTHING. (can you tell im annoyed yet)



my new run after old one was discarded as 'too weak.' yes it is finished but rain has kept me from finishing the paint. a good dry week and it will get a second coat. all openings including underneath the panelboard are covered with vinyl coated 14 ga welded wire and the trim is screwed in place to make absolutely certain the the u nails cannot be pulled out. id like to say this one is built like a brick chicken house... well maybe not brick but right next door. and the best part is it is mobile, a 2 man job but not too bad at all.

and my now defunct chicken coop just before it was finished. the wire on this side looks like something grabbed it in the middle and spun till something ripped (the staples and some wire along the top and the wire itself all along the left side ( that is the original run that was quickly abandoned as too weak. and it was. ah well, it was free. scrap wood, all i bought was screws and wire.

my mother had adopted a roo that i was going to cull (read eat) and he was gotten too. nothing like seeing a sweet little old lady sit on the front porch in a rocker with a book in her hand and a parrot on her shoulder watching the chickens scratch... with a gun and swearing she will shoot the little ..... that got crispy. (he used to sit at her feet while she read. (that fox is perfectly safe... from her anyway... she cant hit the broad side of a barn))