Please help me -- What am I doing wrong???

[deepbluesea]

I'm so sorry this is happening to you! Hard stuff.

I have one small dog (see avatar), but he has such a prey drive that they can't be out at the same time. Even though any one of my girls could take him in a fair fight, they have the prey startle response and it gets him going every time (on the leash).

I bought an automatic door, but haven't installed it. I've had hawk and raccoon problems this year, so I make a point of sitting outside with 'em for a half hour or so and watching them all go in. I've actually changed my work schedule during the short days so I can get home in time to do this!

 

[Sara Ranch]

*hugs*

I do things a little differently than you do. (I have multiple animal houses. Animal houses = coops.)

I manually open and close the doors morning and night. The human doors and if the house has a chicken door. In the mornings, I check the pastures before I open the doors. A few flocks are in an open fenced pastures, others completely free range.

At night, I check each animal house for predators and do a head count (with one exception - the group that has 58 - in that one I look for the 3 youngest), before I manually lock up/secure the animal house.

I also have all the roosts the same height per room/per house. Equalizes the playing field.

I do have dogs. Great big dogs. I have worked with them NOT to chase the animals. It's an ongoing thing. But I can trust them, off leash, not to chase/not to kill my animals.

It sounds like your coop may be too small for as many chickens as you had. Same with the run.

Right now, how many chickens do you have? How old are they? What breed are they? Are you willing to take a deep breathe or two or three? Then take things one step at a time and work on the coop, then the run to make things better predator proof?

 

[Chickassan]

You can't assume anything with chickens. I don't own dogs pretty much for this reason i don't dislike them it's just not worth it to me. My coop and run are human powered i count heads every night before closing up. They're not the smartest things on earth so you've kind of got to look after them.

 

[Cryss]

Is it possible some predator went inside via open automatic door while it was daytime and hid in some corner? I'd be checking every nook and cranny if the run and coop were both open at the same time at ANY part of the day. Sneaky buggers!

 

[happybooker1]

To answer some questions that have been posed. The 2 older hens were hatched in April. The pullets were hatched Oct. 10. They’ve been outside in the “big” unheated coop for about a month now with NO losses, and we had snow one night & several nights below freezing. They were fine.

The 2 hens roost, as do 2-4 of the pullets but most just piled up in a corner of the coop. (Although there are plenty of roosts available)

All of them get free-range from about noon (when dogs are in house or chained up) to 5:30 when they put themselves to bed. Pop door shuts @ 6. Yes it’s working, and at the hours set up. I can’t check the opening time as I take my son to work during that time but when I get back around 8:30 am it’s always open.

Sometime after 6 pm I go out & shut the coop yard door so the chickens won’t get out into the yard before I let them out the next day & know the dogs are up.

Dogs are let out at night periodically after 6pm (when chickens are in coop) till noon-ish the next day when chickens have free-range time.

What I THINK happened is door to coop yard MIGHT have blown shut during the storm (although it was partially open when I went out to shut it after I got home), so the chickens couldn’t get into the coop. I didn’t check the coop (because of pouring down rain) & just assumed they were in the coop.

So some were out in the main yard overnight. That morning the dogs were let out in the assumption that the chickens were shut up in their yard. So the dogs chased/killed/hurt the 4-5 they found out.

This does NOT explain the 7 dead in the coop though.

I have not lost anymore & the 2 that were injured are still hanging in there.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Then you only hope is hardware cloth all around and lots of it no more chicken wire and a couple hot wire one just above the grass second one 1 and 1/2 foot above that do this before anymore ate lost you had a coon or a weasle they will return

 

[Riverdale]

This can be tough but once a dog tastes chicken, they keep seeking it. I have NEVER fed my dogs raw chicken or raw venison (from my experience, dogs WILL run deer).

YMMV

 

[Sunryze]

Just a thought but I had a real meany or maybe just Jealous amberlink Hen take out 4- 8 week old wee ones while sleeping in nesting boxes after coop was locked down for the night . camara caught it.. She just gave them a quick peck to the neck. Before i could scramble out .. Did save 1. .horribly devasting that i didnt see her on thier side of the divided coop when i did head count and lights out... pullets dont mingle until almost laying now. Really sorry gor your loss.

 

[happybooker1]

Thanks for everyone’s solutions & suggestions. I haven’t lost another one since. TG.

 

[Imbri]

*hug* so sorry for your tragic losses... I'm very glad to hear things are going better now!!