Poor Whitey

[ChickenOrTheEgg]

We just got our first chicks about 3 months ago and yesterday my 4 year old told my wife he had a "suprise" out at the coop. He took her out there and said "look! feathers every where!" He didn't notice that we had lost 6 of our 11. We are heart broken. Being so new to chickens we have spend so much time with them holding them and feeding by hand they got to the point that they would actually come to us when we came in the coop door. We have a "gutted out" singlewide with a dog door leading out to a big dog kennel. I found a small opening in the top part of the dog kennel there it wasn't flush with the siding on the trailer. We have a TON of foxes in our area here in north eastern Missouri. What ever took them only left feathers and a little blood. The chickens are gone and I feel like the worst owner in the world. When We first got them I never thought I'd get so attached to them. Needless to say my chickens now live in the "Fort Knox" of chicken coops complete with my two digital deer cameras. I'll post the pics when I catch what killed my babies.

 

[Zenbirder]

I am so sorry for your losses. I lost two of mine to a pair of roaming dogs day before yesterday, and we generally never get dogs here. I am sick and upset. The rest are penned tightly for now and I am walking around with a shotgun. My DH did come up with one idea, we had an old baby monitor thing that I put outside to amplify sounds. If a dog barks or the chickens squawk I can hear it when I am working inside. I made a report and have the right to kill the dogs on site on my property (would rather kill the owners but that isn't legal!) This is really hard and I am really angry.

 

[chicknmania]

I know, it just makes you sick doesn't it? You know how you feel when you lose a pet; multiply that by a bunch of times. We've had chickens for a couple of years and I have always said that you can expect to lose some to predators, and losing one or two once in a while is just par for the course; in our case it's just a predator passing through and we've been able to discourage it and pass if off to...well, it's trying to care for it's young. But this is horrible. We have never experienced losses like this; never. And I have heard a lot of people in our area commenting about the number of predators this year. I wonder if it has something to do with the mostly mild winter we had? I have always loved wildlife of all kinds but even I am beginning to long for revenge. Our neighbors house sits practically on top of our property line, and my husband, though a good marksman and a gun fan, is reluctant to shoot anything; for a number of understandable reasons. A small hole in the roof of the shed.. I think you said? If you had chicks, that could be a rat or even a squirrel. Thanks goodness for the hot afternoon we had today; our remaining babes got a little break from stress; (except for the stress of heat)...they are very quiet...I know they don't know what to do without Whitey. Thinking of you all....all the best. Please keep us updated about all your predator probs....

PS: Six chickens in one day does sound like maybe a fox; but these raccoons travel in families you know and I think that's what's happening to us; they're all hungry...and raccoons will eat everything; so will a possum. At least we're all getting a little predator ed..ha,ha.

 

[chicknmania]

Zenbirder...we thought of that baby monitor thing when we got hit the very first time.. but our barn is on a different electrical circuit, so it won't work unless it's wireless. And the wireless ones needed to transmit from our barn to our house are a little beyond what we want to spend, since no idea how well they really do work. There's a lot of those on line. Also...our chickens start a riot lots of times just for fun, although I guess at night you can bet there's a reaon. Good luck with yours.

 

[panner123]

Try using a motion sensor like on they use on the outside of a house. But instead of it turning on a light, use a tape recorder or a noise maker of some kind. While I was looking for some way to stop a problem I had, I saw a product that you screwed into the motion sensor much like a light bulb. Only it make a God awful high pitch noise. I tried it and it scared my dog and cats so bad I had to stop using it. Look it up on line, under motion sensors.

 

[chicknmania]

OK, I will, thanks. The other day we were thinking of finding and playing recordings of Great Horned owls (since they eat skunks); and other similar scary noises; owl noises would probably scare minks, too. But would also scare the chickens, I'm guessing! And I can't think of anything that'd scare a raccoon, except maybe dogs barking....everyone locally has been complaining about coons this year; there are hundreds of them running around.