Started last April with a box of 30 chicks, and 3 of those ended up roosters. Just as the hens began laying, we are now down to 19 with 1 roo. I believe we have been losing them slowly for around a month, and it seems to occur early morning. We have an automatic door, so we moved the time to open to 8am to try to give some time, but we lost another chicken between 8-9am last Friday. We are wanting to give them as much territory as possible, so we are currently using an electric fence only. We just completed a chicken run, but I abhor the idea of them being confined. Here are the facts surrounding this forensic investigation.... -Piles of feathers are found around the outside of the fence. No blood, no body parts, nothing but feathers -We believe the two missing roos perished trying to protect the hens. The first roo to go, was injured in the yard with one single puncture wound on his back behind his neck. -We have Australorp and Sussex, only the Sussex have been taken -We have spent several mornings from 6-9am monitoring the coop. We hide in the nearby barn. Whatever this is, it is smart enough to know we are there and never shows on those days. We want to purchase a "trail" camera, or "deer" camera of some sort. We do not have wifi where we live, so that is out of the question. I tried to research these cameras a bit this morning, but thought it would be better to get a testimonial from here before a purchase. I really want to know what is doing this and what we are up against, in order to better protect our chickens. Any thoughts/advice on the predator and cameras to purchase would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!
You can set up a cheap game camera to get still shots. The downside is that you won't get to see the predator until after the carnage. How far is the coop from the house and is there power at the coop? Would a baby monitor with camera be close enough to give you live video and audio feed in the house? They transmit via radio waves, but I don't know their typical range. Some of them are even night vision cameras. They weren't very common when my kids were little, so I have no experience with them. Most new home security cameras are great. Systems can be expensive, but sometimes you can find a single camera system for under $200. Most security cameras have the ability to record everything. That's all I have.
I am not sure of exact footage from the house to the coop, but it is under 960ft that one baby monitor claims to provide. I had thought about this, too. The only thing is that if we do miss something, we won't have the playback capabilities. Thank you so much for your feedback!
What kind of electric fence? Can the chickens get thru it? Have all 'scenes of death' been outside the fence? Most predators are smart enough to avoid human activity.......some are bold or hungry enough to attack despite it.
