Reechelle1014
Hatching
- Mar 16, 2016
- 4
- 0
- 7
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!!!
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!!!