Preventing Pine Martins/ Minks from killing hens

[Bridgetandthechicks]

hello, bridgetandthechicks here. Smudge’s passing wasn’t too long ago and we’ve had more deaths in the flock. This morning at around 2am I was woken up to the sound of the chickens making distressed noises. I rushed outside and saw what looked like a mink or a pine martin dash out of our coop. Three of our five remaining hens were killed, two of which were the last of the chicks we hatched ourselves, and the other was their mother. Luckily, her still have two of our hens alive, and they seem to be okay. One of these is Bridget, who’s still kickin about at her assumed age of five! I’m curious to how we keep predators away from the coop, we have two dogs if the scent of the dogs could possibly have any effect. Please if possible could anyone recommend ways for us to fend our two last chickens off from predators?
This is also very strange, we have owned chickens since 2021 and this is the first attack we’ve had.

 

[BDutch]

hello, bridgetandthechicks here. Smudge’s passing wasn’t too long ago and we’ve had more deaths in the flock. This morning at around 2am I was woken up to the sound of the chickens making distressed noises. I rushed outside and saw what looked like a mink or a pine martin dash out of our coop. Three of our five remaining hens were killed, two of which were the last of the chicks we hatched ourselves, and the other was their mother. Luckily, her still have two of our hens alive, and they seem to be okay. One of these is Bridget, who’s still kickin about at her assumed age of five! I’m curious to how we keep predators away from the coop, we have two dogs if the scent of the dogs could possibly have any effect. Please if possible could anyone recommend ways for us to fend our two last chickens off from predators?
This is also very strange, we have owned chickens since 2021 and this is the first attack we’ve had.

Sorry for your losses.

Keep the chickens very securely locked up in the night until an hour after sunrise.

There are articles available on securing a coop with a small run. You need good hardware cloth with a small maze and need to secure against digging too.

If you post pictures of your setup you can expect some personal advice too.

 

[BDutch]

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/top-10-ways-to-protect-your-chickens-from-predators.76540/