- Jan 29, 2018
- 2
- 11
- 71
Hi everyone, I’ve been lurking on here for a while but just signed up. I am in need of the expertise of all of you to help me if possible.
I live in southern Ontario, Canada on 100 acres of mostly protected wetland and mixed bush/ grassland. Our land is rich in a diversity of wildlife which has been a pleasure to cohabitate with. To keep my dad busy in his later years, we built a chicken coop with an adjacent area for peafowl. Up until last year with two free ranging dogs, we had very little trouble with predators.
Our Shepherd died last winter and since then, our efforts to raise birds have led to devastating losses. In late spring my dad bought 300 baby chicks which were kept closed in the coop, with heat lamps etc. One morning we went in to discover that at least half were dead, not piled up in corners, then within a 24 hr period the rest were killed and at a steady rate the carcasses just disappeared. We discovered a tunnel under one of the feeders. Suspecting weasels, we built plywood boxed broooders with solid floors and fortified the area around it to block them from digging into the coop.
My dad tried again a month later with another 300. They survived the brooder box stage and then once about halfway grown, we made another chilling discovery. This time all 300 vanished without a trace. There were openings between the walls and the roof for ventilation. My dad suspected raccoons. I suspected humans. We padlocked the coop, and fortified the ceiling openings.
He successfully raised a third batch of chickens without incurring losses.
Concurrently, we owned three free ranging peafowl as pets. A male and two females. Once the last batch of chickens was harvested in December we ceased raising them for the season. The peafowl were housed in the adjacent room to the chickens but could come and go freely. The theory was that enclosing them simply acted as a way of trapping them in case of predator attack. They’re such bold birds that they have very little to fear, it seems.
We lost a female in December to what appeared to be unrelated causes. Then the male sustained a leg injury by getting twine wrapped around it. We caught him gently and removed the twine but as he had started acting very skittish all of a sudden, worried he might fly away in the dead of winter I enclosed the pair in their pen with some heat lamps.
Within days my worst fears came to bear. I heard an awful screeching one night around 4:30 am. Knowing that something had gotten to them I ran out screaming with a metal staff in hand into the -20C night when I reached the door and looked in the window the peahen was in what looked to be a death roll struggling to shrug off an animal I could barely see. I swung the metal staff loudly and repeatedly against the door, screaming in an attempt to scare it off. Within what was seconds the peahen was dead and the ?weasel was gone. He had come up through a hole under a wooden pallet and taken her out by surprise. The predator actually tried dragging a full grown peahen under the pallet with him. She died of head trauma. The male peacock was safely perched above this scene in utter shock. We gently netted the peacock and I carried him to our cement floored garage for safety where he still safely resides. We just got him a new mate and he is so gentle and protective of her since the moment they were introduced a few days ago. We can’t keep them locked in the garage indefinitely. I figure we house them there until spring and until then come up with a plan for a much more secure aviary.
Incidentally my dad poisoned the peahen carcass with something that kills raccoons. I don’t think it worked because the poison and the carcass were consumed entirely. We went out to the “scene of the crime” yesterday and after removing some feed bags and the pallet discovered multiple tunnelled attempts to gain access to the chicken coop and in one spot the plywood wall was chewed or otherwise damaged too. I can’t believe that the ?weasels burrowed into frozen ground so this must have been autumn attempts and when I closed the peacocks in I removed their ability to escape from whatever it was.
Can anyone offer me thoughts on what I am dealing with and how to protect against it? We have decided to pour concrete in both habitats before reintroducing birds and I am building a larger fenced area and getting another dog. Any other thoughts?
I am stumped.
Christine
I live in southern Ontario, Canada on 100 acres of mostly protected wetland and mixed bush/ grassland. Our land is rich in a diversity of wildlife which has been a pleasure to cohabitate with. To keep my dad busy in his later years, we built a chicken coop with an adjacent area for peafowl. Up until last year with two free ranging dogs, we had very little trouble with predators.
Our Shepherd died last winter and since then, our efforts to raise birds have led to devastating losses. In late spring my dad bought 300 baby chicks which were kept closed in the coop, with heat lamps etc. One morning we went in to discover that at least half were dead, not piled up in corners, then within a 24 hr period the rest were killed and at a steady rate the carcasses just disappeared. We discovered a tunnel under one of the feeders. Suspecting weasels, we built plywood boxed broooders with solid floors and fortified the area around it to block them from digging into the coop.
My dad tried again a month later with another 300. They survived the brooder box stage and then once about halfway grown, we made another chilling discovery. This time all 300 vanished without a trace. There were openings between the walls and the roof for ventilation. My dad suspected raccoons. I suspected humans. We padlocked the coop, and fortified the ceiling openings.
He successfully raised a third batch of chickens without incurring losses.
Concurrently, we owned three free ranging peafowl as pets. A male and two females. Once the last batch of chickens was harvested in December we ceased raising them for the season. The peafowl were housed in the adjacent room to the chickens but could come and go freely. The theory was that enclosing them simply acted as a way of trapping them in case of predator attack. They’re such bold birds that they have very little to fear, it seems.
We lost a female in December to what appeared to be unrelated causes. Then the male sustained a leg injury by getting twine wrapped around it. We caught him gently and removed the twine but as he had started acting very skittish all of a sudden, worried he might fly away in the dead of winter I enclosed the pair in their pen with some heat lamps.
Within days my worst fears came to bear. I heard an awful screeching one night around 4:30 am. Knowing that something had gotten to them I ran out screaming with a metal staff in hand into the -20C night when I reached the door and looked in the window the peahen was in what looked to be a death roll struggling to shrug off an animal I could barely see. I swung the metal staff loudly and repeatedly against the door, screaming in an attempt to scare it off. Within what was seconds the peahen was dead and the ?weasel was gone. He had come up through a hole under a wooden pallet and taken her out by surprise. The predator actually tried dragging a full grown peahen under the pallet with him. She died of head trauma. The male peacock was safely perched above this scene in utter shock. We gently netted the peacock and I carried him to our cement floored garage for safety where he still safely resides. We just got him a new mate and he is so gentle and protective of her since the moment they were introduced a few days ago. We can’t keep them locked in the garage indefinitely. I figure we house them there until spring and until then come up with a plan for a much more secure aviary.
Incidentally my dad poisoned the peahen carcass with something that kills raccoons. I don’t think it worked because the poison and the carcass were consumed entirely. We went out to the “scene of the crime” yesterday and after removing some feed bags and the pallet discovered multiple tunnelled attempts to gain access to the chicken coop and in one spot the plywood wall was chewed or otherwise damaged too. I can’t believe that the ?weasels burrowed into frozen ground so this must have been autumn attempts and when I closed the peacocks in I removed their ability to escape from whatever it was.
Can anyone offer me thoughts on what I am dealing with and how to protect against it? We have decided to pour concrete in both habitats before reintroducing birds and I am building a larger fenced area and getting another dog. Any other thoughts?
I am stumped.
Christine
