Sad beginning, happy ending

[aaabirdman]

So sorry to hear about the loss of your flock......

from NY

 

[CumberlandView]

Wanted to post a follow up regarding the loss of my flock.

My DH and I have spent most of our spare time recently renovating the coop and run with an eye toward discouraging predators. When we rolled back the railroad cross ties that surround the outside, we discovered a veritable maze of tunnels under both the run and the coop. Some were small (2") and others were easily 4" in diameter. We have found 3 different types of scat. To sum up our thoughts, we think the tunnels were dug by voles/moles or something else just wanting to stay warm in winter (we use heat lamps in the coop) but are now being opportunistically used by a weasel or raccoon to kill the chickens.

We poured concrete into the tunnels and around the base of the run, covered with hardware cloth and weighted with railroad cross ties. Inside the coop, we laid hardware cloth and toenailed 2X4's around the edge. There isn't much we can do about the tunneling but they shouldn't be able to get into the coop or run now even if they can tunnel under them.

With the exception of two bags of quick concrete and one roll of hardware cloth, all items were scavenged from the farm.

Oh, and DH relented - I have a Blue Heeler puppy on the way!

I would welcome further suggestions from this awesome community.

 

[HeidiKinnamon]

I am so sorry about your flock. Makes me wanna cry. that is what happened to my first flock 3 days after i got them. Lucily, one of my girls (leftovers)survived. but we were told by a local farm supply expert that there are mink and weasles in our area and that they only need 1 sq inch of space to get to your birds. In my case, the predator got my birds and "played with them to death" they were disemboweld and most of them had been bitten on the head. When this happened, for about 3 weeks, I did not leave my Leftovers in the coup for fear the pred would come back for seconds. I have a neighbor with a huge fuzzy mongrel of a dog and she gave me a bag full of her Fur to put in the coup. I have also made some safety improvements but there have been no more signs of critters in my coup since, and I now feel free to leave my Leftovers and her new sisters and Roos in the coup at night. .

 

[CumberlandView]

Oh, Heidi, I'm so sorry. I love the name "Leftovers" - very cute and what a lucky little hen!

The animal hair idea is a good one and with two Pyrs, I have plenty of it! Thank you for the suggestion which I will definitely throw into the mix of keeping predators at bay. I've decided about the best we can do is discourage them until they go away.

Just read where some wildlife group released 30 fishers only a few miles from us. Sigh. As if there aren't enough predators already!

My new chicks are growing rapidly and will need into the coop in a few weeks. Meanwhile, DH and I are spending every spare minute fortifying it. Still nothing in the trap which makes sense if the varmints are coming and going underground.