Sad news.....

[silkiesandbuffs]

Well something dug under my chicken coop Wednesday night and killed 3 of my pullets and seriously injured 2 others. I had to put down one of them because it was so badly injured but the other one seems to be hanging in there. I am so sad and mad that the predator (I believe it was a raccoon) got my favorite silkie

. It always seems to happen to my favorites

, my last partridge silkie was killed about 2 months ago while free ranging needless to say no more free ranging without supervision. I don't understand why the raccoon all of a sudden attacked the chickens because they have lived in the coop for over 3 months without an attack

. Needless to say the coop is now fort Knox. Anyway, I hate predators

! I did oder some new fuzzy butts today from Ideal though and they should be here on thursday so that is one good thing, now I just have to be patient until they get here.

 

[sabong]

well...do you have any dogs...if not i would strongly recommend getting a loud dog (or any dog the size of a beagle or bigger) and leave it outside and train it to be around chickens which is really easy...but that's the simple fix to ground predators

 

[AhBee01]

Sorry for your loss. We bury hardware cloth around the run, so nothing can dig around it, so far it has worked, but you never know what really works, because when one thing works another thing will fail! Good Luck with the new fuzzy butts!
My neighbor has had chicken for 3 years with an open run, and an open coop, nothing has gotten them, we have fort knox and things try to get in all the time, must be the challenge, go figure! Grrr!!!!

 

[Rammy]

You know, its funny you said that your neighbor has an open run and coop and has never had a problem because thats pretty much what my experienced has been. Ive only lost one chicken by something getting into the coop only because it had rained for a week and the one place I had nothing around the bottom of the coop is where it dug in and got one of my hens. Since I have wood or scrap wire around the bottom around the fenceline, havent had a problem. However, the pens where Ive fortified it to the hilt with the exception of hooking it up to a 1 million volt electric fencer are the ones that Im losing chickens in. So far in the past two weeks, Ive lost five RIR pullets, a mix breed pullet, and a mix breed rooster. Ive added more hardware clothe and so far no more have been lost.


Rammy

 

[technodoll]

I'm so very sorry for your loss

My flock also suffered a predator attack two days ago, 3 hens dead and 2 mortally wounded so we had to put them down - I'll still traumatized. First time in 10 years that anything's happened in that coop, I don't know why there was suddenly an attack. We think it was a weasel.

And yes, it's always our favorites that go

Hang in there...

 

[Supermommy486]

I'm so sorry. I just lost my only silkie too...

 

[High Roost Ranch]

It's the time of the year that predators have young ones to feed, so they start widening their dining selections to anything that's easily had. Sorry for the loss.