*SCREAM*

[chickengeorgeto]

I read a previous poster who watched two raccoons "double-teaming" his chickens. One raccoon would charge the wire and startle the chickens frantically over to the opposite side of the cage, into the waiting paws of the other raccoon. As much as I hate them, I have to respect their enginuity.

The panic created inside the pen, run, or coop only encourages the predator outside the pen, run, or coop to double its efforts to break through the wire.

 

[speckledhen]

You can keep raccoons out. I live in the mountains, in the woods, with raccoons and all other manner of predator lurking around the coops every night, including bears, cougars, foxes, coyotes, coons, possums, hawks and the ever present roaming domestic dogs. I've never once lost a bird to a predator. Building a predator proof coop and getting them into it before dark, not letting them out until daylight, goes a long way toward keeping this from happening. The coop windows all have hardware cloth screens attached with screws backed by washers, not stapled. Only one window doesn't have it, in a building not originally built as a coop, but it's a small window high up in the middle of a wall and is closed down at night. Between the alert roosters and the buildings built to keep out chicken-eating varmints, we've dodged out bullet for 9 years of owning chickens in our predator rich environment. So, it is possible to up your odds of having your chickens safe from raccoons, even at night when you are sleeping. Remember, though, that raccoons are VERY strong. They have unexpected pulling power and are very determined.

I expect that one day I will lose a bird or two to a predator, but I do most everything in my power short of keeping them inside all day to prevent it. NO chicken wire will keep anything out.

I don't know why your birds are dropping dead. You'd have to have a necropsy done. With predator attacks, they are probably very stressed.

 

[Majikthise]

We have been locking them in the coop since they were getting eaten in the run at night (being able to go in and out on their own) It has been so hot here (july tx) that we did not want them to get heat stroke. Well they have been fine in the coop (sorry I mistakenly refer to the whole thing as a coop b/c I let them roam during the day) The run is chain link fence with a smaller fence on the bottom (but not small enough)

I found out that poison has recently been sprayed around the area on local crops to kill the grasshoppers... my chickens love to chase and eat grasshoppers and it is very likely that they are being poisoned. My poor little girls

 

[speckledhen]

We have been locking them in the coop since they were getting eaten in the run at night (being able to go in and out on their own) It has been so hot here (july tx) that we did not want them to get heat stroke. Well they have been fine in the coop (sorry I mistakenly refer to the whole thing as a coop b/c I let them roam during the day) The run is chain link fence with a smaller fence on the bottom (but not small enough)

I found out that poison has recently been sprayed around the area on local crops to kill the grasshoppers... my chickens love to chase and eat grasshoppers and it is very likely that they are being poisoned. My poor little girls

Oh, no, too bad on the poison! That's a problem with living where local government manages things. They don't feel folks need to know about stuff like that sometimes. I'm so sorry.