Snakes,Possums and Coons!

[DRnNC]

I caught a snake killing my 4 week old chicks last Friday night, lost 3. Sunday I lost 3 more during the daytime. Something pulled their heads off through the 1"x 2" wire.I put 2 feet of hardware cloth around the bottom of the run. Someone told me to put a light and radio on a timer in my building and have them come on a little after dark and turn off before sunrise. I left 3 live traps set too. Tonight when I got home from work I went and checked on all my chickens. 6 coops/runs, 44 birds. That was about 12:30 am. All was fine. I went out 2 hours later and had a coon in one trap and a possum in another. LOL. Something was pretty close out in the woods making a "quack" sound. Wonder what that was? Another coon? All this time I've had chickens I've only lost one until now. That was a hen that ran loose all the time and went broody and something got her. Besides a duck, what makes a "quack" sound? Thanks.

 

[BuffOrpington88]

Hi! Sorry about that. The raccoon would have been the one pulling them through the fence, so hardware cloth was the way to go. And sorry, I have no idea what makes a quack sound!

Although I looked it up and here it said that wood frogs can sound like that. I think there's an audio on the link so you can see if it sounded like that. Good luck!

 

[Rock Home Isle]

 I caught a snake killing my 4 week old chicks last Friday night, lost 3. Sunday I lost 3 more during the daytime. Something pulled their heads off through the 1"x 2" wire.I put 2 feet of hardware cloth around the bottom of the run. Someone told me to put a light and radio on a timer in my building and have them come on a little after dark and turn off before sunrise. I left 3 live traps set too. Tonight when I got home from work I went and checked on all my chickens. 6 coops/runs, 44 birds. That was about 12:30 am. All was fine. I went out 2 hours later and had a coon in one trap and a possum in another. LOL. Something was pretty close out in the woods making a "quack" sound. Wonder what that was? Another coon? All this time I've had chickens I've only lost one until now. That was a hen that ran loose all the time and went broody and something got her. Besides a duck, what makes a "quack" sound? Thanks.

So sorry for your loss, snakes are just hard to deal with and must be caught quickly. You are lucky you were able to catch it so soon.

But congratulations on the raccoon and the opposum. Great news.

Quacking noises...a duck?

Seriously though, good job on taking out the predators and protecting your flock.

 

[Birdydeb]

My parents had a light and a radio set up in their garden on a timer to protect their corn. Raccoons and deer were having a field day. That actually worked for them for awhile. For one summer really well...the next, sporadic raids. Last summer it went out the window...corn was decimated. This summer they have installed electric fence. LOL Said that to say, lights and a radio can maybe buy you some time but eventually they figure it out. I used motion sensored lights on the back fence of our old property....it took critters a lot longer to figure out why they were suddenly in the light. I use motion sensored lights now around my pen but I change the location of the light all around. Keep 'em guessing! It is not my only defense but a part of my layering defenses.

 

[Ridgerunner]

Some birds besides ducks make a sound that can be described as a quack. But that time of night it was probably a frog or some insect. You’d be surprised at how loud some small insects can sound. Anyway it is pretty unlikely whatever it is making that quack is dangerous to your chickens. It can be loud though.

Don’t give up on your trapping. Several times I’ve caught raccoons, possums, and skunks back to back. Just because you get one doesn’t mean you got them all. It doesn’t even mean you got the one causing the problem. One year I shot 16 rabbits out of my garden before I got the one that was eating my beans as they were sprouting. Not all those rabbits were eating the beans as they sprouted, probably just one or two. But I could not tell which one it was until it stopped.

Don’t be surprised if you catch more raccoons or possum tonight. I’d kind of expect you to.