so sad! i lost them.

[greytmommy]

we thought the geese house was secure. we were wrong. the geese we about 5wks old. a racoon pulled a small area up and was able to get in. i even heard a racoon last night so my hubs stayed up and shot at it. twice. and it came back a third time! hubs thought he had winged it the last time. i guess it could have been a different racoon.

i am so upset. i was bawling when my husband told me. we only had 2, but i was really attached. i liked them so much.

we have started to have such a preadtor problem. my hubs is so frustrated he is ready to throw in the towel on poultry.

i just feel sick. i feel horrible....like i should have known it wasnt secure enough.

:'(

 

[Going Bhonkers]

I'm so sorry for your loss! I understand about being attached to the little guys completely. A possible idea, maybe keep a dog outside? We have a dog that we had before the geese came, and he had to learn that geese are not to be chased after. We leave him outside sometimes and I think his presence in our yard serves as a deterrent. But really, you never know with racoons, they are determined little critters, especially if its a mama that has babies to feed.

How did the raccoon get inside the goose house? Maybe we can help give you tips on how to further predator proof it?

 

[n8ivetxn]

You may think you don't have predators, but when you keep small livestock, suddenly they start coming out of the woodwork.

Before I had chickens there were none. Now I see a pair of Bald Eagles flying over, a fox, and I have a skunk living under the house. Yes, a skunk! She pulled away a piece of vent screen and crawled under.

We just built a coop and run a couple of months ago. We built it to Ft Knox specifications. And then fortified it. Now all it needs is a moat.

I'm sorry for your loss. My sister lost a pair and she won't have any more, she was devastated.

 

[Iain Utah]

So sorry!!

 

[greytmommy]

well, my hubs shot the racoon tonight. it was a mama. he also just got a opossum an hour later.

we had made a simple shed for them out of wood and a door out of wood and chicken wire. we r in the proccess of making a run. we free range but decided to amke a run for when we are not around. the racoon pulled some of the wood out and dug out some hard ground and got under. we thought they would be ok for a few days while we finished the run around it and the coop.

we have discussed an outdoor dog a LOT due to the predators. and there is a coyote in the area that has grabbed a few chickens. i worry about my small kids and the coyote b/c it grabbed chickens out of our front yard!

i think we will get this run built. and if we go through the year without losi g anymore, so we know it is secure we will get more next spring.

 

[Sirenic]

So sorry for the loss!

I have a dobby and a dachshund, they leave my ducks alone but defiantly keep the preds at bay. I heard some coyotes lastnight around the house and my dobby started to bark, didn't hear much of the coyotes after that.

Nothing will go by the dobby The dachshund just thinks hes a tough one!

 

[Miss Lydia]

So sorry for the loss!

I have a dobby and a dachshund, they leave my ducks alone but defiantly keep the preds at bay. I heard some coyotes lastnight around the house and my dobby started to bark, didn't hear much of the coyotes after that.

Nothing will go by the dobby The dachshund just thinks hes a tough one!

I have 3 mini dachshunds and a mix breed and I honestly think they are the ones who keep the preds at bay around here during the day. we live smack dab in the middle of the woods, and haven't lost a duck in 9 years a few chickens, but I have to give credit to my dogs. At night everyone is locked up tight so we all can relax better.

 

[SummerChick]

I am so sorry this happened to you. I am really worried about the same thing happening to my goslings. Where we live is not the best area, the driveway is a mile long and we live in the middle of 80 acres, i am terribly worried for my new goslings! We are building a house and the babies stay inside the house until we build a secure place for them.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

I am very sorry for your loss, but chicken wire, even multiple layers will not stop them. Raccoons are very determined and will work at a spot for hours or days till they get in. You need to use 1/2 x 1/2 or 1/4 x 1/4 hardware cloth if you want it to be secure. See if you have a local feed and seed because they sell it by the foot much more reasonably than Lowes or Home Depot.

Also, many predators will dig, so you need to bury something in the ground around the perimeter or put a wire floor in the house: We used pieces of roofing metal and welded wire in the ground on our chicken coop. On our two duck/goose enclosures, we used re-bar to pin treated 4x4 sill plates to the ground (stood framed walls on top of them and screwed them down tight) then got some sand, topped it with concrete powder and laid 12x12 concrete stepping stones in on top of that. The moisture from the ground hardened the concrete under the stones. We put bedding on top of the stones.

Another option that may help would be to pick up a cheap fence charger (about $25-30 at Lowes) and run a couple strands of electric line around the exterior of the building. The first about 4 inches off the ground and the next several inches above the first. If the ground is clear of grass and weeds that could short out the fence, it may help discourage any critters from getting too close to your building.

Everyone is right. Once you get poultry and waterfowl it is like you put out a huge blinking "All You Can Eat Buffet" sign for the predators. They can be stopped, or at least held at bay, but it will take a multi-tiered approach that includes secure housing, fencing, possibly livestock guardian dogs, or maybe trapping or shooting the varmints. What you need to do aside from the obvious will depend on what you have coming for dinner.

We had a raccoon try to tunnel into our chicken coop. Every time he hit the metal underground he moved down the building a bit. Sadly for him, when he finally was able to tunnel under the wall, he came up in the goat house, not chicken house. The goats did their best to kill it before it got out. We heard the ruckus and turned on the flood lights just in time to see the little bandit running away.

Don't give up and best of luck getting your coop ready and predator proof!

 

[Enchanted Sunrise Farms]

i'm so sorry! How heartbreaking. MrsMagoo has some great advice on fortifying your pen and coop.

The only time we saw raccoons around here was when we first moved and i was putting peanuts out for the squirrels. Quickly learned it was a bad idea as it attracted every squirrel in the county, who then wanted to get inside our pens and go after the chicken food. Plus, i was seeing raccoons at night going after the peanuts. So stopped that practice pronto! Then we got 3 Nigerian Dwarf goats, and even though i don't *think* our goats would go after a predator, i think having them penned at night near the chicken, duck, and goose pens is a deterrent.