Something is trying to get my chickens at night

[Kyn Garcia]

Something tried to get our chickens last night. That is the corner that they all 5 like to sleep in at night. What animal do you guys think tried to eat through the wood like that? We wrapped an extra gate/fencing around the whole coop to protect them tonight. And we also put a camera on them to hopefully see what it is tonight. We’re first time chicken owners and my kids would be devastated if something happened to one of them!

 

[RDchicken99]

It honestly could’ve been anything. If you have a family dog I would advise you walk them around the coop, most critters will leave coops alone if they smell dog.

 

[Yardmom]

I wish the smell of a dog was enough to keep the predators away. My dog patrols the coop so much he has a permanent path around it, but we have had 7 birds taken from the yard this spring. We believe 3 different predators. There is a good chance your predator will be back. It will be interesting to see what was chewing on the wood.

 

[Kyn Garcia]

I wish the smell of a dog was enough to keep the predators away. My dog patrols the coop so much he has a permanent path around it, but we have had 7 birds taken from the yard this spring. We believe 3 different predators. There is a good chance your predator will be back. It will be interesting to see what was chewing on the wood.

Ohhhh no!!!! We don’t let them out in the yard unless we’re out there with them. My daughter, she’s 8 and she’s like so scared of something happening to them every night she’s like I’m going check on the chickens before she goes to bed.. and every morning at 7am she’s the first one up to go check on them. Now I’m nervous about something happening to them and her seeing the aftermath. Im very curious to know what chewed at the wood cause that is what had me like what in the world… We do have a yard dog but he’s kind of useless when it comes to keeping anything out of our yard. Lol he’ll go look to see what it is and that’s about it…we were thinking about getting a A rat terrier to keep the armadillo that’s tearing up the yard away and now I’m really thinking that maybe we should get one..My friend told me it could be a raccoon, I had no idea raccoons eat chickens! I’m so curious to see what it is so I can know what to do next to get rid of it.

 

[McChooky]

Dogs can take a year or more to train not to kill chickens. You didn't mention whether your yard dog is trained or if its ever been around chickens before. The camera won't lie!

 

[McChooky]

I wish the smell of a dog was enough to keep the predators away. My dog patrols the coop so much he has a permanent path around it, but we have had 7 birds taken from the yard this spring. We believe 3 different predators. There is a good chance your predator will be back. It will be interesting to see what was chewing on the wood.

My Basset hound has a nose 2nd only to a bloodhound. Nothing gets past him.

 

[50-45-1]

Tell us where in the world you are located then we can give you a list of what preditors are in your area.
If you are in the USA then that list would include racoon.Yes they are meat eaters and hunt at night, they can climb over fences, open doors, unfasten certain types of locks, chew and claw through chicken wire, lift automatic chicken doors, ( I even saw a video of one lifting a garage door!), and once they get in your coop, expect total devastation as chickens cant see in the dark and are defenseless.
Long ago i had a hutch with mama hen and 6 chicks. it had a flat roof with a board you lifted off as a lid. I put a cement block on top for security. The racoons tipped off the cement block, lifted up the board and killed and partially ate everyone.
Your camera will likely answer your question tonight.
Let us know please.

 

[mowin]

Pick up a cheap game/trail camera. Whatever it was will be back.

 

[Kyn Garcia]

So we can’t see what it is on the camera, the camera does go off at 12:27 and you see movement toward the back of the coop, and you hear the creepiest loudest owl, and then our dog walks back there where the coop is at 12:31 and then you see him walking back toward the house at 12:35.
Our yard dog (Duke) has never been around chickens, he’s a lab and he’s also a hunting dog. We’ve always pinned him up when we would let the chickens out but the other day my brother had the chickens out and Duke was also out. The dog is his so he listens to him best but when he let the chickens out Duke left the area and went laid down. I assumed that he knew if the chickens were out he wasn’t supposed to be out so he was trying to be unnoticed so he wouldn’t have to go in his pin. Lol BUT I still don’t trust what he would do if there wasn’t anyone there watching him. We’re from South Louisiana and we live very close to a lake and we have cows behind our property and also across the street so we’ve seen coyotes often…so I now know that our dog, a hawk, coyotes, and snakes are not the only things I have to worry about getting my chickens from reading all you guys predictor post and now I’m going to be so paranoid! I would bring them inside our storage every night until 2 weeks ago (they’re going on 3 months old) because I was scared a snake was going to get them during the night and my daughter was worried of them being scared of the dark. Lol Ik, you can tell we’re first time chicken owners.

 

[mowin]

Are you able to move your camera closer?