Something murdered my chickens!!! How to prevent in future?

[Paulissa]

Hello. I came home yesterday and my 2 chickens were killed. Something (I think a bobcat) dug under our chickens run and killed both our chickens. We want to get more chickens but are afraid of the same thing happening. How can we prevent this? Our chickens are not free range and when building the chicken run I dug 12 inches below the chicken wire fencing to try to prevent this. Is there anything different I can do to prevent this?

Any advice would be great. My family is devastated from this. Tough couple days for us.

Thank you.

Paul & Melissa

 

[Cassandra Lana]

If you already dug down that you may have to make a base. Not sure what white would be best though . Just a idea

 

[CluckerFamily]

You could make an apron around the run.
What kind of wire did you use?
Did you use staples to secure the wire to the wood? You could use screws and washers.

 

[hysop]

Sorry for your loss.

Is their coop and run secure or just the run?

Having the coop be secured on top of the run can give them twice the security.

Did this happen during the day or at night?

 

[nuthatched]

I'm sorry.
Were the chickens still there? What condition where they in? Lots of feather pulled out? Necks snapped?
You need to add woof along the bottom, or cinderblocks and ad another layer of wire that half lays on the ground about 1-2 feet from the fence to prevent digging.
pictures of your coop will help people assist in securing it.

 

[cmom]

So sorry for your loss. Most every chicken owner will loose a bird/birds at some time or another. I know I have. Lessons learned the hard way. Now I have electric wires around my coops and pens, good heavy duty netting covering the pens and concrete under the gates. I have had losses from several different predators over the years including a bobcat. Here's is a good website for predator proofing. Good luck...
http://www.poultrydvm.com/featured-infographic/tips-for-protecting-poultry-from-predators

 

[McChooky]

I built a wood flower bed around mine to give it an extra layer of protection. Anything getting in my run has to dig underneath the hardware cloth apron, the flower bed and the row of cinder blocks I set at the base of my run. The flower bed hides the ugly blocks too.
My coop and run is built on a slope so the back has a double row of blocks buried.