Tell How Predators Got Your Chickens. Save Somebody Else From The Bad Experience

[EeyoreD]

my crazy 4 year olds hair

I'm probably dating myself but all I could think of was Mr. H of the Letter People (Mr. Horrible Hair)

There are youtube vids but in my day we grew him in our leftover pint milk cartons (just cat grass) and he looked like this:

http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/1448/the-letter-people

This has nothing to do with chickens but if your 4 year old has crazy hair, introduce them to Mr. H.

(I always had fine, fair hair and as a 4-6 year old wanted nothing more than to be Mr. H. Course my favorite muppet was also Animal so...)

 

[MrSelf Destruct]

I'm probably dating myself but all I could think of was Mr. H of the Letter People (Mr. Horrible Hair)

There are youtube vids but in my day we grew him in our leftover pint milk cartons (just cat grass) and he looked like this:

http://www.retrojunk.com/article/show/1448/the-letter-people

This has nothing to do with chickens but if your 4 year old has crazy hair, introduce them to Mr. H.

(I always had fine, fair hair and as a 4-6 year old wanted nothing more than to be Mr. H. Course my favorite muppet was also Animal so...)

Those are hilarious. I've never seen them. My son's hair doesn't look like H but my beard does after I get out of the shower!

 

[tiffmw10]

We just caught this guy this morning.

 

[acates]

We are building our coop right now and all these preditor horror stories have me freaked out! I couldn't afford to buy just hardware cloth. So I got chicken wire mostly. I will buy a little bit each week untill I get run covered in hardware cloth. If I shut them up in coop at night and set a trap outside of coop hopefully that will keep them safe for now. I live in the woods so I know there are tons of preditors. My neighbor told me she saw a huge bobcat about a month ago in her backyard. We have everything...even bears. I hope I can protect my girls

 

[dynomitegirl]

We lost 3 chickens to the neighbors dog. We found one dead in their backyard. The neighbor said there was no way her dog could have got out. The chicken must have flown over the fence after something else attacked it. Even though there were feathers all over the coop. When she went inside she found 3 more of our chickens inside her house. The dog had taken them in through the doggie door. They found the hole in the fence and fixed it and lock their doggie door now when they are gone.

We found one chicken with it's head cut off when I went outside to lock our chickens up at bed time. I found lots of feathers and our other birds scared and hiding. I left the dead chicken and thought I would bury it in the morning. The next morning it was gone and I thought I would never find out what had taken it. That night the owl who had been sitting in our tree for a few days returned with the chicken and ate it about 100 feet from our house while my kids cried (I was gone). Creepy owl. The owl also took my other neighbors Pomeranian from here back yard while she watched (screamed).

It has been 10 months since we lost a chicken and we thought we had dealt with all of the predators. Silly me we live at the edge of a forest with miles of open space behind our home. Now we have had all 3 of our silkies disappear over the last 5 days. I am not sure if they were all taken at once or one at a time. We had them on Saturday and I realized yesterday they were gone (we have 24 chickens). No sign of a struggle. There are two hawks that circle our property for hours each day that could have taken them but 3 in 5 days seem like a lot even for a hawk. We shut the coop door but haven't been locking it. I guess that will change now. The fenced area we have for our chickens isn't big enough for them to stay locked up and not peck at each other. If we lose any more we will sell half of our flock and stop free ranging when we are not outside.

 

[bruceha2000]

Quote:
I seriously doubt it. Don't know about deer but a ground or avian predator knows if you are around or not. Bruce

 

[bruceha2000]

Quote:
I wish you luck with getting all the hardware cloth up with no losses. Chicken wire won't keep out any daytime predator. Given your large predators, even a layer of welded wire fence AND the hardware cloth might be in order. In fact, if it is cheaper, you might want to do the welded wire fence over everything and hardware cloth along the bottom (remember to bury it 18" out from the run!!) then go up with the hardware cloth as finances permit. The predators you worry about getting through a wire fence are things like weasels that mostly attack at night when the birds are asleep or snakes (if you live where there are big snakes that eat eggs and chicks). The rest, dogs, foxes, bobcats can't fit through the wire fencing but can reach through it, thus the reason to run 1/2" hardware cloth UP a few feet so the birds, even if right next to the fence, can't be grabbed. Bruce

 

[dsboyce]

We are new to chickens and are hoping to get our egg layers outside soon, as they are currently in the house. I'm posting pictues of our coop to see what people think in regards to security.

We just finished putting this fence up earlier this week. It's 5' high with no overhead cover. The chickens will only have access to this area during the day. I'm concerned about hawks, but my wife claims that the crows (we have a lot of them) will keep the hawks away.



This is a front view of the coop. The building is solid and there are no holes for anything to get through. We filled some cracks/holes around the window sills with foam sealant.



I took this picture of the inside about a week ago. We have since laid a concrete floor. We still need to get a pop door put on.

 

[ochochicas]

I haven't had time to read the whole thread yet, but I do have a question for people who have owned chickens for a while. Do you think they are more at risk to predators being locked up in a coop/run or while free ranging? While free ranging they are out there for whatever animal to come in and take them (hawks, dogs, raccoons, etc.). However, wouldn't they have a better chance at escaping from a predator if they could get into a tree or something? If the chickens are locked in a coop and an animal gets in somehow, the chickens can't get out and are doomed.

Just wondering what your thoughts are on what is safer. My chickens are free range all day. They come into the barn at 7:00 p.m. or when it gets dark (which ever comes first) and sleep in an enclosed, secure area with roosts and nesting boxes. Still, I worry about what is best for their safety. How much better off are the hens with a rooster around?

 

[Terry S]

My neighbor had her chickens free range and all were taken by a fox and one by a hawk. We're trying the fenced in & covered area for them during the day and coop at night. We will see how that works.