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

[cheeka]

yesterday afternoon while outside with my chickens, having a little free range time, a sneaky fox came and took one of my chickens, the rooster tried to stop it, and lost his life for his efforts and the fox got away with my girl. i was 20 feet away.
i only have 5 buckshot shells, a friend will be bringing me more tomorrow. but i have the shotgun by the back door ready to go, and a .22 mag in the living room by the window, a 30-30 in the upstairs bathroom, 2 have-a-heart traps baited with (store bought) chicken legs, although i doubt i'll catch a fox with those, and at the edge of the property my better half (BH) set up 3 snap-him-in-half traps, so the cats are IN til this is over. the dog is a little mush who only gets walked.
about 2 hours after i lost my Lily and Barney, i found out that we have a new neighbor bit over a half mile away (next property down really...) who had lost one bird everyday for the last 4 days. wish i had known that they #1 lived there, #2 had birds, and #3 had experienced predators. the one other family living up here year round has ducks and geese. we always call each other when we spot something, so neither of us let our birds out...
my coop is wooden Amish built, enclosed in chain link run, the run has hardware cloth around the perimeter and across the door, and along the ground for digging prevention, then i have another layer of metal fencing that is 8 gauge 48" tall with 1"x1.5" spacing... i'm not so good at describing the fence...
the roof of the run is chicken wire covered with heavy duty vinyl tarp, the back side is also tarped but with regular old tarp, mostly for a windbreak until i moved it to a corner of the house, now that part backs up to a wall.
my local army navy surplus guy got me a HUGE octagonal desert camo net ~ so cool... it's like a 40' stop sign, i had it all spread out to look closely to see the condition. it's mint and will be used to net off the entire corner of the house/garage where the setup is, i just need 25 feet of the tallest fence i can afford so i don't have to stoop inside and the rest of the flock can have a much larger run that is safe. i know my babies miss free ranging, but they will adjust much more quickly than i will get over the loss of my 2 little friends.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

It's probably best for them to be safely enclosed for now. I know my layer hens are not that keen to range, and they stay where they can see me walking toward the coop or garden areas, then I heard the thudding of their feet behind me - like dogs they are. The game birds though really want to forage and aren't happy confined...but they can fly. The layers can not fly and I'm sure I lost my best looking roo because he stayed to fight for the heavier birds. Well, I have some nice looking roos coming to maturity so goes the circle. My friend just brought me a new broody too, so that helps too. It does get better. It really does.

 

[cheeka]

yeah, it does. i brought them their dust bath today, all the dirt they were using under the pine was so soft and fluffy... easy to scoop up. now they have 2 long sandboxes full, they can all squeeze into one, but i figured why not make it deluxe... they made use of it right away, and that made me happier.

 

[okallthis4eggs]

I put a bug zapper in my run and every night it makes a pile of bugs under it. Probably more bugs than they would find if they were free range. Throw in a bag of grass from the bagger on the mower and rake up a bucket of leaves for them. I mix a little scratch with the leaves and grass clippings. Tomatoes, Watermelon, Canaloupe, Crackers, Bread, for treats. Mine probably wouldn't leave the run if I left the door open anyway. My run is a little piece of heaven to a chicken without the danger. We just have to make the inside of the run as good as the outside. I have found that I can make it better.

 

[GrinningRedHead]

I see the use of hardware cloth a lot in these posts. What is the best kind to get. I'm thinking this out, by the time we move into the house and start designing how we will best utilize the space in our back yard for the coop... I am ready to build a fort knox for the hens before I order them.

I know there are plenty of racoons in the area, no doubt that means foxes, possums, some red-tail and brown-tail hawks, mice, probably some black snakes, dogs... These are what all I can think of hearing of in this area.

I'd like a stationary coop as well as mobile runs...
Looking for some good tidbits of info.

 

[marianne7]

yeah, it does. i brought them their dust bath today, all the dirt they were using under the pine was so soft and fluffy... easy to scoop up. now they have 2 long sandboxes full, they can all squeeze into one, but i figured why not make it deluxe... they made use of it right away, and that made me happier.

Was it a purpose built one ? and what did you use to put in the bath,? my girls just use dirt, but would like something better for them

 

[okallthis4eggs]

I see the use of hardware cloth a lot in these posts. What is the best kind to get. I'm thinking this out, by the time we move into the house and start designing how we will best utilize the space in our back yard for the coop... I am ready to build a fort knox for the hens before I order them.

I know there are plenty of racoons in the area, no doubt that means foxes, possums, some red-tail and brown-tail hawks, mice, probably some black snakes, dogs... These are what all I can think of hearing of in this area.

I'd like a stationary coop as well as mobile runs...
Looking for some good tidbits of info.

Good for you to build a fort knox. Make is strong and secure and keep your birds safe. Use the 1/2" X 1/2" hardware cloth in at least 19 gauge. You can get 16 gauge but its not necessary it is more expensive and harder to work with. The 19 gauge will keep out all the predators you mentioned. I got mine here. http://wireclothman.com/about_wire_cloth_manufacturers.html

 

[GrinningRedHead]

Good for you to build a fort knox. Make is strong and secure and keep your birds safe. Use the 1/2" X 1/2" hardware cloth in at least 19 gauge. You can get 16 gauge but its not necessary it is more expensive and harder to work with. The 19 gauge will keep out all the predators you mentioned. I got mine here. http://wireclothman.com/about_wire_cloth_manufacturers.html

What else about the cloth would you recommend is safest, toxicity wise, regarding the chickens? Our friend will be living there too and eventually would like a dog and in a year or more I hope to have a few milk goats.

 

[okallthis4eggs]

What else about the cloth would you recommend is safest, toxicity wise, regarding the chickens? Our friend will be living there too and eventually would like a dog and in a year or more I hope to have a few milk goats.

I used the galvanized coated hardware cloth. Galvanize coating is not toxic to the best of my knowledge. The galvanize coating does not come off of the hardware cloth and the reason for it is to keep it from rusting. You can bury it in the ground around the run to keep anything from digging under the bottom and getting in that way and the galvanize coating will help keep it from rusting. Hardware cloth will keep the dog out and the goats won't care to get in or bother your chickens

 

[okallthis4eggs]

Picture of my coop and run. The open spaces you see are covered in 1/2" X 1/2" X 19 gauge hardware cloth. The window openings in the coop are covered with hardware cloth too. The roof you can't see is covered with metal roofing. The boards around the top I put them there to hide the metal. Wire is buried around the outside perimeter of the run so nothing can dig under the bottom. This whole thing sits in the edge of the woods behind my house. I figured I could never catch or kill all of the predators and didn't really want to go about it that way. So I built Fort Knox . Hope this helps