Thinking of giving up

[coffeychicks]

This morning has been devastating I went to check on my babies and it looks like a crime scene. Bodies every where blood feathers 20+ chickens and 3 rabbits gone I have 4 chickens left. This is my 4th flock as it is. This was done in my new coop chain length fence up sides 10 tall top has a Tin roof they managed to open the gate I am at a lose

 

[SnowPeeOstrichU]

Hi there,

I am very sorry to hear about your loss.

Do you have a picture of your coop?

I am somewhat surprised no one managed to crawl between the chain links but if so that is good.

 

[centrarchid]

Picture of coop needed.

 

[coffeychicks]

I have an idea how it got in just very heart broken.

Gate

Sadly I have a good idea it was a fox due to prints found. But why kill and just leave the bodies. I know this is part of chicken keeping but heart breaking. Now do I invest in a few flock. Or just suffer through store bough eggs. Those that have been in my shoes do you try again. Or give up.

 

[appps]

It can only carry off one and I'm guessing before humans would have kept coming back for the rest of the bodies, or maybe because in the wild the opportunity doesn't really come about to kill a lot at once it just didn't really think the what next bit through.

Only you can decide if you go on or not. It really depends on if you think you can fortify the pen enough to keep it out or not.

Sorry for your loss of your birds. Took me a lot of years to get hens again after loosing ours but we couldn't really fox proof any better at the time so I waited till we could.

 

[darkbluespace]

So sorry you lost so many... I would give yourself a little time to recover before you worry about what to do next.

We are lucky to not have huge predator problems but when we do, the hens have to be locked up tight at night in their coop, as our run is not as secure.

 

[darkbluespace]

I also put up Christmas lights around our main coop/run and I think the lights have helped a lot. Critters in the woods don't seem to want to come out into the light at night.

 

[MeepBeep]

You say it opened the gate, why kind of lock/latch did you have on the gate? Coons can open just about any latch short of one that physically locks with a combo or key...

Also chain link and the welded 4x2 wire fence you used will only deter some predators... Larger K9s can rip that welded wire apart (break the welds), and smaller predators like weasels/minks can simply crawl through it... Coons can also reach in and if they can grab something inside they will rip it to parts that fit though the fence...

And also you said it had a tin roof, but in the pictures their appears to be no roof at all over the entire run **edit it appears you might have poultry wire over the top?** thus any predator that climbs could simply have climbed up and over, or could rip through the poultry wire...

Sorry about your lose, but if you choose to continue keeping chickens you really need to address the design, and make it much more predator proof or it's bound to happen again...

 

[coffeychicks]

The top of the run is hard to get the pic to show but it is more to keep the Hawks out. The house part is tin. I guess in the panic of it all I didn't state that correctly. But the part I don't get my last coop was weak. Very very weak and never did I have a loss like this. I built this new coop to give them a better life to be killed.

 

[centrarchid]

If fox, it may simply have gotton tired making to many trips. Location where carcasses stashed / cached likely not more than a hundred yards away. Without being able to see kills better, I have trouble ruling out a raccoon as they sometimes remove bodies but not multiples.

I see multiple easy access points near top and it would not take much to harden the whole setup against further incursions.