This is a very hard hobby to have at times.

[Scottingitup]

Friday night I had the worst predator attack in my short history of raising turkeys. I believe it was a racoon. 6 Initial deaths.

• 2 teenagers beheaded
• 3 (3 month olds) killed in various other ways
• 1 hen with an entire leg ripped off.
• And the worst thing I've ever experienced, a hen that was somehow still alive with her entire left muscle mass eaten off. The poor thing was eaten alive :-(
• That hen was the mom to a 5 day old poult as well - another hen attempted to adopt the poult but failed and squished it overnight.

Despite patching up the rest the best I could another 5 succumbed to their injuries.

I lost an adult hen last week from her trying to brood and not eating/drinking enough. The rain and flies here have just been relentless.

I grabbed every egg I could find an fired up the incubator. My tom/hen ratio is now shot (1:1 now) and I won't have any birds to sell for thanksgiving.

My land is fenced completely and the birds are penned up at night. I borrowed a game camera from my neighbor and I guess it's time to look into electric fencing.


Between the dog problems I have had and now this I am just really disheartened and about to give up.

 

[redsoxs]

Really sorry to hear about that. Sounds pretty horrific. Raccoons are the worst. Hope you catch, shot, trap, whatever it takes to get rid of them. Good luck to you!

 

[Shellz]

OMG! That has got to be one of the worst attacks I've ever heard on here! I'm so sorry for your losses!

I have raccoons & in the past foxes. I've live trapped & killed a couple coons this year. I free range & have had losses to foxes. I have 2 dogs that patrol off & on all day long & 0 losses to preds this year. The problem was my dogs weren't trained yet to stay off the road (no perimeter fence) & I had to put them in the house whenever I needed to leave. That's when foxes would strike. This year, I can trust them & they are doing a great job! They chase off everything & succeed without damage to themselves. I watched as my larger dog (only 35lbs) slowly escorted 2 large roaming Labrador dogs off our property. If you can find a couple of good mutts to train, they can be invaluable! We got a pug mix later (20 lbs) & she learned from big bro how to take care of business. I saw her chase off a fox last year. She sure has spunk! These dogs have good sense too, in that they don't get too close to coyotes, but are able to get the message across! They don't fall for their tricks either. Having dogs spayed & neutered helps.

I wish you the best & hope you can get things running again. It's hard to take, but learn from it & you can enjoy raising poultry again!

 

[kuntrygirl]

WOW!!! That is terrible. So sorry to hear that.

You may also want to invest in (if you don't already have one) an air rifle. I have one that I bought from WalMart. It can take out predators like that with one shot. I go out and do predator hunting/target practice about 9:00 PM at night and rack up.

 

[Shellz]

Or a crossbow! I started with an air rifle, then air pistol, then crossbow. None of these need licences, in Canada anyway. We graduated to more powerful firearms with the licences & education to make legal. We can sometimes have black bears in the area, so we need to be prepared.

A good air rifle with a good head shot should do it though! Live trap them & you can't miss a good shot.

 

[chickenfever417]

I am so sorry for your loss. So sad! I am new to back yard chickens and had a question. I was concerned the other day I may not be as predictor proof as s I need to be. How did they ge tinto your coop? We only have three so a predictor would wipe me out if they got in...

 

[kuntrygirl]

Or a crossbow! I started with an air rifle, then air pistol, then crossbow. None of these need licences, in Canada anyway. We graduated to more powerful firearms with the licences & education to make legal. We can sometimes have black bears in the area, so we need to be prepared.

A good air rifle with a good head shot should do it though! Live trap them & you can't miss a good shot.

Crossbow sounds fun. I may have to check into air pistol. My air rifle is heavy but still a perfect shot every time. An air pistol may be fun as well.

 

[Scottingitup]

Racoons can climb fencing, open any latches they can reach, rip apart wire they can grab and can sometimes work in a pack to reach through wire and grab birds. I've been avoiding electric fencing because my neighbor has a young son. I am going to plan on wiring the bottom and top of my pens now and hopefully that will be enough.


I am armed and was thinking about getting a motion sensor that can set off an alarm in the bedroom and wake me up.

 

[Shellz]

It's been my experience that coons have flexible spines or can squeeze through very tight spaces! My Havahart live trap p.o.s. got chewed up & coon escaped. Coon just chewed off one row of small wires at the bottom & squeezed through the gap. I couldn't believe it, but had pics from trail cam to prove it. Foxes need 4" of space to get in, so preds smaller than that can get into some pretty small spaces. Opossums & weasel type critters even smaller.

Good luck folks!

 

[kuntrygirl]

Racoons can climb fencing, open any latches they can reach, rip apart wire they can grab and can sometimes work in a pack to reach through wire and grab birds.  I've been avoiding electric fencing because my neighbor has a young son. I am going to plan on wiring the bottom and top of my pens now and hopefully that will be enough.


I am armed and was thinking about getting a motion sensor that can set off an alarm in the bedroom and wake me up.

Great idea on the motion sensor. Then you could grab your weapon, race out there and pop them.

Predators just tick me off !!!