We lost a hen in a strange way

[CESOrtega]

I had thought about gangrene, too. Poor Shelly.

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

To prevent the night time preditors from getting your chickens, you need to lock the chickens up at night in a preditor proof coop.

It's much harder to preditor proof the run/pen part due to wire and or netting on the top of the run.

Do what you can to get the coop preditor proof - meaning all vents and windows are covered in hardware cloth (not chicken/poultry wire) and all doors going in (people access door or poop door) have secure locks preventing them from being pried open.

Do the above should prevent you from losing more. Good luck.

Oh - and make sure you don't have any rats currently hiding in the coop or able to get in from underneath.

To get rid of them, some folks here posted a recipe for plaster of paris mixed with peanut butter that they make a ball out of and place the balls somewhere in the coop where the chickens or other pets can't get to them.

The rodants eat the balls and die from the calcium or the plaster of paris hardens when they drink water.

I guess this would be better then using poision, where a dog or cat eating the rodant could then get poisioned.

Good luck.

 

[AngieChick]

Hi there, so sorry this happened. Good advice in the post above.

Raccoons are smart, determined and strong. They can work in groups as well. Needless to say, this makes a very challenging predator to guard against.

What we have done that has worked (so far) in both of our coops:

1/4 -1/2 inch hardware cloth all around and over their covered runs, with aprons - chicken wire is not strong enough and the gaps are big enough for the raccoons to pull parts of chickens through

All vents and windows have hardware cloth over them

Access doors are locked with padlocks, all keyed the same with the key hung by a wire from the lock. A neighbor saw a raccoon fiddling with the locks, but they were unable to get it opened. Raccoons have opposable thumbs and can figure out any lock that a toddler is able to open

All chickens are locked in their henhouses at night. It's a pain in the rear to get up at dawn to let them out, and to remember to lock them up at night, but it's the only way to keep them safe.

Again, I'm sorry that you lost your girl.

 

[NotTheMomma]

The hen that has something going on with the tail, sounds like her mates did her in. Chickens will peck any injury on another chicken until they literally eat the chicken alive!! Anytime you have a questionable area on a chicken, or a wound, remove it from the flock immediately, and keep it separated until the wound is completely healed.
Otherwise, change that flap on the coop into a door that can be locked. WIth only the flap there, anything small enough to get through the opening, can and will.

I'm sorry for you loss!

 

[susanpattersonmom]

Raccoons can reach through wire and will pull chickens through or attempt to.

We had that happen alot and it looks alot like your discription. Usually this has been with young birds before they are roosting up high.
I had one guinea hen that had most of her wing chewed off through the wire by raccoons, but she survived after we did surgery and sewed her up with cotton thread. (Hard to find now 100% cotton thread.) We also gave her 1 cc. of penicillin after her surgery and kept her in the house until she was healed up. She is one of our six guinea hen survivors and is very wily, which is good cause she can't fly at all with only one wing.

 

[Bizzybirdy]

>>The hen that has something going on with the tail, sounds like her mates did her in. <<

I believe there was only one other chicken and it had died before this hen. More than likely a racoon. And yes, best to put the chickens in a predator proof coop at night, even if inside an enclosed pen. I have a 5' chain link fence, with hardware cloth around the bottom, and lock all the chickens up at night.

 

[CESOrtega]

I think I have this fairly well figured out, but I will never know for sure if I am right or wrong. Just a learning experience.

I think whatever was wrong on Shelly's tail killed her during the night. Then I think a first line decomposer varmit of some sort (my husband swears we don't have rats but it could have been a mouse or some other small creature) came in to do its' job. That would explain why the back end was the only part touched (scavenger would be attracted to the smell) and why we haven't caught a coon inside the coop with the live trap.

Any ideas on how long a wound can fester? When she was attacked back in July the only wound we found was under her wing and it even appeared her wing was broken. We treated her with antibiotics and watched her carefully and she seemed to recover fine..no problems with the obvious wound and even began to use her wing normally. Is it possible she had the wound on her tail even then and we just never saw it or would that have been too long?

Chickens are obviously like cats and hide their wounds well. Under all those feathers you have to be very determined to find it, too.

I'm as sure as I can be that the coop is safe again, but we are letting our remaining hen stay in the garage over night. She goes there when it gets dark now and she has her favorite perch picked out. We keep the doors closed so she is safe and we let her out in the morning. I think we all need some healing time after this.

 

[dancingbear]

What have you used for bait in your live trap? You might try setting it while the remaining hen is NOT in the coop. Raccoons love marshmallows. Try those for bait, and see what you get.

The first year we were here, we lost a bunch of hens to raccoons. We had fixed up a room in the barn, covered with chicken wire, etc., and the coons kept finding holes they could reach into and get ahold of parts of chickens. They pulled bits through the holes and ripped our poor hens apart. Then I'd find the bloody remains in the morning. We were both working long hours, and didn't know much about raccoons at the time. We got a live trap, caught a couple in it with sliced apples for bait, and my DH shot a couple of them, in the barn.

We built a new coop as soon as we could, moved the hens, and had no more trouble with them until this year, 11 years later. This year, we lost 17 guinea keets in 4 days, to a band of raccoons. The 2 guinea moms would not go inside with the babies at night. One group was over 3 weeks old, we thought they were home free. then the raccoons appeared, and she lost all but 3, in 4 days. The other mom only had 3 babies, they hatched just before the other started losing hers, they didn't last 48 hours.

I trapped 4 in less than a week, using marshmallows for bait. We haven't lost any more since, I'm hoping we've cleared them out for now. But I think there's one more at least, a big one. I mean, of the ones who've decided this is the buffet. I know there are always more in the area, but they don't always decide that this is the cafeteria.

Good luck, I hope you catch the culprits.

 

[gottalovemychickens]

i have a dead bolt and a locking handle on my chicken coop always locked after 8 PM

 

[Tala]

Since our first raccoon attack, I've been padlocking their door shut at night. It's a PITA to get out and open the door in the morning, but since I only have 4 hens I can't afford to lose any! We hang the key on a hook on the side of their house, just not in the lock.