We lost a 2-year-old Barred Rock hen tonight. I went out a little early to lock them up, and my count came up 2 short. My husband and I went looking. We found one dead; head gone and neck torn open. We found the other one, frazzled, and hiding in the bush.
Last year, we had them fenced in, but this spring we opened the fence and let them free range. We moved the fencing, and added some, to prevent them getting to the front of the house and out by the road. We have a large cleared area, about 4 acres behind the house before our woods start. We knew there was risk, but we knew there were a lot of benefits to giving them a greater area. My husband ended up running some deer netting across the back, about 2/3 of the way to the woods to stop the chickens from going too far back. We found her near the netting, in a place where it had been knocked down.
Originally, we left our 10-year-old German Shepherd run free. He's been good with the chickens, and we thought he was a deterent to predators. But 5 1/2 weeks ago one of our hens hatched 7 chicks and we didn't think we could trust him around them, so he's been chained up.
The dead hen was one of our larger hens and a good layer. It's always hard to lose one. Now the job is going to be killing that raccoon before he comes back for another meal.
Last year, we had them fenced in, but this spring we opened the fence and let them free range. We moved the fencing, and added some, to prevent them getting to the front of the house and out by the road. We have a large cleared area, about 4 acres behind the house before our woods start. We knew there was risk, but we knew there were a lot of benefits to giving them a greater area. My husband ended up running some deer netting across the back, about 2/3 of the way to the woods to stop the chickens from going too far back. We found her near the netting, in a place where it had been knocked down.
Originally, we left our 10-year-old German Shepherd run free. He's been good with the chickens, and we thought he was a deterent to predators. But 5 1/2 weeks ago one of our hens hatched 7 chicks and we didn't think we could trust him around them, so he's been chained up.
The dead hen was one of our larger hens and a good layer. It's always hard to lose one. Now the job is going to be killing that raccoon before he comes back for another meal.
