I had a little attack today between 6-7 tonight. Not sure what it would be but it tore out the entire insides and left the intestines. I have been having a lot of hawk trouble along with many coyotes. However this one is strange. It was during the day (have seen both coyotes and hawks this time of day) the carcass was very close the side of the chicken tractor within reaching distance of a very small human like hand... I'm thinking raccon... but most of the time they eat more than just the organs and a bit of leg meat. Birds are in a chicken tractor (meat birds) and are completely enclosed... had to be ate throught the wire. But what puzzles me is, it was in the day. Not too many predators come in the day like that... especially that I fed at 6 and was back at 8. The body was cold so I'm assuming it happend between 6-7... Any assumptions?
A sick or desperate raccoon will come out during the daytime and they're best at ripping meat through mesh because of their 'hands'. Opossums can do it as well but that seems less likely. I'd say raccoon.
Not sure but the only thing you can do is get some galvinzed rabbit wire. Its real thick and tough. We made our whole run out of it because we didnt want to loose any of our chickens. Its a heartbreak when that happens. I think i have a picture of the wire....yes, just look pass the SLW. Nothing has been able to get through it yet...of course we dont have bear here.
Quote:That is nice... I have used that once but it's expensive and is heavy for the pens... but it may be worth it if I keep losing them. I've only lost one of these guys so far out of 200. I have a pyrenese who has been slacking a bit. She is going to be 5 in March so she is slowing down a bit. I don't think they live very long. However I'm still baffled at the fact that it was in the day... but like you said if anything is desperate enough they will do their best to get in. Thanks!
Found out what it was today... I came home to move the tractors and feed and water and found a giant red tail hawk that was inside the pen. It found a small whole in the wire and ripped right through it. Must have dove down and hit the wire or something. Needless to say... problem solved.
Great detective work!! Glad to know you solved the problem. I would have liked to used hardware cloth on my run as well, it's 8' x 16' and the top is covered as well, it would have been very costly in addition to spending over $1,800 on just the materials for the 4' x 6' coop. I opted to skirt the coop (it's 2 feet off the ground), and cover the complete run with galvanized garden cloth 2" x 2", it has an extra piece of wire wrapped around where the horizontal and vertical wires intersect, and was much less costwise. So far we haven't had any issues (knock on wood). The wire is buried 18" to 24" below the ground and outwards from the coop another 12" to 18". We live in a suburban area and have lots of woods nearby, I have seen a bear, fox, turkey, skunk and raccoon in our neighborhood, and haven't had problems with the fencing yet. The only place I used hardware cloth was on the windows of the coop. My plan is. . .when the run fencing needs to be replaced, I will replace it with hardware cloth at that time. As at the time of building the coop, the added cost of hardware cloth would have put us over our budget threefold. There are pictures on my page under coop construction, if you'd like to take a took.
