What got my best EE hen

[jaredthefox]

Why not set a trap and see what you catch? Put a can of cat food in an animal trap. The reason I bet that you have had your chickens taken and not your neighbors is because a predator is a creature of habit. I bet his den is closer to your property than your neighbors. Plus a free range chicken is harder to catch than one in a fenced in run.

 

[StephanieC]

Why not set a trap and see what you catch? Put a can of cat food in an animal trap. The reason I bet that you have had your chickens taken and not your neighbors is because a predator is a creature of habit. I bet his den is closer to your property than your neighbors. Plus a free range chicken is harder to catch than one in a fenced in run.

i suppose I could try that.

The neighbor with the free range chickens I was talking about also has a cleared property, while ours is very wooded, and she has an outside-only dog on duty 24/7, and their house is raised off the ground so that their chickens spend much of their time under the house. Even so, she has just been lucky. Everyone else I know who lives in our area and who has had free range chickens has lost chickens to predators.

I do consider my chickens free range, because the area they are fenced in is as nearly as big as some people's lots in town. They are not in anything I would call a run.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Whatever did this (fox, etc) appears to have climbed the fence with the bird - I think some carefully placed hot wires would stop this.