What is your biggest loss on raising chickens?

[bikosblackmeat]

Recently, I have lost 7 chicks (worth 7 dollars each) because of a dog. Out of the 17 chicks, 7 were eliminated by a dog and I can't get over it because they were supposed to be sold to my customers. I am curious, what do you do to overcome these events? I am having trouble in sleeping because of this.

 

[AidKD]

Sorry to hear about your birds! My biggest loss would probably be when I lost about 10 of my meat birds from an unknown cause. They were just dropping dead. It was very discouraging. But I look at it two ways: you can either continue to be down about it and wish it hadn't happened, or, you can accept it for what it was, learn from the experience, move on, and grow from what you've learned so you can apply it to your future birds. Things like that just happen. Disappointing and disheartening? Yes. But now you know how to better take care of your flock in the future.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

We had raccoons that savaged one, later a second flock last year. Couldn't do anything about it for a handful of days as we were across the country and had someone watching the birds once a day. Attacks continued for some days after we got back, as we don't naturally have raccoons where I live, so we hadn't ever dealt with them before like this.

I have been anxious for the past several weeks as it's about that time again. We caught one this last two weeks after a month and 3 birds being lost (we thought the first 2 were lucky breaks for random predators, but saw pawprints the day before we lost a massive rooster). Nothing since that last racoon was killed. But that doesn't mean I'll sleep soundly again until fall.

 

[Mountain Roost]

It can be hard to get over for sure. Between the heartbreak and the waste of life. I had a weasel break into a two pasture coops that had 1 momma hen and 11 babies per coop and he killed every last one. Same night he got my drake. The drake saved my other two ducks and 2 geese. The loss of the babies reset my breeding program for a whole season. Not to mention the 2 perfect momma hens.

Live and Learn. Now these pasture coops have extensive dig aprons and will only house the meat birds they were built for. All babies get raised in the permanent hoop coops.

Keep your chin up and keep hatching!

 

[bikosblackmeat]

Thank you for sharing your events like mine. I appreciate it