What to do after a predator attack

[Callender Girl]

I am very sorry for your loss. It's heartbreaking and easy to blame yourself when a predator kills your birds. The fact is, few if any chicken keepers never lose a bird to a predator, no matter how secure your set-up or how vigilant you are.

Now, the focus needs to be on keeping your remaining girls safe, and yes, they will be traumatized for a while. It's possible they will be skittish, wary and act out in unexpected ways. The good news is, eventually, they can recover.

I had one hen who survived a mink attack that killed all of her coop mates. It took some time, but Honey settled down, made new friends and became her sweet self again.

Take care of the survivors and yourself.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

It is, in fact, hardware cloth.

You mentioned that you could see where the HWC had been stretched or loosened. Was it where it had been attached to the wooden frame?

I would second the recommendation above to augment any staples with screws and fender washers, and possibly even then, cover the join with another piece of wood, so that predators can’t work at the bare edge of the wire.

I’m so sorry that you’re going through this.

 

[ArtJuice]

We put wood on top of the hardware cloth now, and are trying to board up entryways. It likes to dig, dig, DIG. That's what it's trying to do in order to get to my chickens (according to my introduction post, the two left are Speckles and probably Dixi. Angel stays inside of our house so she isn't affected by any of this.)

 

[ArtJuice]

You mentioned that you could see where the HWC had been stretched or loosened. Was it where it had been attached to the wooden frame?

Yes, I'm unable to send images but it tugged and tore at the cloth, breaking some of it.

 

[rosemarythyme]

It likes to dig, dig, DIG. That's what it's trying to do in order to get to my chickens

If you don't already have one, definitely install a wire mesh apron around the entire perimeter of the run, I'd go 24" out in your case. Tack it down with landscape staples. Good example of an installation here once again: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/new-coop-project.1169916/page-2#post-18481208

 

[McChooky]

We put wood on top of the hardware cloth now, and are trying to board up entryways. It likes to dig, dig, DIG. That's what it's trying to do in order to get to my chickens (according to my introduction post, the two left are Speckles and probably Dixi. Angel stays inside of our house so she isn't affected by any of this.)

FOX

 

[McChooky]

FOX

Foxes watch us a while before they attack our chickens so they can choose the safest time to kill our chickens .They'll watch us day and night to see when we sleep and when we're around the chickens. They don't want to see their kits hurt.They only teach them to hunt where they've successfully killed prey thats safe