Winter and Lockup

[AShelDuck1]

This is my third year having chickens. I have an idea of when predators are the most likely.

So during the summer I’m a little lax about lockdowns. And we let them free range the whole yard.

In the change of the season I was like, oop it’s time to lockdown again.

I wish I knew what happened but this morning two chickens were out of the coop. One alive, one dead.

Over the summer they had started roosting in a tree. And I’m worried that by locking them up I contributed to them getting killed?

I think I know how something either got in or how they got out. Last winter I had ran out of the hardware cloth and closed it with bird netting I closed the gap today. Oh and this was in the run part of the coop and up pretty high. I didn’t close the door for the coop into the predator safe run.

So I guess, to simplify, my questions are

1. Did I kill them by locking them away and were their natural defenses better?
2. OR did I just start lockdowns on the right time and it was just a weakness discovered?

 

[Debbie292d]

So sorry for your loss.

You didn't kill your chickens, an animal did.

Can you post pictures of your setup as without seeing what you have it's hard to make suggestions. I would finish sealing off your coop with the hardware cloth and patch any holes in the runs. Do you have a suspicion of what the predator(s) are? If not, I'd check into purchasing or borrowing a deer cam or some camera system. We use one deer cam and six Blink brand cameras.

Here, we live with a woods behind us and farmers' fields on the other three sides, so there isn't a "season" when predators are worse or less. We have to stay on our toes 24/7.

Ours free range, then get locked up in their very secure coops at night. We have solar motion lights around all of the forest or more vulnerable sides of them. That helps tremendously. We also have several wind spinners, giant ones, and short little ones. Having two dogs that patrol the areas helps as well, as they keep a lot of the riff-raff out of our yard.

 

[AShelDuck1]

Well I did patch the hole and reinforce it yesterday

The bottom has bars deep in the ground and under the door, bricks around the perimeter. That top left section was where we had bird netting but it now has hardware cloth. And I think that’s where it was tooken from.

Last night I came out to check after dark and found a skunk hanging out with my ducks.

My ducks used to house with the chickens but I have too many chickens. So they have been free ranging.

Could it have been the skunk? No ducks were lost and we seem to have scared it away.

I’m going to be watching again tonight.

 

[AShelDuck1]

It’s not the prettiest. We use a lot of scraps and junk.

But, it’s what we have to work with.

I was thinking of taking down the fence to the garden and the “big run” (which is not predator safe at all just keeps them out of our “yard” but we’ve been letting them in the yard anyway. And making the duck run/house.

We’re in a rural “neighborhood” so we have minimal predators but in the winter they start getting crazy.

 

[AGeese]

Yeah it could be the skunk. I would just lock them up in a secure coop at night unless you want to raise a feral flock which is a complete different mindset towards your birds.