Woke up this morning to 3 out of 5 chickens dead

[ehoneybee]

I tried motion lights and they didn't work. Your hubby is correct they do get used to the lights. I had an owl kill several of my birds. That is why I put netting up covering all of the pens. Most nights I see critters on at least one of my cameras and often times on more than one camera. It was surprising of the number of predators that come onto the property mostly at night.
View attachment 1770478
A fox.
View attachment 1770489
A coon.
View attachment 1770490
We live on a dead end road and there is a right of way along the fence line and I see mostly coyotes and some fox using it like a highway. View attachment 1770493

So, what do you do when they're in your yard, or is it mostly out of curiosity?

 

[cmom]

Originally I put the cameras up because of losses due to predators. I have electric wire around my coops and pens because of a bobcat and a possum digging under the fence, concrete under my gates because of a fox and a skunk digging under some gates and heavy duty netting covering all of the pens because of an owl and a coyote that jumped over a 5' fence into a pen and killed some birds. The owl was a hard one to figure out until I put up a game camera and caught it in action. Not long ago I lost 3 birds. One was very special and a fox took her in the middle of the day.

 

[ehoneybee]

Originally I put the cameras up because of losses due to predators. I have electric wire around my coops and pens because of a bobcat and a possum digging under the fence, concrete under my gates because of a fox and a skunk digging under some gates and heavy duty netting covering all of the pens because of an owl and a coyote that jumped over a 5' fence into a pen and killed some birds. The owl was a hard one to figure out until I put up a game camera and caught it in action. Not long ago I lost 3 birds. One was very special and a fox took her in the middle of the day.

This set up is like ours. Have you changed it from this or to this?

 

[cmom]

This was Gladys. She would come when called and loved to be held.

 

[AngieMaesChix]

Wowzers ....bf wanting put electric around ours as well...question tho do u put fence outside of run I mean he says he just put wire on fence or whatever and chickens learn not touch it...I really don’t want my chickens getting shocked and couldn’t that hurt them? I mean if ur using it for bigger animals..I think u would put a perimeter around but so the chickens don’t touch it?

 

[AngieMaesChix]

The coop itself is set up with electric and has the connectors around the building which I wouldn’t mind using obviously there’s a reason it’s there..hopefully they still work been probably 20 some years since this property used for its original purposes

 

[cmom]

This set up is like ours. Have you changed it from this or to this?

The coop in the video is my chick/grow-out coop. Here are some of the other coops. A lot of predators roam around the property and now it's more out of curiosity. Sometimes in the middle of the night I will hear the birds going crazy so I suspect it is a predator around the coops.

 

[cmom]

The electric wires won't hurt the birds. Especially in the spring when the predators are having their young, I have heard them when they have touched the wire and once they get zapped they don't try it again. You can always turn the power off when you want to.

 

[ehoneybee]

The electric wires won't hurt the birds. Especially in the spring when the predators are having their young, I have heard them when they have touched the wire and once they get zapped they don't try it again.

Not an option for us because kids.

 

[Anime2lover]

You could try using a motion activated wild life alarm.