Three weeks ago I had 30 6 month old hens getting back into production. I had 5 roosters which I have been specifically breeding for color. As of the day before yesterday I have 8 hens only 1 rooster left. I have to set up the gamecam to see how many raccoons are coming but it has to be several. I've run most of my cages exactly the way they are for about 5 years, and never had any predator problems. In the last two weeks I lost 21 birds (15 in one night). Many of them were pulled out of my elevated cages which have chicken wire. Out of 21 dead in two nights I only found 7 carcasses in various states of destruction. Once they got all the birds they could reach they figured out the latches on my doors.
Growing up on a farm I knew better than to expect to have no predator problems so all of my cages were lightly predator proofed due to my previous disrespect for the intelligence of city coons. Lightly isn't enough for a smart old raccoon and I knew better.
Surprisingly my ground cages that have a 10" piece of plywood running around all sides were untouched except one stupid bird that was roosting on a rock next to the wire. It was the cage I thought had the best defense that was mostly slaughtered.
The cage in the picture below went from 18 birds between all levels to only 3 left in the bottom out of pure luck, the coon opened the door because he couldn't get through the 1/2 wire and for some reason didn't get the last three hens. Adding to my luck they were so scared they were still in the cage with the door wide open when I got to them.
Something everyone should know about predators even house cats, if they get fresh blood, they go blood crazy and kill as many as possible just to drink the blood. This happens with foxes, skunks, raccoons and bobcats occasionally. Weasels will go blood crazy every time, they are by far the worst predator to have in a hen house. Also predators are either pregnant or having babies at this time of year so their food demand skyrockets.
Any opening larger than a nickel is enough for a coon to pull a quail through, and the quail will not hide in a box, mine all had boxes to hide in, all were dead outside on the floor. The same nervous pacing they do when you're around they do for the raccoon so if he's patient they'll eventually get close. The middle unit has a predator proof box and all the birds from that unit were either in pieces on the floor or pulled through and eaten. The top unit also has a box but again none of the deceased were anywhere near it. Basically they're even stupider than they seem to be.
To be fully raccoon proof you need to use 1/2 wire and some sort of lock on the doors instead of latches. I also recommend running a 10" strip of plywood around the bottoms edges on all four sides so they'd have to reach over the plywood to get a bird and their arms aren't long enough.
If anyone local has fertile eggs please PM me so I can get my flock running again. I'd be looking for in the neighborhood of at least 60-100 eggs possibly even more but right now I'd settle for any amount of hatching eggs.
Growing up on a farm I knew better than to expect to have no predator problems so all of my cages were lightly predator proofed due to my previous disrespect for the intelligence of city coons. Lightly isn't enough for a smart old raccoon and I knew better.
Surprisingly my ground cages that have a 10" piece of plywood running around all sides were untouched except one stupid bird that was roosting on a rock next to the wire. It was the cage I thought had the best defense that was mostly slaughtered.
The cage in the picture below went from 18 birds between all levels to only 3 left in the bottom out of pure luck, the coon opened the door because he couldn't get through the 1/2 wire and for some reason didn't get the last three hens. Adding to my luck they were so scared they were still in the cage with the door wide open when I got to them.
Something everyone should know about predators even house cats, if they get fresh blood, they go blood crazy and kill as many as possible just to drink the blood. This happens with foxes, skunks, raccoons and bobcats occasionally. Weasels will go blood crazy every time, they are by far the worst predator to have in a hen house. Also predators are either pregnant or having babies at this time of year so their food demand skyrockets.
Any opening larger than a nickel is enough for a coon to pull a quail through, and the quail will not hide in a box, mine all had boxes to hide in, all were dead outside on the floor. The same nervous pacing they do when you're around they do for the raccoon so if he's patient they'll eventually get close. The middle unit has a predator proof box and all the birds from that unit were either in pieces on the floor or pulled through and eaten. The top unit also has a box but again none of the deceased were anywhere near it. Basically they're even stupider than they seem to be.
To be fully raccoon proof you need to use 1/2 wire and some sort of lock on the doors instead of latches. I also recommend running a 10" strip of plywood around the bottoms edges on all four sides so they'd have to reach over the plywood to get a bird and their arms aren't long enough.
If anyone local has fertile eggs please PM me so I can get my flock running again. I'd be looking for in the neighborhood of at least 60-100 eggs possibly even more but right now I'd settle for any amount of hatching eggs.
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Thank you for the warning, I hope it can be a lesson or wake up call for others at least. My husband recently built an outdoor run for my pet quail using leftover wood and chicken wire. Inside the run we revamped a small dog crate for a makeshift coop. He slept in the coop for two weeks before I heard so many horror stories like this one (also been seeing more coyotes and coons around the neighbourhood lately) that I've started taking him inside at night. Obviously that wouldn't work for everyone but that's the solution we've found for now. Good luck!
