Yesterday, sometime during the day, one of my otherwise healthy chickens died. Just keeled over dead. Then, last night, a racoon got into the hen house and killed one! Feathers everywhere!
I could cry! We are down to two laying hens and 4 babies, of undertermined sex, that won't start laying, if they are hens, until September/November.
Two chickens in two days...... :-(
Look at the wing of them and you'll see this straw like thing (don't know what it's called). If the row of a few are equal it's a Male. If they are unequal it's a Female. Go to Google Video. Type in "How it's made- hatchery chicks". It'll tell you lots of info.
Sorry to hear about your chickens.
Eric
This message was edited Jul 8, 2007 2:01 PM
Now is a good time to figure out how the raccoon got in and block off it's access to your birds. It will save your remaining flock and lots of frustration on your part. Jane31
The 1 dead chicken is just the beginning assuming the raccoon is still alive. He'll be back for a second or third dinner again tonight.
I have to go with Jane31 on this one and also set a trape for it
with cat food in side of it...
you will get that varment...Sorry about the chickens...
Tracey
I don't consider raccoons or weasels"varmints". They are just looking for dinner and if you don't secure your pens properly you are offering up a free picnic to them. Remenber the old adage 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". As for traps you will find for each animal you remove another will just come in and take over that territory. The added bonus to safe pens in a better nights sleep.Jane 31
Amen, Jane.
I agree with securing your pen better BUT I agree they ARE varmits! We were basically invaded last year with LOTS of racoons. I would walk into my barn and there would be 2 or sometimes even 3 of them chowing down on the cat food I leave out for my barn cats, grrrr or they would up on the beams of the ceiling of the barn and they have made a TERRIBLE mess of the ceiling when they got up there, very destructive. I don't like them around my horses and my cats either and then last year they killed 3 of my muscovy ducklings, GRRR, they chewed through the fencing we used for the pen sooooo, that racoon did come back but it didn't get it's last meal. We have trapped many others in a humane trap and have relocated them and I am happy to say that this year we have NO racoons on our property which makes life alot easier. We also of course made the duck pen mega secure so that won't happen again.
The idea of transplanting raccoons that have been humanely trapped is a bit "silly". These animals are everywhere almost and there are millions of them in the USA and Canada. Killing those in your neighborhood is a the best way to eliminate the continual threat of raccoon attacks. No matter how many you trap ... the best real solution is to have a chicken run/coop that is raccoon proof. It may come as a surprise to many but it is has been well documented that raccoons can/will find their way home .... from as far away as 180 miles. How many people are willing to drive 4 hours in 1 direction to drop off a raccoon? If you only drive 3 hours away .... the little bugger will be back in a week. That is food for thought. I recommend spending the gas money to repair/upgrade the quality of your chicken coop to prevent the need of killing raccoons.
Well I certainly do sympathize with your loss. I'm sure you've already realized you need to make an adjustment to your set up to keep or try to keep another coon out. Once they find a meal source they WILL come back.
I live in a wooded area we are over run with coons among other things.... I can tell this by the amount of road kill I see. I quit feeding the birds year round atleast 6-yrs ago because bears became a problem. I had a friend who had a pair of coons go through a screen window to spend an evening dining in her kitchen.... the amount of damage was HUGE.
While I agree it's not the animals fault it's only looking for food and trying to get by so are the rest of us. Myself ,personally , I have no qualms about shooting a coon, weasel or even the neighbors dog should it decide I am hosting the buffet. I also don't make any apologies for my actions along the way. I would prefer not to be put in the situation but sometimes when trouble comes calling you have to meet it at the door, in my opinion.
I try to avoid that scenario (for instance I spent days tying bright orange yarn pcs to the entire top of my chicken yard covering so birds flying overhead would realize there was a cover and not get tangled up in it...) but last time I checked I wasn't perfect nor did I reside in a perfect world.
Julie
This message was edited Jul 9, 2007 6:31 AM
I agree with Jane, but I hear what you are saying, too Julie. We shoot aggressive and sick wild animals that come into the yard and are a safety risk.
I do agree that an ounce of prevention is the best way to go. Where we live, you could never shoot everything that is going to come after the chickens. Coyotes, foxes, weasels, raccoons, hawks, dogs, cats, bears, etc, etc. Something else would just come and take its place. Chickens are little meals on legs and i don't blame them for wanting them, I blame myself for not taking good enough care of them.
Example, we just lost one to a fox. They were out hanging around free ranging in the yard at dusk and he came in a grabbed one. Luckily it was only one! But that reminded me that I have to keep them fenced in, especially during fox baby season!
Now, on the other hand, this spring we had a marauding BEAR that was breaking into peoples' chicken coops, eating all the chicken food, eggs and chickens that it could get to. I had never heard of such a thing.But people had photographic proof, plus enormous claw marks!!! It got all the chickens on the other side of town. About 50 + at four or five different houses. Plus, it was getting really aggressive and not people shy at all. The chicken lovers on that side of town are going to shoot it if it comes back, and I understand why.
I think that as long as you do the very best you can to keep the chickens safe, if there is a particularly aggressive or troublesome animal it needs to be disposed of in whatever way you are comfortable with. As long as killing isn't the lazy way out of chicken care instead of proper housing. ( we do have some of those types around here) And it doesn't sound like anyone here is that way. This is always a tough one for me. I'm very torn about it.
Well, this certainly stirred up the discussion. The wreched little beasties came back Sunday night and killed 5 more of my chickens. Three of them were just babies. We now have only 2 left, one adult and one baby. My husband was just sure that they were safe as he boarded up all of the holes but they broke out one of the boards and helped themselves. I've checked on them this morning and they are both alive and well. We did some more repair work and it seems to have deterred the coons.
If folks are serious about preventing raccoons & weasels from killing their chickens you need heavy wire fences with small holes ..... holes so small that a large mouse would find it difficult to enter. The fencing needs to be on all sides unless you have a cement floor. I have tossed in the towel trying to prevent varmints from killing my birds. The cost is extreme and the quality of life of a cooped up flock of chickens is lousy. Instead I have gone to chickens that fly several times better (think pheasants), lay worse (or seldom) but eat next to nothing. They are called American Game Fowl (Pit Game fighting chickens). When a predator comes around ..... they head for the hills. They'll find their way back home the next day after the dust has settled. We have about 40 chicks running around with 4 broody hens ....... and no chicken coop. They roost in the trees at night and get up early to look for food. They are absolutely pretty chickens ...... walking lawn ornaments.
With bobcats, racoons, cats, and a dog running around outside my house I don't think it would be fair to let any chickens, regardless of breed, run completely free. We have a nice large hen house with a large outdoor fenced run attached to it. We are now closing the small chicken door out to the run after the chickens come in to roost at night and let them out in the moring. This arrangement seems to be working.
Yep, free range sounds so great in the books and articles but who is going to protect them when they're a walking lunch for all the local wildlife, not to mention neighborhood dogs?
Being in a pen isn't a miserable life for a chicken if you provide them with a large enough pen for the size of your flock. And it isn't that hard or that expensive. I used regular chicken wire and 2x4s for mine. As recommended, I installed the chicken wire below the boards across the bottom of the fence so nothing can dig and get inside. I also put deer fencing across the top. This protects them from hawks and from diseases brought by more harmless birds.
The chicken house is on stilts and their chicken door is opened every morning and closed securely every night.
I live in a very rural area. We have lots of foxes, raccoons, hawks, bears, you name it, and neighbors who let their dogs roam. I haven't lost a single chicken.
Now if I could only find out what's been getting my cats....
Lost one last year, now our new one has been MIA for about 24 hours.
I have also had a 2 acre fenced chicken run. We too have had great success with keeping the flock protected from coyotes, marauding stray dogs, feral cats, weasels & skunks. For some odd reason raptors just do not bother our flock. When I was just beginning we had no fence and a dogs killed 20 of them when we were on a vacation (my oldest son stayed at home we believed to watch them ..... get slaughtered). He actually left the farm and stayed in town with friends. Over the years stray dogs have killed close to 30 birds but we've had as many as 80 chickens during the interim. Feral cats seem to go after the chicks. One weasel attack got a neighbors chick and many skunk raids on guinea nests. Raccoons will climb over fences of any type .... as will cats. Weasels will go through them. Just do a good job and close the doors at dusk. The chickens we're getting into now have the ability to evade dogs and coyotes if there are trees close by. We have several large trees.
Silly cat came home....
I am at peace....for now anyway.
You don't need two acres, not even for 80 chickens. It's probably a lot harder to keep them safe in a large area like that, where anything can climb the fence, than in a smaller pen with chicken wire all around and buried around the perimeter and something at the top to keep animals from going over the top.
There's a chart here that gives info on space needed per chicken both inside and outside.
http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/poultry/factsheets/10.html
If you don't want to cover the top with chicken wire or deer fence, you can string barbed wire just above the fence along the top. The deer fence is pretty flimsy but it has worked well here so far. The chickens can't fly out and nothing else can get in.
I think the deer fence works because of fear of tangling, just as it does with deer, more than a barrier they can't cross. I wouldn't use it around the perimeter but it's working well on top.
I'm on 22 acres, and let my birds go wherever. They have specific spots they like in the woods. They stay pretty close to the coop and house area. We definitely have raccoons, foxes, coyotes, and neighbor dogs and cats. Hawks, too. Is chicken wire strong enough for keeping raccoons out? I'm working on the coop, and definitely want to make it as safe as possible. We got guineas to be "watch dogs". They scream at everything!!!!!
My friend down the road just lost about 20 chickens to a fox. It came into her yard early every morning for multiple snacks. It was luck that her visiting father in law was sitting outside early with his coffee, and saw it, so at least they know now what they're hunting for (nuisance permit). She had known some were missing, and confined them to the barn and yard, and the fox just came in closer for more. She's devastated. To make it worse, she then had several chickens die - but only the ones who ranged out by where she found dead carcasses after following the foxes path. They had probably pecked at the carcasses. We'll find out after the necropsy.
It's tough work keeping the peeps safe. I know I'm not happy at night til I do my head count and lock them in.
This is a great thread, give more tips, please.
Thanks.
hart, There are no wild animals in this region able to climb 5-6 foot tall welded wire fences. I'm reducing my chicken run to .5 acre till I sell the remaining 25 hens and 4 roos. I've known the area was far larger than needed for the poultry since I put up the fence. Originally I put up the perimeter fence for more than just containing poultry. It was to keep my 1 yr old (now 5 yrs old) from leaving in any direction. We do not have the kind of animals in our region able to dig under fences with the ability to kill poultry. There are very very few loose dogs in our area. Dog owners around our place clearly understand the very very real and deadly hazard of letting their dog(s) roam loose. Coyotes are too afraid of humans to venture close to my fences. Feral cats have not bothered my big hens (they got my neighbor Barred Rock roo last year) and by the end of this year I'll not have any chickens that will need caring for. We do not have raccoons or fishers. The hens are much too large for the hawks to attempt to grab. I do believe we lost a Swedish Blue drake last month to a Great Horned Owl at night. My ducks do not go inside at night for any reason. In the winter I keep the water running 24/7 so they enjoy a hot tub experience all winter long. I'm going to keep guineas and my neighbor will keep Game Fowl. Egg production will not be an issue because feed costs will be reduced to 5-10% ($1-2 / wk) of what it is currently.
This message was edited Aug 7, 2007 10:36 AM
Update: We still have two chickens - big red is still laying and the baby is still being a baby - no eggs yet.
We did find out that it wasn't just one racoon - it is 4 racoons. Our neighbor was out checking his pumpkin patch and they came up from the river, checked out our corn then toodled their way up the the hen house for a look-see. We are going to check into getting a live-trap. Maybe the neighbor will dispatch them if we can catch them.
I am looking into ordering some chickens on-line. Any recommendation for sources?
I've ordered from both Ideal and Cacklehatchery with success. Both have good prices. I have thought of ordering from Sandhill preservation. They seem to have a good poultry selection as well.
Julie
One of my co-workers just ordered from Murray McMurray. Are they reputable?
Murray McMurray are awesome. Not only do the chickens arrive healthy, but they have given me more than several rare free chickens for my order of 25 and only one of those was a roo. They have a huge selection, and quite a few can be sexed. Unfortunately you do have a minimum order of 25. Their quik chick formula seems to really help the chicks too.
I checked out Ideal, Cacklehatchery, and Sandhill Preservation but they don't have the kinds I am interested in. I guess it is pretty late in the season for most chickens. I may have wait to order some of them next spring.
I haven't gone with McMurray, they are higher priced than the others so I can't say what they are like personally.
What kind are you looking for ?? You may be able to find a breeder near you that either has chicks or eggs for sale. You could always go to backyardchickens.com and ask on the "wanted" board...
Julie
Well, I went ahead and ordered them on-line. I checked around locally but had no luck. I ordered from Murray McMurray. Here's what I got:
5 Araucanas
5 Buff Orpingtons
5 Silver Laced Wyandottes
5 Black Star
5 Delaware
All females.
They won't all be available until Sept 24 so I have some time to get the coop ready and get a warming lamp for them.
I'm so excited! I feel like a little kid again.
Wow! 25 new chickens!! We will definitely be coming out to see them!
We should be getting 26 because they throw in an extra at no charge.