# Predation



## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Predation is normal with chickens, especially if you let them roam during the day. The situation I’m facing isn’t normal.

7 little hens in a dog cage on my porch. A month ago I had 16 hens and 2 roosters. A couple of hens were taken by a fox when they got out of the pen. The rest… I still don’t know for sure what’s taking them but I think it’s a raccoon. I found one tuft of hair that looks like raccoon belly hair. This is a rarity, I’ve only heard of one other instance of a raccoon killing chickens.

This one is killing them in the main pen but still escapes with the carcass. Except for the last one which was last night. I shut them in a 10x10 coop. The critter still managed to kill my last rooster and eat most of it via a gap under the door. The rib cage wouldn’t fit through the gap.

9 kill’s with the main pen surrounded by a dozen steel traps. Not a single trap thrown. As a teenager I trapped for extra money, I know how to make a set, I’m at a complete loss. It’s too late in the year to buy chicks and now I don’t have a rooster to fertilize eggs so I can’t hatch out my own.

So tomorrow I will rebuild the chicken pen, re-hang all the wire and stake the bottom. I’m actually going to increase the size of the pen to include 2 trees for shade in the summer.

And to make matters worse… someone threw out two dogs near the house. They have decided to live under a storage building. I can’t let the few remaining chickens roam during the day while I rebuild the pen. Only one way to solve that problem.

Ha! Late news update! FB friends just told me where I can get a rooster locally and where I can order chicks! Things are looking up and I have plenty of 22 ammo.


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

It's very possible that it is a Raccoon, they can get into places you wouldn't believe. The Raccoon actually can flatten it's body since it doesn't have collar bones, which allows them to squeeze into places other animals can't.


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## talob (Sep 16, 2009)

Years ago up in MI I had chickens ducks turkeys, told the neighbor that I thought his half grown **** was killing my birds he said it was tame it wouldn't do that so I said OK camped out on chicken coop roof with 16 ga I took care of the problem practiced the three SSS's and kept good neighbors, yesterday saw a coyote after neighbors chickens by the time I got the 22 it was gone, everything likes chicken!


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## bacpacker (Jul 15, 2011)

Just lost my last two birds this week. Not sure what got them. I have trapped coo s and possums the last two years. Also saw a hawk get one. Think I got the Hawks stopped. Gonna have to redo my run and seal the coop before I get any more.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

"...only heard of one other instance of a raccoon killing chickens...." 

Chickens are ****'s delight.

If you really want to stop feeding the ***** wrap that cage in 1/2" hardware cloth!


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Even weasels will kill chickens and they are so small they can get in most anywhere.


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

We have gone to using hardware cloth on anything we want to be completely predator proof. An electric wire can be added to protect the mesh itself, but this is only necessary for big persistent animals like bears.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

I helped a friend build a coop to be predator-proof ... and for the most part, it was.

Started out by clearing land and laying out a grid-pattern of rebar and concrete as a footing. Chicken-wire was tied to the rebar and then the footing was filled with sand/gravel for drainage. The building was a basic shed-package put onto the footing, open floor. The wood-frame had more chicken wire wrapped around it (down to below grade), the plywood walls screwed down over the wire and then painted a light-grey. 

Finally, an old dog-run was recycled and placed around the coop (chain-link-fencing) with a chain-link top as well to keep birds-of-prey out of the coop ... 

We had found several places where critters tried to dig under, filled the holes with gravel and field-stones as required. It seemed to do well and only had standard mortality for the chickens.

I'll say it was serious overkill, but, we had the time and materials to build it - most of it was recycled / cheap / free.


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## Viking (Mar 16, 2009)

hiwall said:


> Even weasels will kill chickens and they are so small they can get in most anywhere.


That's what killed the last two chickens we had, neighbor has had to deal with *****, skunk, bobcat, fox, owls and hawks, just to name a few. Many years ago I made a small pen out of 2"X4" fence wire, I had a hen setting on a bunch of eggs in the pen just outside our home and one night she was raising a big ruckus, I grabbed my .44 mag, because it was close at hand, and went out to see what was going on, amazingly a medium size skunk had gotten through that 2"X4" space and was going after the eggs. I blew the skunk away but I'm guessing that that poor hen was probably deaf for the rest of her life, probably had a few feathers on her head fried from the fireball coming out of the muzzle as the skunk was only about a foot behind her. I still feel bad for her even after all these years.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

I lose more chickens to '***** than any other predator


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

My suggestion is a NVG and a silenced .22 (or at least use subsonics). Not that you're gonna save your chickens from them danged ole *****, but at least you'll have a good war story of how you tried to defend them. 

Or, try a Great Pyrenees guard dog. They tend to think of everything "normal" around them as part of "their" flock, and run a lot of unwanted's away before they can do any significant damage. The only chickens we lost when we had ours was due to hawks.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

Just remember a Great Pyrenees guard dog... needs to be trained and needs more than a little work.

Just saying ...


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

A Great Pyrenees guard dog and night vision vs the cost of a couple dozen eggs per week... Pay Attention folks who think you've got it covered. Natural selection always intrudes. You've got X chickens and they will supply X amount. Yeah, right....  The plans of mice and men...


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

I finally got him! It was a big ole boar ****. Just before dark this evening I heard the chickens raising cane and I went to check on them. I got him in a trap. He killed 7 hens and 2 roosters over a month. So much for my little egg business.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Cotton said:


> I finally got him! It was a big ole boar ****. I got him in a trap.


I can't use traps anymore - they all have learned what they are and avoid them!!!!


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

LincTex said:


> I can't use traps anymore - they all have learned what they are and avoid them!!!!


I had a little help. I had covered this trap with perilla leaves which is a really strong smelling mint. Last evening we got almost 2 inches of rain, washing away any human scent.

I think this is why I didn't catch him for a month&#8230; no rain except a little shower a week ago. He could smell the traps and avoid them.

But I Got Him! artydance:


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

I still think a all night long ambush for a month from a snipers nest with a silenced .22 and NVG's and FLIR would have made a much better story...lol

Congratulations, Cotton. But you're still on PETA's list now.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

> But you're still on PETA's list now.


I think not so due to the fact that Cotton used a live trap and now has this valuable animal in a large luxurious enclosure while training said animal to eat a strict vegetarian diet before being released to live a happy long life.


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

hiwall said:


> I think not so due to the fact that Cotton used a live trap and now has this valuable animal in a large luxurious enclosure while training said animal to eat a strict vegetarian diet before being released to live a happy long life.


LOL, that is Hemingway grade sarcasm at it's finest! Well done...But that is probably how Cotton cooked that ****, too!


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## oldasrocks (Jun 30, 2012)

I have a small house-pen built from hardware wire 1/4 inch holes, then horse panel pieces over that offset about an inch. That's their night house.

We had some friends with an ultra tight house and they still kept losing chickens. They put a video camera up and figured it out. A big **** would go up to the cage and put his hands in. That would rile up the chickens and he would catch one running by. Then proceed to rip the chicken out of the cage piece by piece.

To stop stuff from digging under we put down a cattle panel first that extended a couple ft outside. Anything digging under isn't smart enough to start the hole 2 ft from the cage.

The neatest outside pen I have was built by making a circle out of horse panels and covering the inside with chicken wire. The top is an old fiberglass satellite dish. Horse panels are like galvanized cattle panels except smaller holes.


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## Balls004 (Feb 28, 2015)

Or maybe Cotton can hang the **** skin hide on the outside of the pen as a warning... seemed to work back in the old days. Mess around here and die!


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

They’re Baaack! While I was at the wilderness medicine class last weekend something got 2 of my remaining 7 hens. They got 2 more the night I got back. I expected the raccoon to come back last night but he was a no show. I had my 3 remaining hens in a dog kennel, off the ground inside the roost which is inside the main pen with traps set outside.

Tonight I got the hens in the kennel again. I took a dove hunting stool down there and was waiting with a shotgun. I had left the main pen door open. My german shepherd came down after a while to see what I was up to… Then I thought… the dog can’t get the chickens and the traps are on the outside… So I shut the shepherd in the main pen… lol.

I have a window open so I’ll hear when that raccoon shows up!

Update on the number… after losing so many hens in May I got some eggs from a neighbor and hatched out 13 peeps. 8 are RIR's, no idea about the other 5. They are doing great, ready to go in the main pen if it weren’t for this pesky critter.


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