# Flock of chickens and ducks destroyed



## beericus

My father is a backyard chicken keeper. He has a farmette and for the past five years has been raising chickens and ducks, pheasants and turkeys. 

His first year he had pheasants, turkeys, and a wide range of chicken breeds.

We had them in the horse turn out, and we built a coop with nesting boxes. W

With in the year, they were all eaten by something. 

the next year we bolstered the turn outs defenses, adding chicken wire entirely around the exterior base, 

new set of chickens, same results. 

the following year we enclosed the entire turn out, built three a frames, and ran wire completely covering it. 

Things were looking good, we had chickens sitting on eggs in nesting boxes, the ducks were mating. 

Then suddenly within a week they were all gone. 

We inspected the entire perimeter, and found no tracks. there are no holes in the fencing. 

We have Coyote and Fox, hawks, ***** in the area.

Any ideas? I will try to post up some pictures of the coop tonight.


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## gypsysue

So, is there sign of a battle, as in blood and feathers? Or are they simply gone? 

The pictures probably will help.

Back east we had ***** getting our chickens, had to wrap the entire coop in chicken wire and close it up tight at night.

Out west here, skunks have killed chickens in our neighborhood. 

How far from the house is the chicken coop? Is it pretty isolated and far off? Do you have a dog, as in, an outdoor dog that might discourage raiding?


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## beericus

Yes, there seems to be a battle, wings and feet left, blood covered. One was just left headless. 

The coop is appox 25 feet from the house, directly behind the stables. 

No dog.


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## rainygardener

beericus said:


> My father is a backyard chicken keeper. He has a farmette and for the past five years has been raising chickens and ducks, pheasants and turkeys.
> 
> His first year he had pheasants, turkeys, and a wide range of chicken breeds.
> 
> We had them in the horse turn out, and we built a coop with nesting boxes. W
> 
> With in the year, they were all eaten by something.
> 
> the next year we bolstered the turn outs defenses, adding chicken wire entirely around the exterior base,
> 
> new set of chickens, same results.
> 
> the following year we enclosed the entire turn out, built three a frames, and ran wire completely covering it.
> 
> Things were looking good, we had chickens sitting on eggs in nesting boxes, the ducks were mating.
> 
> Then suddenly within a week they were all gone.
> 
> We inspected the entire perimeter, and found no tracks. there are no holes in the fencing.
> 
> We have Coyote and Fox, hawks, ***** in the area.
> 
> Any ideas? I will try to post up some pictures of the coop tonight.


I'll bet you have racoons. They are sneaky little buggers and very smart. I built a chicken house that nothing can get into. Raccons are nocturnal and do their deeds at night. Sorry to hear about the loss of your flock, that's horrible.


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## *Andi

Sorry for the loss ... man that sucks

Do you know if you have mink/weasels in your area... they can trash a hen house in no time.:gaah: and will come back ... time and time again.:club: They can get into places you wouldn't think.

Does your father lock/latch the chickens up at night in the coop or is it more of an open run? 

Is there a trail of feathers leading away from the coop? A fox will try and take as may chickens with them as they can. 

Does your dad live in any area where he can put out traps or even the hav-a-heart live trap?


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## NaeKid

Is there a "roof" on the chicken-coop? Could it be birds-of-prey taking the chickens? If there is a roof, you may wish to lay-out chicken-fencing on the ground and tie it together with the walls.

Check (and double-check) every seam to make sure that nothing larger than mouse would be able to wiggle-through. If you can get your hand through any point in a seam (between corners, roof-line, etc) a predator will try to get through there as well.


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## beericus

yeah there is a chicken wire roof, 

so, your suggesting covering the ground from end to end in chicken wire? hmmmm


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## ttruscott

A **** will kill everybird it can and leave them there. So will mink and dogs. Actually leaving the area with the dead bird smells like a raptor or a human or a fox to me.


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## beericus

what we find is, wings, feet and feathers.


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## NaeKid

beericus said:


> yeah there is a chicken wire roof,
> 
> so, your suggesting covering the ground from end to end in chicken wire? hmmmm


Basically - yes.

Without seeing pictures of the setup and how it is all done, that would be my next course of action.

The other thing that I am thinking of isn't as cost-effective. Dig a trench 2' deep, build concrete-forms. Lay out rebar across the entire floor in 6" centers cross-hatch style and run up and into the forms. Pour concrete into the forms leaving the center rebar just as it is. Remove forms, fill the inside with sand / mulch / etc. Build-up the walls using basic framing techniques and then string the chicken-wire from the ground to the top (remember - you still have a trench around the outside).

Back-fill the trench around the chicken-wire and pack it in hard. Make a roof (chicken-wire or shingles - your choice) and call 'er done.

The rebar "floor" will not let in any large predators from under. The dirt-packed bottom-edge of the chicken-wire will not let predators dig through. The roof will not let climbers in, or flyers in. Full protection on 4 sides.


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## beericus

WOW.........

Good advice, i will get the pictures up, just dont have them on my phone at the moment.


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## NaeKid

I do realize that it _might_ be overkill on the protection-factor and that there are other ways of building that might be just as protective of the birds. After seeing someone else's design like this, I thought that it was just awesome. It allows for drainage of water, allows bugs that the birds like to be found in the ground, gives full protection, etc.

Now, you may want to "add-in" a laying-zone. My friend did theirs using a wooden shed set on concrete sidewalk-blocks. Predators would not be able to come up from under the shed and there was still some level of moisture drainage to limit the amount of rotting that could happen to the bottom of the shed. Inside she setup "shelves" for the birds to roost on.


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## beericus

I get what your saying. I need to get over there and get some pics so you guys can see what im talking about. 

hows the poutine up there?


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## NaeKid

beericus said:


> I get what your saying. I need to get over there and get some pics so you guys can see what im talking about.
> 
> hows the poutine up there?


I love KFC's poutine - their gravy is the BEST! But, normally I don't eat poutine, I don't need the 3000 calories per order. :sssh:


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## Riverdale

Probably a ****.

Marshmellows are the best '**** bait around, with the added bonus on not attracting skunks and cats.


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## Aemilia

I basically have a double layer of protection. My chicken coop is inside my fenced yard, where my dogs are. (I think having the dog oder around might help.)

The pen itself has chicken wire on the bottom, buried ~1 foot. Then from the ground up (about 6`) is 2x4 welded wire. I've always read with chickens do not build to keep the chickens in, build to keep the predators OUT.

BTW, chicken wire is easy to climb, when I was a kid we had a dog (~50#ish lab-x) who could climb out on the chicken wire. That could also explain the no-holes.

If you want a decent chicken forum, check out Backyard Chickens.


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## UncleJoe

Aemilia said:


> If you want a decent chicken forum, check out Backyard Chickens.


I joined BYC back in early "08" not long after we got our first chickens. There is a ton of info there but the conversations move so fast I couldn't keep up with it. Last I knew, there were about 16,000 members. I stopped visiting after about 8 months. But if you need to know ANYTHING about chickens that's the place to go.


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## Sourdough

Try killer, attack Geese. Even the grizzlies will not engage the attack geese. I have grizzlies and wolves in the yard regularly and have never lost a goose in four years. Really they are ferocious guard animals. They nailed one friend in the privates, and while he was jumping around in pain, his wife was laughing.


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## beericus

yeah were on back yard chickens too, get the magazine and all.


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## UncleJoe

Are you "beericus" there also?


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## Kriket

Sourdough said:


> Try killer, attack Geese.


ITA, we had to get rid of our pair of geese because they were picking on the horses and not letting them get to water.

Geese are mean suckers. I would get a dog before I got a goose. Since you don't have a flock, get a nice Australian Shepard and raise the dog with the birds.


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## HozayBuck

Down in my East TX homestead we just lost 14 young Turkey Chicks and about the same in young chicks in one night, they were in small brooder pens and a **** spent the night reaching thru the small wire grabbing them and killing them, got all but a couple of them... me thinks when I get back I may spend a few nights in the truck with the suppressed 10-22 .. I'd use a live trap but my luck would be a skunk in it...

All the other feathered critters roost in the trees right over the Great Pere's spot, poor Sugar bear sleeps with 13 ducks gathered around, course on those colder nights in winter she has a down blanket... guess it's a trade off once in a while an Owl will nail one of the bunch but that's the cost of having free range birds...

Free range, the only way to go if you can do it... we always have more eggs then we can use and there is no feed up keep for the birds.. and there is no better egg then free range!!!...


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## beericus

Sorry for the delay folks, been busy with some crud.

Here are the pictures, not to good, taken on my cell phone.


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## bunkerbob

Wow!! I've seen some prisons with less containment than that. Nice trees, unfortunately we have not been here long enough to have full size trees yet.


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## sailaway

I am running into more and more people who are raising chickens for eggs and food these days. Some of them live in town where there are ordinances, but so far no one has complained.


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## dawnwinds58

*chicken theif!*

The best defense against fox , ****, and skunk is a solid chicken house, elevated OFF the ground with rat wire under the floor boards and locking your chickens up with supper every single night without fail. Make it a house you'd feel safe sleeping in.

Chickens and Chinese weeder geese, them mean watch dogs who hate everybody, stay together. They were bought and raised together. Even rats will kill a young pullet if hungry enough, and they see an easy meal. Predators can't kill them if they can't get to them.

Never, never, never leave them sleeping in a yard with an open door to the creative killer.


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## beericus

I think this is where we went wrong, twice. 

We raised the chickens from hatchlings in a barn, a horse stall actually. When they were big enough to come outside, they had no interest in their coop, since they never slept in their. 

So we built the containing fence around instead.


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## Aemilia

I just shut my chickens inside the coop for a few days (make sure its not to hot) and they figured out where home was. The chickens are the easiest critter here to put to bed (including the 2-legged ones)!


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## Clarice

The worst damage to our chickens was done by 3 dogs (they won't be a problem again) they killed 9 before we could get to them. The sad thing is they weren't hungry, they did not eat even one, they were just enjoying the kill. When we first moved to our place we had a fox problem, but thanks to traps, a .22 and watchful neighbors we were able to keep any chickens from getting killed. Now we have an owl keeping an eye on our pullets. Seems like there is always something to be on the lookout for.


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## beericus

well chickens have all be killed off by predators, and the coop has been killed off by the snow. I will post pictures of "Coop Carnage" soon. 

Let us be a lesson, one act of mother nature can everything. I am still new to this lifestyle but i have learned, preparedness should be like an onion, layers and layers and layers, in the event something like this happens.


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## beericus

Here are the pics:


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## rockpilefarmer

Oh no! So sorry. Looks like you have invested a lot of time and $$ in your project.


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## MrSfstk8d

Well, looks like you can save most of the chicken netting. Maybe some of the truss' as well. Were those in 24" pour? Might want to put in heftier footing next time.


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## Centraltn

Put hardware cloth over around and under the chicken yard, Nothing can get through that but small snakes and the chickens would eat anything that small. Maybe try an electric fence wire about 4 inches above the ground to deter any critters from trying.. and put a padlock on the doorway or any other openning that a critter (like a smart lil ****) can open. Yes hardware cloth is a tad expensive but how expensive is replacing chickens every yr?


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## HELIXX

Very sad. It looks like a hurricane hit the place.


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## goodoleboy64

I had the same problem with the racoons and possoms. I put my game camera on the chicken house, caught em in the act. I built an oversized rabbit gum out of a 55 gal barrel. Ended up getting 6 racoons and two possoms.


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## philjam

goodoleboy64 said:


> I had the same problem with the racoons and possoms. I put my game camera on the chicken house, caught em in the act. I built an oversized rabbit gum out of a 55 gal barrel. Ended up getting 6 racoons and two possoms.


Game cam is a good resource. First you need to know who exactly the enemies are. Then you can work up a war plan with traps, guns, snares repellents, exclusion.


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## beericus

were debating our next move. Were thinking a basketball court lol....


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## Centraltn

LOL! That is funny!!!


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