Mass Murder...

[Adron]

Something got into the little chick house last night and killed all 25 week old production red chicks. Dug under the fence and found a small opening in the chicken wire windows that (s)he enlarged.

Ate some, killed them all. Most by biting the head. Bodies and traps will be laid out for the next few nights.

What do you think? Coon, mink, other?

[lynxpilot]

FWIW, I've often heard that skunks tend to remove/bite heads and waste a lot without eating it. I've been incredibly lucky thus far and have had no predator problems other than black snakes which eat the eggs. They also eat rodents, so I don't kill them. I just grab them and throw them out into the wooded area. Our coop is predator-proof while the chickens are roosting at night. During the day, they are fair game. It's right next to our house and we have a dog and cat, so I suspect a lot of the predators just don't come around.

[Adron]

I thought the small chicken house was pretty predator proof too.
Whatever it was dug under the 2" x 4" welded wire fence and actually bent the bottom wire. The "chicken wire" over the window was stapled, but some of the staples must have worked loose over the last 3 years since I built it but 3 or 4 were pulled loose. Seems pretty determined so I figured a coon.

[GregMVT]

I would think that it was a coon too. We just moved our chicks out to the coop friday. For the run I put up 6 foot chicken wire but buried a foot of it in a L shape so when they start digging they'll just run into the buried fence. I also put 1/4" mesh over the window and used fencing staples to attach it. Sorry to hear about the loss of your birds.

Greg

[BlueRidge]

<font color="blue"> I thought the small chicken house was pretty predator proof too.
Whatever it was dug under the 2" x 4" welded wire fence and actually bent the bottom wire. </font color>

Unless you have some kind of reinforcement of that bottom edge, it's a huge weak spot. You need something there - at least some 9 guage fencing wire stretched tightly.

I think there's a better way, though. I just built a rabbitry for my daughter's show rabbits, and I made a "skirt" of welded wire that goes out about 18" from the bottom. It's wired into the fence, so it's a continuous barrier. They can't dig THROUGH it, and they don't think to back up and dig back away from the vertical fence, which is the perceived barrier. They try to dig as close as they can get to the prey, right up against the fence. But the skirt stops them.

At least, that's my theory. It has worked will so far with my dog's yard, in reverse. Keeping her in. She's made a few attempts at digging out, and now she doesn't even try any more.

We tested the rabbitry by hanging a raw chicken breast out of the reach of rats but well within the reach of foxes, coons, whatever. Left it a few nights. We had evidence of attempts at digging, right where I expected it, but the chicken was not touched.

So far so good!

[Pat]

Here is the REAL DEAL... Various animals are willing to spend considerable time and energy digging or otherwise striving to get into THE MOTHER LODE of meals. You can put in armor plate down to the grond or a ways under it and they will still dig in. Just having impenatrable fencing in good repair won't git 'er done!

The animals seem clever but most aren't as bright as an octopus.

You need to have good fencing down to the ground and then have the fencing turn horizontal for a few feet and lay on the surface. As industrious and bright as they may seem, I've never heard of one smart enough to back off 4 feet from the vertical portion of the fence and dig under the horizontal portion.

They still try to dig in but they start too close to the vertical fencing (the barrier they recognize as baring them from Nirvana) and can dig till they wear out their claws and their feet are bloody nubs but if the horizontal lay-on-the-ground part of the fence is strong they are flat out of luck.

This is a well proven system but for some reason most folks don't adopt it. I guess it isn't a good fit for most preconceived notions. It even works with the move around coops that distribute the scratching and fertilization. YOu raise the coop a bit, move it, and then lower it back down.


[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat

[Adron]

I had never heard of or thought about the horizontal barrier until this thread. It will be implemented soon. Meantime I continue to try to get the murderer... so far (s)he hasn't returned.

[Pat]

Just like lots of prey animals never look up into trees, making tree blinds so effective for hunters, predators are pretty much wired into pursuit mode by their instincts when trying to "engage" a warm meal. It isn't like they sit back and analyze their failure, proposing variations and applying the scientific method. They aren't as smart as Steven Spielberg's velociraptors.

If super motivated they may dig at the horizontal fence till they bloody there paws but not back up 2-3 feet and get under it. The outer (approach) end of the fencing/barier does need to hug the ground and not have wrinkles that invite them to try to squirm in.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[BlueRidge]

<font color="blue"> You need to have good fencing down to the ground and then have the fencing turn horizontal for a few feet and lay on the surface. As industrious and bright as they may seem, I've never heard of one smart enough to back off 4 feet from the vertical portion of the fence and dig under the horizontal portion. </font color>

That's what I did, except that I only went about 18". We'll see if it's enough...

[Adron]

I left 4 of the bodies out for 3 nights (days in the cooler) along with 2 camoflaged traps, but no takers. May never know for sure what it was.

New chicks arrived yesterday afternoon. Spent several hrs. predator proofing the brooder house. Since they will not be completely outside for a few weeks, I'll have time to fix the fence.

Thanks to all!!