Over the past couple of weeks I have lost several chickens to predators. Several of them have gone missing, with just a few feathers in the chicken yard. From the trail of feathers, something drug the chicken from the chicken house.
It is not a chicken hawk, because there is no body. Chicken hawks do not eat the bones.
A trail camera in the chicken yard showed a couple of raccoons and an opossum.
Opossums will not drag a chicken off. It will eat the chicken in the chicken house.
If this is a raccoon, it is the first time I have heard of a raccoon taking a chicken from the house. Usually, they eat the eggs and leave the chickens alone.
A trap was set out and a raccoon was caught on the first night. Nothing was caught the second night. The raccoon I caught is much smaller than the one on the trail camera.
My wife and I ordered 20 chicks to replace the chickens that were killed.
The door tot he chicken house does not have a door, and that is my fault. I figured there would be some losses to predators, but not so many in such a short period of time.
The new chicks are:
- Jersey giant – Jersey Giants are a large breed of chicken that weighs a couple of pounds more the typical heritage breed.
- Buff Orpington – Good heritage breed that will go broody from time to time.
- New Hampshire Reds – My first time owning this breed.
- Australorp – Good heritage breed.
The plan is to keep the trail camera in the chicken yard and probably add a second one.
Have two box traps and two dog proof raccoon traps.
Add a door to the chicken house.
This losing chickens has to stop one way or another.