Australorpfamily
Songster
Security lights? Motion sensored? Maybe with a noice alert? Although even with our porch lights there are times we see coons on our porch lol one night our kids happen to wake each other up and sit and take pictures of the racoon family on the porch at 2am, so noice may and may not work lol although the kids were awfully quiet lolWe had a massacre on Monday night. Something killed 3 of my chickens. It was awful! We live in a horse community in southern California. 23 years of keeping chickens and I have never had to lock up my chickens at night. We immediately put up a camera and figured a way to lock everyone up. Last night I finally saw the culprits. Raccoons! I've never seen one here, others have, but I guess I've been lucky. I saw two in my videos.
Should I trap and release? I read they can travel 10 miles in a night and come back. Should I leave them and just continue to lock the girls up (I will continue to lock them up anyway in case more show up).
What would you do?
Secured coop and locking them up-chickens that is.
We have seen coons, fox, bobcat/lynx(yes they are different and yes to both in our area), coyote(even on our porch, same with the fox). We try to make our presence known, and as of one year of having a Fort Knox style predator proof run and coop, knock on wood, haven't had any incidents. And the local cats and dogs just pass by without a care of the chicks
I hope you are able to figure something out. Paneling with hardware cloth is a good fence and top. Good luck