Yesterday was cold and icy on top of the small amount of snow that sat around all day. However the cold weather did not deter the daffodils. Bless their beautiful nodding heads. Bowed down under the ice but still smiling like crazy. They are universally joyful.
I drained the yoghurt to make Labneh. Daisy and I are still struggling with her mastitis. This may take a while. So once a day I milk her good quarters separately for the house so we have clean milk and cream.
Yesterday I found two more dead partially eaten chickens so I repaired the holes in the chook house. Put a radio on for the night. Left Ton out to roam and put Boo in the barn to ensure the piglets are protected too. He is on a long chain right next to Tima’s pen with the big dog over by the Plonkers. I have no idea what this predator is yet but after reading yesterdays comments it seems we are thinking raccoon. I am looking for a trap.
I will find a trap tomorrow and bait it with marshmallows (thank you sundog) and see if we can relocate him. I am not sure how much of the commercial radio all night long the chickens can take! But I do know that wild animals do not like the sound of the human voice. Not until they are used to it anyway. So it might buy us a few days while it looks for a new way in.
I hope you all have a lovely day.
Love your friend on the farmy,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
62 responses to “Battening down the Hatches”
Sorry to hear of the chickens demise and Daisy’s mastitis. It is possible that the skunk you have had around before is the culprit in the chicken killings. They don’t seem to kill them as often as raccoons (skunks are more of an egg stealer). But the long winter may have made it difficult to forage and the chickens were too tempting. Either raccoons or skunks can get through a very small opening. If your door doesn’t shut tightly they can pull the bottom or top open enough to get in and push their way back out. A loose board on the coop could be popped open enough to get in too or a window that doesn’t fit tight. When relocating I can tell you from someone else’s personal experience that raccoons moved 7 miles do not return. She marked them before releasing. Hopefully you can catch the culprit and remove it before it has little ones. It is also possible that it could be a possum or weasel. Whatever it is it seems likely it just one varmit at this time. It is killing multiples to make sure it has future meals. Foxes often kill multiples but like to take the bodies away and bury them for later. I can remember as a kid finding fox caches on the other farm Dad worked, gross but fascinating at the same time.
There are all those problems in this old building, we have had chooks in there for six years now, but i guess we are discovered. c
I saw a documentary about raccoons last year. They can get into any place they can squeeze their head into. You can make a trap from two 5 gallon buckets with a kit sold at http://www.thesnareshop.com . Our vet lends out his trap and it is made this way. We have caught raccoons and skunks with it. Works slick. Raccoons should not be rehomed. Most starve to death. Our neighbors a few miles down the road had a weasel kill all their chooks in one night. Good luck, Celi
Probably the long snowy winter has push a critter into new territory looking for tood. If someone within a mile or two has torn down any old buildings or pushed out a brush/tree area that could have critters on the move too. We got infested with rats one year when a farm to the west of us tore down an old corn crib. To be honest I wouldn’t rehome it if I caught the culprit, It is just giving the problem to someone else as once they get a taste for chickens they seem to keep killing til the chickens are all gone. Before we had to move into town we had chickens and what I assume was a raccoon got into the chicken house through a small air vent at the top of the wall near the roof. Killed 5 the first night and managed to pry off the cover and get 5 more the next night. That left 4 who I then kicked out of the coop in hopes that if they went elsewhere to roost they might survive. I think coyotes got 3 as they totally disappeared over the course of a few days but 1 survived. That was Myrtle who made a quality of life decision to become a cat. She hung out with the barn cats and seem to roost in different places each night. She soon figured out that “Here Kitty Kitty” meant meal time. So any time you wanted to amaze people with your chicken that came when called you’d just have to belt out the “Here Kitty Kitty” and Myrtle would come running.
I would lean towards raccoon as well. Fox tend to get frantic amoungst chickens and kill and wound making a hell of a mess. Raccoons are more laid back. When you climb up to the rafters look for piles of scat, raccoons will sleep nearby and usually have a specific location for their dumps.
I will climb up and look, there was a hole in the ceiling and I fixed it years ago. but you know what kind of builder I am!. Hope the damn thing is not having a sleep up there.. What i need to do is relocate the flock to their mobile summer house, but it is not finished. c
Sorry about the chickens. When we read about it yesterday, first thought was coyote. I would have thought the other animals would have raised a ruckus. Hope you catch the “killer” & soon. We had snow on the ground here in CT. this am. I guess Spring doesn’t want to arrive. Watched a ballgame from Chicago last nite & all the players looked they should have been playing football instead. Brrrrrr!
how awful! and bold because they must know the dogs are nearby. i agree with the others. when you finally catch something, you need to take them far far away. once they find a buffet, they will be back!
So sorry for the loss of your chickens. It does sound like a fox more than a raccoon to me. I wouldn’t think you’d have bobcats much in such a flat area, but I’m no expert. Here’s hoping you can scare away or trap whatever it is.
Gosh, you certainly have your hands full. I hope you manage to catch your breath in the evening.
I’d rather hoped the winter weather with the snow and wind were behind us but alas not yet! At leastt I didn’t have to put on the snow pants. Years ago I had an issue with raccoons and skunks trying to move in and I ended up putting wolf urine around to scare off predators. They said it was wolf urine but it did work. I didn’t have any animals so I’m not sure how your animals would react to that type of urine hanging about.
Nature can be so cruel and frustrating at times. I hope you find the culprits soon. Hugs for Northern Ireland.
I hadn’t realised that raccoons are omnivorous – poor chicken. I’ve heard of people domesticating them, as they are very clever, but I imagine that has to be done when they are very young. I’ve also read that they taste good, but I have a feeling they are not your kind of dinner. Good luck with solving the problem in a humane manner. Wolf urine sounds good, though where the hell do you buy that… 😉
http://www.thesnareshop.com has all kinds of urine for trapping and repelling all sorts of vermin and predators.
A fellow blogger who lives near rainforest in south east Queensland has had bandicoots getting in to her chickens…..she put some solar garden lights around her perimeter as well as close to the chook pen, as the light deters them…don’t know anything about racoons, but maybe this will help too until you get your traps set up. Of course, there might not be anywhere close you can buy solar garden light….well, just a thought. I hope all the dogs out in force have given the little blighter pause.
What I know of foxes is if they get into a chook yard they will kill as many as possible not just one or two. One year in the little village where our house is the resident foxes systematically wiped out each household’s chooks. I know the predator needs to eat but they don’t pay rent or earn their keep, so unless you’re sure that that the problem isn’t just being moved, and it’s not illegal to do so, you may want to consider other humane permanent solutions. Even moving and securing the chooks, the predators will still be around scavenging any food source.
Sorry to be so mundane, but clearly: “If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” no? Good luck with the critter.
Thank heavens for daffodils, nodding their beautiful heads and affirming that spring really does want to visit you. Good luck with the predator.
Certain critters leave certain signs to tell you what they are. We had bobcats and they would take one or two a night, and eat only organs. Foxes kill many. I believe racoons go for heads, just google around, somewhere there is a site that gives the clues for each chicken eating predator. If I find it I will put the link up here. It does matter, each one needs different methods to deal with it.
Found it! http://www.freewebs.com/professorchickenspredators/