Chickenpocalypse

[Gunbuffer]

Lost 10 of 13 last night. Coons. They slid coop door up. Drug all bodies a good 100yds+ away where I stopped tracking.
Main run is 20’x30’x6’ of 2”x3” welded wire fence; 4x8x5 coop is inside. I don’t want to latch the coop itself and would actually rather keep the entrance open.
Two options: build a couple cross beams across the 30” length and run a chicken wire top, or get a solar electric wire run along the top. The latter is more appealing cause it will be easier and keep it’s nice hobby farm look.
Think it will work?

 

[slas]

We had one of those a few month ago. We called it bloody friday.....found a hole in the wire that was barely noticable. In her investigation my wife found a wiry light colored strand of hair that looked like possum, unless it was the light part of a skunk. We're still not sure.

 

[Cowcatcher]

I'd try the Hotwire first. That'd be a bunch of work covering that big of an area. My first choice would be to lock em in the coop at night. I'm guessing you haven't had any hawks nailing your chickens yet..

Reckon how many coons it took to drag 10 chickens over a 6' fence.

 

[Cowcatcher]

You could build a latch that would operate only when the pull rope(I see in your picture) is pulled. Our manual calf chute and cow chute have latches like that. You can try to lift the sliding gate all you want but it will not go up unless the rope is pulled.

 

[Shadowrider]

Option A:
Suppressed .22, subsonic ammo, NV scope.

Option B: Hotwire but throw in the NV scope so you can at least have some satisfaction when they taze themselves. Post video...

 

[Gunbuffer]

I'd try the Hotwire first. That'd be a bunch of work covering that big of an area. My first choice would be to lock em in the coop at night. I'm guessing you haven't had any hawks nailing your chickens yet..

Reckon how many coons it took to drag 10 chickens over a 6' fence.

I’ll bet it was a mom dad and 4-5 youngins. Pops probably killed em all in a couple minutes

Agree on the wire. I’m not always here am to let em out and sometimes I need to let em alone for 2-3 days at a time, which is why the coop door sucks. Been thinking about rigging a photoelectric door motor to a solar cell and battery.

 

[n423]

My sons coop has the solar cell and battery. Don't think it can be opened.It closes auto at dark. Hawks have killed most of his when he let them free range in the past.

Good luck.

 

[Zaphod Beeblebrox]

Don't be surprised if it was possums. My folks have had a couple possum massacres of the flock over the years.

I'd go full Samuel L. Jackson on their azzes.

 

[davek]

I was able to contain the chickens in half the coop and set a live trap int the other half. Baited the live trap with dry cat food and covered it with a black plastic bag. 2 days later had the coon. Mr .410 Shotgun spoke to him, briefly.
I kept horse feed in an old top opening freezer. One morning I came out and while opening a bit coon eyes as soon as it was up just a bit. Slammed the lid shut and went and got the .410. I flipped the lid open and jumped back, but nothing came out. I looked inside and saw 3 young coons laying there dead. I pulled them out and under them was another layer of 2 coons. Somehow they had opened the lid and gotten in but were unable to get out and suffocated. They didn't even spoil the feed underneath. I didn't have any coon problems for quite a while after that.

 

[SoonerP226]

I was able to contain the chickens in half the coop and set a live trap int the other half. Baited the live trap with dry cat food and covered it with a black plastic bag. 2 days later had the coon. Mr .410 Shotgun spoke to him, briefly.
I kept horse feed in an old top opening freezer. One morning I came out and while opening a bit coon eyes as soon as it was up just a bit. Slammed the lid shut and went and got the .410. I flipped the lid open and jumped back, but nothing came out. I looked inside and saw 3 young coons laying there dead. I pulled them out and under them was another layer of 2 coons. Somehow they had opened the lid and gotten in but were unable to get out and suffocated. They didn't even spoil the feed underneath. I didn't have any coon problems for quite a while after that.

I love a happy ending.