How to protect your chickens from predators | Animals | Forums

Yes it does suck. About 5 or 6 years ago we had 40 one year old barred rocks we raised from peepers. A family of mink had nested by the small creek by our house. I went to feed one morning and ALL of the rocks were dead. Heads half tore off and left there.

I set some traps and caught a male. I wheeled and dealed a buddy of mine and got 35 mixed breeds that were of a layin age....that cost me. A week later all of them were dead. I lost 75 chickens in about a month.

We bought some rabbit cage wire and laid over the park floor and wired it to the wire on the walls of the park and put 6 inches of new dirt throughout the park. We used a roll of flashing and covered all of the cracks in the chicken house. It's been good ever since.

Not long after we fortified everything our tom cat was acting a little crazier than usual and flew underneath a pile of pallets we had behing the chickenhouse and we heard the loudest fight coming from under the pallets. A couple of minutes later ol tom came out with a mink in it's mouth, walked over to me and dropped it right at my feet and walked away. That had to be the baddest cat we ever had. Minks are hellcats when confronted.