The day before yesterday I noticed that the young chickens in the big tractor seemed to be fewer in number. I counted them and sure enough, I was missing three. 2 wyandottes and one buff orpington. No signs of struggle or anything. Just gone. Baffled, I laid some things around the edge of the tractor and I went about my day.
The next morning another wyandotte and another orpington was gone. This time I spotted a place under the edge of the tractor where there were an abnormal amount of feathers. Not an excessive amount. If I hadn't been looking for it, I wouldn't have really noticed it. But there was a small gap under the edge of the tractor where the ground was uneven. And the piece of wood I'd put there was moved. It was only a gap of 3, maybe 4 inches. But I guess it was enough.
I'm guessing possum. Raccoons are generally bigger so the only raccoon that could fit that space would be too little to take one of these chickens. Let alone two. Not a weasel because a weasel would have killed the whole bunch. So probably one or more possums, considering I'd lost the two in one night.
So yesterday I took some spare chicken wire and put it all around the bottom of the tractor like a skirt. I attached it to the bottom of the tractor and let about a foot of it lay on the ground out the tractor. This prevents predators from going under the edge of the tractor. A predator would normally go directly to the edge of the tractor and dig under. Or this case, just crawl under since there was already a gap. But with the chicken wire in the way, they can't crawl or dig under and they don't realize to go a foot or so out to go under the wire.
Last night we brought in two hens while we waited to see if my tractor skirt solution worked. Turtle, the wyandotte that my daughter nursed back to health when she was a chick and had a vitamin E deficiency. We also brought in an orpington hen that seems to prefer humans over her fellow chickens. She's super chill and loves to be held and petted. I've never met a chicken so affectionate. Because of her temperament and her buff color, my daughter named her Honey. Very fitting I thought.
So, did I lose anymore chickens this morning? Nope. But I'm not going to call it solved just yet. This predator might have found a meal somewhere else last night. So I'm going to give it a week and see if this fixes the problem. Turtle and Honey will be brought inside at night since they have sentimental value. But I feel pretty confident that this will work.
Something else I added was a light for the tractor. This kept the chickens more alert and somewhat active. Without a light they would all pile up in a corner and were probably easy pickings. I'd had a light for them before but it was a 45w incandescent bulb that I think drew more than 45 watts since it drained my solar battery more than it should have. Instead, I put in a 13w compact fluorescent bulb. A barely noticeable drain on the battery, so yay. I'm thinking the light might have been a deterrent also.
Ironically, I think most of the birds that were taken, were some of the young roosters. I know I had a couple more wyandotte roosters at least and now I'm down to just one. Not sure about the orpingtons since I wasn't 100% sure on their sexes yet. But most of the ones I have left are definitely hens. So I'm not sure if that's some small mercy or just a coincidence. Either way, I'm grateful for it.
Well, it's still raining so I can't do much outside. I will be planting out some of my seedlings in the cups since they're getting their second set of true leaves now. The green beans are starting to climb the porch railing. So I'll at least be able to get something accomplished. I suppose I could get some more cleaning done indoors. It does need to be done. Sigh. Maybe this is God's way of making me clean the house?
But before I do any of that, I'm going to have breakfast, feed the livestock and we're going to go see a movie. So I will see you guys later. Take care and have a good day.
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