Over the past week we lost three baby chicks. We couldn’t figure out of something was getting them or or if they were getting too hot from this heat wave. I bought a new 3.5 gallon waterer for the outside birds to make sure they didn’t get dehydrated. The ducks loved it, but the chickens weren’t too interested. Mama hen was definitely irritated with the situation though.
Then last night something got the mama hen and dragged her under the battery house. We think it was probably a racoon or an opossum. We are devastated. She was our best hen. We were already had plans to add the larger eggs to her next nest but alas, that will not happen.
We were able to catch her last three chicks and bring them inside to make sure nothing gets them. We are also planning out how to prevent this in the future. One thing we need to do is close off the underside of the battery house to keep anything from being able to go underneath it anymore.
