Glum morning

[womble]

A badger killed my 3 hens last night, I only found out this morning and didn't hear a thing.

It made a hole in a 1cm thick solid wood wall of the coop and was still in there this morning, I opened all the doors and it ran away.

I want to get more chickens, but I don't know how the hell I'm supposed to keep a badger out again, he will know to visit now.

Any ideas?

[MaureenHall]

Oh Womble, I'm so sorry to hear about this, and I know exactly how you must be feeling to find all your girls dead I honestly don't know how to deal with badgers as predators but someone else will. big {{{{{{{{{{{{hugs}}}}}}}}}} hun

[Hans Mum]

sorry about your girls womble, i dont have an answer either x

[selfraising]

I'm really sorry to hear about your hens Womble. This might be a drastic suggestion but would barbed wire or similar keep them out???

[womble]

Barbed wire is out, the only thing I can think of is completely cover the coop in welded mesh, but if that's really possible to get every corner completely safe, I don't know.
From what I read this morning, it seems badgers will always come back for more and I have a set not that far away, so I know they will always be around.
I'm coming to the conclusion, it just might not be worth keeping chickens any more.

Thanks for your messages, it's my little girl who is really upset tbh, although I am cut up about it as well, I even miss Houdini, who used to escape every day and made life interesting running after her round the garden.

[Snadger]

Comiserations womble. I have heard that badgers are really hard to keep out of the chook run as they have such long sharp claws and teeth which can tear through almost anything.
The only solution I could come up with is an electric fence, and the coop within the fence?

[selfraising]

Don't give up Womble, there must be some solution. Have a look at this link, some people with similar experiences, there may be some solution mentioned here

About badgers Tales from the Wood – The Diary of a Badger Watching Man

[zazen999]

So sorry to hear that.

[RichmondHens]

Comiserations womble. I have heard that badgers are really hard to keep out of the chook run as they have such long sharp claws and teeth which can tear through almost anything.
The only solution I could come up with is an electric fence, and the coop within the fence?

Sorry to hear it Womble. I agree with Snadger. Possibly an electric fence is the only way to go.

[Suechooks]

There are ultrasonic repellers available against badgers. I don't know how well they work but I have one which seems to be working against rats. They are only about £20 - got mine online from Primrose company. Combined with electric fence might be the way to go.
Really really sorry to hear about your girls {{{{hugs }}}}

[womble]

I'm in two minds about this, I do have the wood needed to build a very strong and thick coop, obviously I need a new one, the old one was probably getting a little old around the edges, I suspect the badger must have found a bit of older wood, although every bit I could find was solid.

Trouble is, I don't want my chickens to be in one place all the time, I don't want an electric fence and I don't want to spend much money, I also don't want to be worried about this every night.

Although I know I can use deterrents and have been looking at various things on the net from around the house and things you can buy for this, just forgetting it for a few days will mean they can come in, not only that but they seem to get used to them anyway.

So if I build my badger proof coop (which I'm certain I can if I build it carefully), it will be so heavy, I won't be able to move it to a new bit of lawn every couple of days.

We'll think about it for a while, we are going away in a few weeks anyway, so will wait till after that.

I was planning on building a new chicken run today funnily enough, at least that's saved me one job.

[Flummery]

What a sad story. I never thought about badgers. That's another thing to worry about!

[Hinksy]

Sad news, I would hunt the badger down and kill it but then thats me and I take things slightly too far and too personal sometimes, we do not even get cats visiting us anymore If there is a badger set in the area though they will continue to visit you in hope that you have bought some more Chickens.

Are Badgers now endangered?


PS: If you do try and take the Badger on make sure you are prepared for a fight, they are vicious little barstewards!!

[Brengirl]

I was so sorry to read your post Womble. As others have said it seems your hands are tied. We had a badger burrow under the potting shed a couple of years back. We set up the video camera to watch it's comings and goings. There was at that time a local lady sympathetic to the anti badger lot and she gave us a few suggestions. Eventually Defra got involved and legally there was absolutely nothing we could do apart from tell it to go away. Which it did when we pulled the shed down.

[dogsbody]

Comiserations Womble, I had similar thoughts when I lost my first lot to a fox. Some careful planning should enable you to construct a badger proof light-weight coop I'm sure. But don't throw the electric fence idea away too quickly, they are portable, safe to children and should do the job. Alternatively the welded mesh idea might work too.

Try distracting the badger with food, they love peanuts, that might also work?