Glum morning

[Maddie106]

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?

So very sorry to hear about your loss Womble.

I used to think badgers were amiable beasts, who ate slugs /worms and the ocassionale frog, but I remember years ago a local farmer telling me that badgers were worse than foxes for taking new-born lambs that were born in the fields.

Your only answer is a run/coop like Fort Knox and an electric fence I think.
I had a phone call today from a friend who lost the chickens from her house to a hungry fox. They free-ranged in the field that backed onto the house, and got taken by a fox late afternoon, before they had gone back into the garden to roost.

I think we ALL need to be aware that chicken predators are probably raising young and are very hungry at this time of year.

[elizajay]

I lost a mother hen and 2 chicks to a fox that ate through the shiplap style wood of the coop. The planks were replaced with thicker ones and the coop is protected with chicken wire directly onto the wood inside and out. Last year a badger broke open a compost bin made of pallets and munched through a wasp nest leaving homeless angry wasps that stung a child lots of times the next day. We are thinking about keeping chickens at the allotment, but fox and badger proofing sounds challenging and expensive. I gave some chickens I hatched to a friend who lost them pretty quickly when a stoat chewed a hole through the wood. The fox polished off the rest of her chooks. What a dangerous world for chooks!

[tomgood99]

Sorry to hear your news Womble. Really hope you do carry on, good luck!

[OverWyreGrower]

Sorry to hear about this... didn't realise badgers were as bad as foxes either....

HFW originally had his chickens in little houses on fence posts, with a teeny ladder... at least 3 or 4 feet off the ground. You'd have to teach the hens to climb the ladders, but they'd be safe from foxes and badgers that way

I can't find a pic at the moment - although I've done a search... will continue looking

[womble]

I remember seeing HFW's high chicken house, but I have a feeling it didn't work very well, or something else went wrong.

I have been thinking about the possibility of it, but I want to be able to move mine around. Plus in all honesty, I don't want to have to get a ladder out to collect eggs or clean it out. I think it was alot higher than 4 feet btw.

I'm coming up with different ideas for the coop, but at the moment the bottom will be about 3 feet off the ground on 4 legs, 3 sides solid and one side completely removeable, with 4 dead bolts holding it on, a door in that side to get eggs, as well.
The whole bottom 2 feet of the coop will be clad in weld mesh and onduline on the roof.
I'm toying with different ideas for the roof, I was planning originally to have just an open space with the onduline on it, but further thinking, has revealed a fox may be able to claw it's way on top and rip through the tarred paper. So I may have a solid roof and the onduline on top of it.

Any other ideas?

[Nicos]

It's good that you've decided to try one more time. Otherwise you might regret having given up.
We have badgers in a set near us- but so far hey've kept away from an electric fence.
These are the peeps we got our fence from
250M Complete Badger Barrier - 3 Reel Electric Fence Kit

Might be worth just having a word with them. They don't hard sell and are a friendly family business.
The netting may be an easy additional option f its not going to make your garden look too commercial?

Good luck xx

[womble]

Slight update, I still haven't had the chance to build the new coop yet.

but I've found out that two other lots of chickens in the village were all killed in the same way, about on the same weekend!
All on the same street.

Made me even more worried now.

[Hilary B]

I would opt for an electric fence solution, it is much easier to move, as well as more efficient, for keeping predators and hens separate.
Badgers are notorious for raiding beehives, and I can believe they would go for enclosed chickens (rarely I would hope), but any 'farmer tells me badgers are as bad as foxes' story, I would take with a large pinch of salt, because some farmers simply ARE prejudiced against badgers regardless of facts, and I suspect any lambs 'taken' by a badger were as likely as not already dead (or nearly dead) when Brock found them (not necessarily always the case, but for the most part lambs are agile, and have strong bold mothers to protect them).

What evidence was left, apart from Brock in the chicken house? It seems odd for a group of badgers to suddenly start raiding a whole lot of gardens, all at once when they haven't done so before (you'd think they would go for one, and maybe find some more over the next few nights), and if it was to feed cubs, it is odd that one of them should remain behind in the emptied out house!