Back to square one

I came home from work Wednesday night, and was greeted with the news that dogs,(we think) broke into my coop and killed most of my hens. I had 6 out of 17 left.  My adult kids dealt with the clean up.  One of the 6 was dead by morning, and 2 more by the end of the day.  I really thought 2 more weren't going to make it, but  they  did. They are starting to move around and act a little more "normal"   I'm so glad at least 3 made it. I was worried I would end up with 1, and that would make for a very unhappy hen.
I planned to get chicks this year since my youngest hens are 2, but most were 4, and the saddest for me were the 3,  6 year olds. I was quite attached to them.  I feel bad because I have been joking about running an old hen home.  I just can't bare to cull them.
As soon as the weather gets warmer, I will get chicks.

My coop is a metal pipe frame with chicken wire attached.  I rewired last year. My husband said the way it looks the dogs broke the wire, it hadn't come loose.  This is the same area were rats get in. I'm thinking about buying rebar, and cutting it maybe 18", and pounding it into the ground all along the pipes, leaving it stick out of the ground a few inches. It won't stop anything truly determined to get in, but maybe make it harder. I don't know, I can't afford much, but want to do something.

just about anything can get through regular chicken wire if they want to. i try to use 2x4” welded wire fencing for at least the bottom 3 or 4 feet of chicken yard fence - with canids (dogs/coyotes/foxes) mostly in mind

sorry for your loss. i hate that feeling.

Hi Jen,
I am sorry to hear you had to go through that. I had a similar experience, except I was the kid who had to clean up the mess after all 12 were killed.

I think the best option is electric fencing. Unfortunately that is not cheap. As greg mentioned, chicken wire isn't the strongest thing in the world. Maybe doubling up or making it longer than it needs to be so that 18" or so could lay on the ground towards the outside, making an L shape. This would discourage digging, but not prevent it. Do you have a source of pallets anywhere? Around here they are free or at least cheap. Maybe make the bottom half solid with pallet boards?

On my land, rabbits and raccoon can easily go through chicken wire. We are steadily replacing all of it with "hardware cloth" with 1/2" square holes. This can keep rats out, so long as you can prevent the rats from digging under. I lay some of it flat on the ground on the outside, and put flat stones on top of it, then go up at least 3 ft. Rats tend to weaken your defences and I think they attract other predators (dogs and coons will attack rats).

In a perfect world, I do it to the whole coop, but my world isn't perfect and the material Greg suggested is good for going higher if you don't have to worry about mink and their relatives. In the wild, birds can fly away and ladder up branches in trees to avoid predators. If they're trapped in a box, I feel I have to make that box secure from as many risks as possible.

It is tough loosing birds, particularly when you loose so many at once. It would be good to consider how they might have gotten on your property and if there are ways to discourage that also.

Jen, I'm so sorry... Mine is done in 1"x2" wire, floor to ceiling, with chicken wire all around the bottom 2ft, and wired to that chicken wire, laid flat on the ground, up against the whole thing, all the way around, is more chicken wire, with gravel and larger rocks... In other words, it's like a fortress. I've still had critters (opossums, snakes, dogs) get in, due to human error. We also free range as much as possible, and that was how we lost more than half our flock (6 of 11), one time in or first year with them, to dogs, when we let them out and headed to town, for a couple hours.

Thanks everyone for your support.  It's very upsetting.   Several years ago I lost my entire flock to a pack of dogs.  That's when I stopped letting them out of the chicken yard unless I'm out too.  With the exception of a couple raccoon break-ins they have been safe and living longer than ever before.
I can't afford hardwire cloth, I wish I could.  I have to think about the pallets.  It gets so hot in the summer I worry about closing in the coop. I might be able to figure out a compromise.  My husband suggested electric fence. I just don't think I can afford it.  
There's a lot of factors in deciding what to do. I wish I had a trail cam.  My family and I are keeping an eye out of the dogs we think are the culprit.  We will see if they come back.  I'm going to do something, just not sure what yet.
The 3 hens I have left are definitely traumatized.  They used to be very friendly, and bug me while I was in their yard. Now they don't want anything to do with me.  It doesn't seem like they are eating much. They aren't really interested in even their favorite treats.  I hope with time and care, they will get better.  
Thanks

I am so sorry about your loss and hopefully the three hens will recover soon. I had neighbor's dog killing my chickens before but that always happened in the day time. The traumatized survivors had serious gleet or pasty butts for a long time afterwards.

Oh, my heart.
I'm so sorry for your loss. That's awful. I think the cleanup afterward is almost worse than the attack because you want to help the survivors and it's a problem.

Electric fence is a decent option - especially if you have budget constraints (and who doesn't?). You buy the charger, the wire itself is pretty cheap unless you opt for an "all included" package like the easy-set fencing options.

I use rabbit fence - with the smaller gauge at the bottom to prevent tiny kits from sneaking through. It's galvanized and sturdy, like the hardware cloth, and much sturdier than chicken wire, but not as expensive as hardware cloth. This is useful for most of my outside runs. Chicks and half-grown teenage chickens can work themselves out of the fence, but it keeps the adults inside and keeps things out.

I also had sections of the yard (like what I'm currently using as a chicken yard) fenced with chain link some years ago. I count it as hardscaping and amortize it into my chicken expenses. That's really only useful if you have a chunk of cash (we fenced the first piece as part of closing on the property and the second piece after an unexpected windfall).

If you're trying to keep dogs out of your chicken yard, they're larger than chickens, so you should be able to use the pallets to build something (even fasten the whole pallets together to form a wooden fence/barricade that blocks the dogs from the chicken yard). Really, you're trying to provide shelter and space for the chickens.

I lost my entire flock over two attacks in two weeks a few years back. I had one survivor that would show up every day for food and company, then go do her own thing again. It was the highlight of my day, after the massacre, to see her on the back porch. She disappeared a few days before my new chicks arrived in the mail. Great hen, but Bad Time.
My heart goes out to you.

I hope you find a solution that works for you.

I'm sorry!! It's always terrible when that happens. I haven't lost large numbers of chickens to predators, but I have had an owl, fox, and racoon come in on occasion. And yes, they always manage to find your best/close to the heart hens. I definitely know how it is with those old hens. I have a number of old hens from my initial crosses, and an old rooster (somewhere around 8 now, I think), that get to stay here till they die of old age.
As far as protection goes, either change the fencing, or look into a guardian dog or goose. Electric netting would probably work pretty well to keep predators out... my issue has always been keeping the chickens in. Granted, if you have larger and less flighty breeds, then it would probably work for you. Premier 1 has lots of different options, and Allibaba has quite a few as well. Ours are from Premier one ($120+), but Alibaba's are less expensive ($100+/-). I obviously can't speak for the quality of Alibabas fences, but you can always try them.
You could also think about running poly-wire around the perimeter of your current coop. I don't know if it would keep the dogs out indefinitely, but it might at least slow them down. The more lines you run, the more effective the protection. If your current coop keeps the chickens in, then you could just run 3 or 4 polywire lines at break-in level on the outside of the run. One more suggestion would be to make safe places in the coop itself that a dogs couldn't get to. I free range my poultry, which means they don't have protection beyond the LGDs and geese, but the chicken and duck houses have a cattle panel gate inside the normal door so that only they can get in. I did it mostly so that the dogs and geese wouldn't eat the eggs (yes, my geese are terrible about eating eggs), but it should also work for keeping larger predators out. The coop is their safe place, and they tend to run there when they feel threatened.
If you live in the city, LGDs wouldn't be an option (as well as being crazy expensive), but they are incredibly effective. Geese are also an option, although I don't know how well they'd handle a rogue dog. My geese are top of the pecking order, even bossing the guard dogs around.
You could also think about looking into different breeds of chickens that are more flighty and better at avoiding predators. If you look at hatcheries, they tend to say whether or not the breed is known for being predator savvy.
Whatever you do, make sure that you change something before buying chicks.

This is on a totally different topic, but do you have any un-refridgerated eggs left from your 6 year old hens? If I were you, I'd try to incubate those. Longevity in laying hens is pretty hard to come by (something I'm selecting for in my flock, along with other things).

I learned a long time ago to use 1" *  1/2" wire so that the racoons (or anything else) can stick their little grubby paws through the wire where any type of poultry is concerned.

Chicken wire is for keeping chickens out of things, but it is definitely not made for "keeping" chickens!

My 3 survivers are doing much better.  They are eating more normal now, begging for treats, and eating the greens we bring them. I got the first egg since the attack yesterday.  It took a while, but they seem to be happy with their little flock.
So far the dogs have not been back.  I still haven't decided what to do to better secure the coop.  

Those look like happy chickens to me! Glad that they've settled back closer to normal. The Egg laying is a really good sign.

Are you the right ecosystem to plant cacti as a living fence? The new thread about eating nopales has me thinking in that direction!

J that's an interesting idea. I do have a prickly pear. I have heard they are pretty easy to propagate.  The area the dogs got in is very shady, so I will have to do a little research. Awesome idea, thanks.