[upert]

Today something killed four of my five remaining chickens. There was no new holes dug under the  wire (it's a pretty well defended run) yet there was a hole in the roof scaffold netting, though that could've been the storm the other day.

One chicken is fine, yet lonely, it's going to move in with some others tomorrow.

One chicken was partially ate. The other didn't have a mark on them.

We do have weasels as we see them, they seem very curious about us too and we stare at each other, at quite close distances. I've not seen a stoat here.

I'm surprised this has happened as my run has been improved over the years and was always difficult to  defeat. Now, I'm thinking if a weasel can squeeze through a quarter inch gap I'd have to get some very small, very sturdy and expensive weldmesh... and I don't think that may happen.

It is possible the chickens ate something and died, and a rat ate a dead one. I find it all odd.

[New shoot]

Weasels will hunt rabbits, so they might well take a hen.  It would be no problem for one to climb up to the roof netting and shred a hole through it or just take advantage of storm damage. They kill with bites to the neck or skull, but it would be tiny needle sharp teeth that might not leave too much visible damage unless you plucked the feathers off the dead bird.

If you do decide to get more birds, I would check all the run sides for gaps between the chicken wire and consider making a more solid roof run.

[snowdrops]

Oh that’s a shame upset, very upsetting I’m sure. To be honest weld mesh & of a good gauge is the only way to go to be safe, my pen has it on the roof as well with onduline on there too. Scaffold netting wouldn’t keep out a determined fox or very much else, sadly. We sunk slabs in on edge around all sides of the pen & then the frames with the mesh are on top, around the outside then there are slabs laid flat to deter foxes digging in. But the chickens have excavated from the inside & the upright slabs were on the lean and had to be re sited