Is my pekin bantam male or female?

[sarab2]

HI Everyone. My first post on here. We got an eglu around 3 years ago second hand. For 2 and a half years we successfully housed 3 bantams, this summer actually hatched 2 broods aswell. We've been really pleased and think it's an excellent product. Sadly however, in september a neighbouring pest control mans "working Ferret" escaped from his garden and got into our Eglu and killed all our chooks.... We haven't replaced them yet as I fear any other vermin could also get in....... I'm wondering has anyone had a similar experience? Because the Eglu was 2nd hand and has also survived a move across country and 3 different gardens, I wondered if it has become warped somehow? We've looked at it again and again, and can't work out how the ferret got in. But it did. All the clips on the run appear to be in place. The attack took place in daylight and although I wasn't in, neighbours told me that it all happened in a matter of minutes, so the ferret certainly didn't dig it's way in or anything.

 

Any thoughts anyone? With spring here I'd really like to get some new hens but can't face the devastation again. ( tho I know it's a risk with chickens always - just would like some reassurance about the security of the Eglu!. ) thank you for your thoughts!

Edited March 28, 2010 by Guest

[tom123]

So sorry about your chooks

 

It would have gone through the run bars. I have had a stoat attack the same way.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

How awful . Did the ferret's owner compensate you in any way ? Not that it would have helped with the loss of your poor girls .

 

It was presumably a one-off that a ferret was about. Normally it's only rats and foxes that chicken keepers have to worry about and I would say that an eglu run is good protection from them (although putting slabs down under the edges and weighing down the run is no bad thing).

 

Welcome to the forum, by the way. I'm sorry your first post is such a sad one .

[sarab2]

Thank you for your responses. It was interesting to hear about the Stoat. I assumed the bars were too narrow for a ferret to get through. But I know they can be fairly slinky! The Ferrets owner offered to recompense us for 2 of the 3 chickens that were killed.... (he didn't count the 10wk old chick for some reason!).. As you say, that wasn't really the point though! To be fair, he removed all the debris so my children and I didn't get home to carnage...

It's taken a few months to get to the point where we're considering owning chickens again! We'd had our original 2 Pekin bantams for over 5 years and they were still doing really well! Now thinking about taking on 2 ex-bats......Thank you for your input and if anyone else has any ideas keep them coming! I do think we were particularly unlucky with the ferret incident as in the previous 5 years we've seen both rats and foxes in the garden but the chickens came to no harm!

[Plum]

Could it have got in the gap above the poo tray.

 

If it came through the run bars then I would consider adding some chicken wire over the bars to prevent it happening again or put the eglu in a walk in run with a small hole mesh.

 

Good luck with the exbats

[chelsea]

Sorry to hear about your girls, what an awful shock.

 

Ferrets are wriggly little creatures as you know and probably could get into any small hole or gap, it might have got into through the drainage hole in the eglu nest box as there is a small gap under the curvature of the eglu base. I don't know how you are going to over come this though as like you've already mentioned it could happen again if he doesn't keep his ferret under control.

 

Hope you can come up with a solution.

[Lewis]

We had some of the ferrets escape at the farm and they got the gosling

 

Not sure how it got in