[twizzel]

B*stard badger visited my girls tonight between 4 and 5.45pm. OH forgot to shut them in and I was up doing the horses    He left 1 light sussex dead and I think I'm missing 1 or 2 other brown hens. The worrying thing though is that he went into their house and the others are fairly traumatised, not roosting and huddled in the corner.
Can chooks die from shock? I feel so bad, I'm gutted. Only today I was talking to our chicken farmer friend about getting some more in the next few weeks... will have to get a few extra now so sad. Is there anything I can do for the others (apart from sit outside the chicken pen with a shotgun)? 

[doganjo]

Yes, shock can kill anything, human or animal.  You probably can't do anything more tonight, but tomorrow give them something sweet - honey in porridge is my standby for everything - even though some expert chicken keepers don't agree it helps at all. 

[sabrina]

When I had a fox attack I managed to get all the girls into their stable that we use as their house. Took me over an hour. I sat with them just chatting and feeding them a cake I had made. Seem to calm them and not one went off lay. OH was not pleased as there was no cake for him 

[Louise Gaunt]

My hens go quiet for a day of two after we have had buzzard attacks but they recover over a day or two, although there has never been a buzzard in their house, just in the run. I hope they are ok in the morning, not a nice thing to happen.

[twizzel]

   I feel so sorry for them, they just cowered in the corner when we went to see how many were left. I half expected to find the badger in their house. I'll give them some porridge tomorrow, we've got some golden syrup flavoured porridge so will make them a bowl of that. Poor girls. I'm sure the badger got distracted or he would have had a field day in there, I wonder if my 3 young cockerals scared him off... I was thinking of getting rid of a couple of them but might keep them now.

[Stereo]

....

[chrismahon]

We had a hunting dog attack where one got into the coop and ate one of the girls (Molly, a Cream Legbar) below the roosting Orpingtons. They were quieter for a day or so but then carried on as if nothing had happened. We have had Fox attacks with hens traumatised for three months. But we have never had a heart attack from shock after the event.

[Marches Farmer]

Watch out in future, though.  Once badgers know where to find supper they'll pay repeat visits.  Our neighbour had a really sturdy home-made chicken house but they simply ripped the side off one night and killed 23 hens.

[twizzel]

I've got a feeling he came back last night and had a couple more but not sure what time OH shut them in and not sure if the feathers I found were from the original attack and the fox/badger had more than I first thought I shut them in tonight slightly earlier and apparently one hen was seen wondering around the farm nearly an hour later, I couldn't find her when I was told 2 1/2 hours later that she had been seen out and about... so guess she's gone too  
 
There's still 1 hen in shock I think, she was fine before the attack but now very tucked up, lethargic etc so think I'll separate her off tomorrow and give her a bit of tlc in the poorly pen with another hen who is recovering from being pecked whilst moulting,
 

[fifixx]

Can you fix up a stand of electric fence around house? - about ankle height - that will stop him!