I think I have a sneak thief stealing poultry.

Wood or charcoal ashes would be dark and light enough to see prints. Sand is too loose to hold a footprint.

If I were in similar circumstances, I'd probably go with the video camera. A few weeks ago we saw a security camera package at the store and I was quite surprised at how reasonable they are in price. I've got a spare computer in the office and was thinking it would be awful nice to have a camera on our rather dark front porch.

Of course if the system and the recorder or computer need to be set up remotely, it might not do any good if the problem turns out to be a human who also takes the security camera!

baby monitor
how bout those ddriveway alarms a vehicle drives by the infared sensor and an alarm goes off inside the house to let you know someone has pulled up could use that to catch the thief

also solar electric fence zappers are good give em a shocker abut wouldnt kill em LOL
hook that up to the door with wire like another poster mentioned.

I like the electric fence idea. That way you could never be accused of setting a 'man trap' - you were fencing to keep a maurading coon out.

Do you have electric in your chicken coop? If so what about a motion detector light. It was scare the dickens out of a human thief, and if you have a video camera set up you would be able to see if the thief is human or not. Its just an idea.

We had a neighbor who was losing a few square bales of alfalfa out of his hay shed every few nights. The next time the thieves visited somehow the "wind blew the door shut" and the latch just happened to fall in place. This is a windowless steel building full of hay, gets pretty darn hot in there in August. He didn't "find" them until the next afternoon. After spending about 18 hours in there with no air movement or water they were more than ready to get out. He just let them go, never admitted that he had shut the door on them. But did tell them that he sometimes didn't check the hay shed for several days at a time. He hasn't lost any hay since.

I'd get a loud, obnoxious dog, myself. Doesn't have to be large, just very alert and quick to bark. Aussies are great for this sort of thing.

If you want to alarm your henhouse door you can get a wireless battery operated doorbell fairly cheaply & hack the electronic bits on the doorbell end so they're attached to homemade contacts. When the door's opened the contacts touch & the doorbell rings in the house. What you do from that point depends on you, but at least you'd know someone is in there.

Leva

Strange sense of pride, to proud to ask for help........but NOT to proud to steal a neighbors chickens. Too weird!!

Well obviously we wouldn't let the kids get hurt. If we were waiting for a nehrdowhel, we would make sure the kids were excluded at those time. Who wouldn't?

At times like these, you have to teach a lesson, or prosecute; and with the schedule of law enforcement these days, sometimes we have to handle things ourselves...

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Careful with the booby traps. A fellow here in town had a repair shop. His tools kept disappearing so he wired 110 volts of elect. to the tool chest. A kid broke in a couple of nights later and was electrocuted. The guy that owned the shop went to prison...


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Hmmmm, if somebody were stealing my chickens I would wait in hiding until they went INSIDE the coop. I would then get close to the door, turn on my spotlight flashlight, cock my gun and announce " I have a gun and WILL shoot, COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"

If nobody came out, a couple of shots blasted into the air might change their mind to come out.

Once outside, I would make them go back inside the coop and get facedown with their hands behind their back (right around the roosts would be a good place for this) and then proceed to call the cops with my cell phone.

I would prosecute to the full intent of the law and get my other chickens back or make the thief pay full price for those "rare breeds" you had disappear.

What's the fun in just making them stop stealing? With the gun, they would have to buy clean underpants, and once they lay down in the chicken coop with their hands behind their back for a half hour till the cops showed up would make them smell nice and good for the cop ride.

I'll bet they would never try to steal a chicken from me again! Besides, you want to set an example for anyone else thinking about raiding your hen house.

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Michael W. Smith in North-West Pennsylvania

"Everything happens for a reason."

This works until the guy in the chicken coop has a gun and shoots back. If they're inside the coop and you're outside, how do you know that they don't have a large-caliber handgun in there that they could simply shoot through the walls at you? And, if they suddenly whip around the corner, are your reflexes fast enough to tell the difference between, say, a ten year old kid making a break for it and a twenty year old meth head with a handgun -- AND decide to shoot -- and accurately hit them -- before the meth head hits you? And if you're wrong and you shoot and it's the neighbor's ten year old doing stupid kid stuff ... yeah.

(I HAVE caught the neighbor's ten year old in my chicken coop ... stealing eggs to throw at the high school girls when they got off the bus -- he said *after* allowing them to rot buried in manure for several days until thoroughly stinky and bomblike. He was also sneaking them to school as stink bombs. Like I said, stupid kid stuff.)

Or if you're dealing with a meth head insane idiot and they come at you ANYWAY despite the gun ... are you REALLY ready to shoot them ... over a few chickens? And then go to jail?

Much better to avoid confrontation in a situation like this and involve the cops. A photograph or video of the thieves is useful in involving the cops. As is a big, nasty dog. Reserve the gun play for if you're actually threatened ... say the meth head insane idiot tries breaking into your house when you're home and doesn't stop when you warn them off.

The baby monitor is a good idea! Ours is from fisher price and it works all the way down to our chicken house, which is a good piece away from the house. The package should say how far they work to. Ours picks up every little sound Midi makes and it was only 15$

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Jessica

Homestead / Nature Journal ~ A path is made by walking it ~

Why get so exotic? simply go buy a can of air horn ( ya know, theones at sports arenas), and rig it up to the door. The steaming pile of manure from whatever critter is coming in through the door should tell you what's going on... Is you chicken coop fenced in across the top as well? Perhaps an owl?

electronrider, I don't know much about chickens, but can they die of heart attacks?

Sand and Flour are good. Navy blue paint is better.Put down a pan like when you are walking into the barn and put in a mixture of dark paint. Pitch may even be good. Then you could track em aways.

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Moultrie or Cuddeback or Bushnell all make game cameras that are tripped by motion. Some can take pictures at night with Infared light...no flash. Quality of the pictures is very good. If you have a friend who hunts who will lend you a camera for a week, you'd probably find the culprit...then present him with the evidence with the sheriff. They're as much as $100 for the cheapest ones, so probably not something you'd want to sink that much money into, unless you also wanted it for security when you were away...that's why I'd suggest to borrow one.

Just coming acrossed this. Any updates?

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