fox in the hen house? or a raccoon?

kychilds7 said:

I had 4 leghorns and 2 Khaki Campbell ducks. We usually put them in the chicken coop at night until the chickens decided they wanted to roost up in the pine trees beside our house instead. About a month ago now, I got home on a Sunday night and just completely forgot to lock my ducks up, (female and male, the female would follow the male everywhere and he never wanted to go in the coop) the next morning the male was gone and the female was going absolutely nuts! I was thinking best case scenario the whole time, maybe he just ran away or something.. until that wednesday I walked outside to let my female duck out of her coop and I found feathers all over my yard. I followed the feathers to the pine trees beside our house and found my chicken lying dead right over the tree line in our neighbor yard. It wasn't even like this predator was even interested in eating the chicken, it was missing a leg and that was it. There were 2 large piles of feathers, both of which i thought were from the chicken.. but a few days laer i dcided to revisit the scene of the crime and take a closer look and found that they were indeed my male khaki's feathers but i never found his body or anything like that. Long story short- I buried the chicken, and became more strict about putting the chickens away every night, I would even go pull them out of the trees and put them in the chicken coop the first few nights...until last night the chickens decided that they wanted to go back into the trees. I was like okay whatever its been 3 weeks almost, they'll be okay for one night. Well, I was wrong. I have had a trap set for about 2 weeks and just last night I moved it and put raw chicken in it : untouched. As i was walking down to check my trap this morning I happened to look over and to my dismay found several more piles of feathers. I again found another chicken in my neighbors yard, this time with just a chunk missing out of its side. I am now down to 2 chickens and 1 duck and i just want to know what is killing my chickens and ducks for fun and I want to know how to get rid of it too! I live in northern central maryland, right under the PA line so all we really have are foxes and raccoons, ive never seen a coyote but they have been seen around my area multiple times. any advice would help, thanks all!!

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junebuggena said:

If you are leaving them unsecured at night, just about anything could be getting them. You can't really eliminate all the potential predators in your area, you can only do your best to keep them away from your flock. That means shutting them up in a secure coop each and every night. Chickens do not see well in the dark, and when asleep, they are very difficult to wake. A bird could be getting ripped to shreds right next to them and they would not stir. They are pretty helpless during those nighttime hours. Keep them locked in a secure coop at night, every night.

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Lacrystol said:

Here's a sad story for you all, a hawk swoops down and attacks one of my hens. Instead of my husband doing something about it, he tells me, I let him eat it this way he'll get full and not coming around for a while!!!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!! what kind of thinking is that? And this all happened during the day while I was at work. Of course my response was NO INSTEAD YOU INVITED HIM IN TO AN ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFAY!!

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keesmom said:

Hawks are migrating this time of year. Raptors are protected by federal law. It is illegal to harass, harm or kill one.

As long as you free range you stand the chance to lose birds. I have lost more birds to Cooper's hawks than any other predator so I understand what it is like.

To the OP, you need to lock up your birds at night. They are vulnerable in the dark.

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