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What do you think this is?

post #1 of 25
8/4/12 at 4:01pm
Thread Starter 

Hello, There is this predator that took most of our meat chicks. Me and my mom when't out to our barn investigate, and found two hairs and one of them was gray and brown. What could that have been?

 

Thanks for you help!

Timber 10 yrs.

I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

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I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

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post #2 of 25
8/4/12 at 5:34pm

WelcometoBYC.gif

 

We're going to need a bit more information: 

 

What is your coop set up? 

 

What body parts were missing? 

 

A picture of the hairs

 

Any tracks found? 

 Crested Ducks                     Common Chicken Practices          Learn more about Avian Influenza

 

 

Helen: Daria, do you have to look at everything in such a negative light?

Daria: Could you possibly be referring to the harsh light of reality?

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 Crested Ducks                     Common Chicken Practices          Learn more about Avian Influenza

 

 

Helen: Daria, do you have to look at everything in such a negative light?

Daria: Could you possibly be referring to the harsh light of reality?

Reply
post #3 of 25
8/5/12 at 1:55pm
Thread Starter 

Hello, I have no pictures of the hairs. The coop is not so much like a coop, it's more like a barn shape it has a door, and it's off of the ground on small bricks. We did see a chick underneath the barn, my dad came out and got it out with a rake, and it had no head. There where no tracks but on the barn door where scratch marks as if the animal was trying to get in. There where more scratches on the other side of the door and blood splashes. sad.png

 

Thanks for the help!

Timber

I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

Reply

I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

Reply
post #4 of 25
8/5/12 at 2:11pm

what state?

my first guess is fox

Death is the standard breech for a complex prize - Deftones- (never more true than with chickens)

I NEED MORE COW BELL!

Yeah, I'm still around and still raising chickens.

lets face it if I changed my avatar now it'd just be wierd!

Reply

Death is the standard breech for a complex prize - Deftones- (never more true than with chickens)

I NEED MORE COW BELL!

Yeah, I'm still around and still raising chickens.

lets face it if I changed my avatar now it'd just be wierd!

Reply
post #5 of 25
8/6/12 at 9:12am
Thread Starter 

Hi, we're in Ontario Canada.

I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

Reply

I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

Reply
post #6 of 25
8/6/12 at 9:16am
Thread Starter 

Do you know what fox scat looks like? Cause my mom found scat in a tree trunk that we have, and the scat looked like it had wood chips in it and it was light brown.

I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

Reply

I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

Reply
post #7 of 25
8/11/12 at 2:07pm

Opossums love crunchy things like egg shells and heads.  They will bite off the head, and stash the body.  We had a opossum eating eggs for a week from our hen house...found the critter curled up sleeping in a nest box one day.  Early that evening, apparently it came in the little coop door, tried to get an egg from our sweet broody bantam,Clover,  and decapitated her.  Then it stashed her fat little body under the hen house, and came back for the eggs.  My husband found it just as it was going back into the nest box.

 

Awful, isn't it!

 

I put rat bait out, it took some the first night, more the next night, then never came back.

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post #8 of 25
8/11/12 at 2:56pm

Hello fellow Ontarian!  The description of the hair and the fact that heads were eaten sounds like a raccoon to me.  We've had the exact same things happen hear and it turned out to be raccoons, confirmed on a security camera!  They were getting in where the roof met the wall, a space no bigger than 2 1/2 inches.  So we blocked those openings with 2x4 and got a trap from TSC and have trapped and shot four so far.  Haven't seen any in five weeks now and my I have not lost any more chickens.  Secure the coop, chicken wire doesn't keep out predators if you have any on windows or opeings. Predators can squeeze through unbelievably small spaces and are very diligent about finding ways in.  Now that they've found food, they'll be back.  Good luck! 

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post #9 of 25
8/11/12 at 5:39pm
Thread Starter 

mmktdox, do you think that something could get in wire cloth with wood around it??

 

songbird, that is awful and heart breaking. This animal that ate the chick's head, stashed the body underneath the barn (The barn is on bricks)


Edited by TheHenHen - 8/11/12 at 5:45pm

I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

Reply

I have, 4 Barred Rocks, 2 Black Stars, 3 Colombian Wyendottes, 3 Rhode Island Reds, 5 ISA Browns, 4 Silver Laced Wyendottes, 1 dog, 2 barn cats and 2 goats.

Reply
post #10 of 25
8/11/12 at 5:45pm

That is how our hen house is.  It is like a playhouse raised on cement blocks, and the body was stashed underneath it.  There was blood on the wall of the nest box the broody hen had been sitting in.

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BackYard Chickens › BYC Forum › Raising BackYard Chickens › Predators and Pests › What do you think this is?