3 chickens dead, help!

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Molly Sunshine

Molly Sunshine

In the Brooder
5 Years
Feb 19, 2014
53
3
31
Southern illinois
I went to check my flock this morning and found 2 light Brahma cockerels dead and slightly squished. My favorite pullet, buffy, my buff Orpington was dead in the coop with only her feet and beak left.. my husband thinks it was a dog but I think a dog would have killed more and that they would be slobbery and not such clean kills for the brahmas. And why such a brutal kill for my buffy? Any ideas?
 
I don't think it sounds like a dog. Most dogs kill for fun, unless it was a stray looking for food. I'm sure you also would have heard something.
It could have been a raccoon, only once I have lost chickens to a coon and almost everything was eaten off of them. What wasn't mice started nibbling away at when I got in there. I had been gone for a few days and trusted my brother to put them away, which didn't happen. He didn't even know they'd be killed. I was NOT happy.

What kind of enclosure are your birds in?
 
A 10x10x8 dog kennel and a 4x8 wooden coop. The other two didn't have any parts missing... poor buffy.. there's a tarp cover over the run area. I know where it got in just not what it was there was also a dead guinea intact like the brahmas.. maybe they got trampled?
 
I am sorry to hear what happened.

I wouldn't be too hasty to rule out the dog. My dog (who has since changed her ways) once killed one of our bantams. She didn't want to eat it, just part of that pray drive you always read about.

It was quiet too. We wouldn't have known anything happened if I hadn't wanted to look in on the chickens right at the moment. The dog thought it was a game. She had no ill intention, just didn't understand they weren't chew toys. I'm not excusing the dogs behavior. I wanted to kill her. But part of the process of my forgiving her was learning the why behind it (and more obedience training).

Again, I am sorry to hear about your babies.
 
If it came once, there is a good chance it will be back. Do you lock them up at night in their little building?
Do you have a trail camera you can put up in case it returns? How big of a spot did it get in?
 
I think that a dog would have difficulty getting out of the enclosure. All but the beak feet and a few internal organs were eaten from the pullet. I found it strange that 1 was devoured and the other 2 were only killed. We reinforced the fencing on that side and closed the gap. Hopefully that works. We are also going to put up a livetrap and see what we catch. This happened overnight which also makes me think more of a coon or fox. I have also been seeing droppings in the yard that are approximately coon/fox sized.. hopefully i don't have another disaster in the morning..
 
And no we don't lock them up. There isn't much ventilation in the coop at the moment and we are thinking of getting a trail camera or maybe borrowing a friends trailcam. The gap was only about 2inches but when we pushed on it it streched about 6 to 8 inches. The coop doors have a tunnel so that there is a 4 inch gap between the coop and the run, so to get out through the hole i think they would have to pull the chainlink inward, if they tried to push out it would hit the coop...
 
Put the vent holes in and use both wire screen AND make some miniature security bars, like strips of aluminum or steel, drill holes and screw them in.

Like home security bars designed to prevent people from entering, the rule of thumb is, if they can get their head thru, they can get the rest of their body thru, so place your miniature coop vent security bars no more than 1 1/2 inches apart, the air will vent thru nicely but no predator will be able to enter, while the mesh screen will prevent smaller slithering things like lizards & snakes.

So sorry for your loss, might as well make sure it never happens again.
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