Chicken stealin varmint!

[IceAngel]

No, coyotes are opportune hunters and they go after easy prey. They are not going to fight a goat or pigs if chickens are beckoning.

 

[MeeMa Brown]

Now that your predator has tasted your chickens you have your best shot at catching it bc you KNOW it will be back again.  I have taken all my chickens out of the coop & overnighted them in dog kennels elsewhere securely (garage, sunroom, etc); then baited a HavAHeart trap with a small live chicken that I put inside a hardware cloth covered container.  It's a little traumatic for the bait but if you protect the bird thoroughly with small enough gauge wire that crafty little raccoon hands can't get through, you WILL catch your predator to do with as you see fit.  It's a little complicated & time intensive so I turned quickly to LGDs & have not lost any barnyard stock since.  Day & night, they are better than almost any kind of human-made defense against barnyard thieves.  Best of luck to you.    

LGD?????

 

[clturner91]

Lost 7 last night.
Momma slept on the ground in the corner of the barn with 3 babies under her wing. She put up one heck of a fight, there are feathers everywhere (she was black) 2 of her babies are gone.
My 4 new birds that I just got the other day, about month old Cuckoo Marans, also gone. No feathers from them.
Talked to my neighbor, he lost some too.
The rest of my flock was safe and sound up in the rafters of the barn.
Not sure if it's relevant, but my puppy vanished a few days ago. She was about the size of a cat.

I'm getting traps today and will be sleeping in the barn tonight with my shotgun.

I'm pretty sure it's a coon that got them, probably drug them to a nest of babies.

I will update tomorrow as to wether or not I got the varmint.

I am so very sorry to hear that I have lost a few to raccoons on different occasions. It is very sad. I've tried live traps many times, losing some raccoons who actually bent the front frame of the trap. Check your local laws (or decide for yourself) about using a duke coon cuff. This is not a live option...it will trap their leg and you will have no choice but to kill it, but I've had an extremely high success rate. Bait with mini marshmellows and skewer the trigger with marshmellows so it's covered. These traps are dog proof, etc because raccoons are able to use their small fingers to reach under the trigger and pull it. I wish you didn't have to deal with it

 

[baah]

Livestock Guardian Dog

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I didn't think that racoons would eat dogs. They will fight with dogs and bite them up pretty bad but I have never heard of a racoon eating a dog.
Do you have coyotes in your area? They do pack off dogs and cats.

Sounds to me like a wild K9 raided your coop. Coons don't normally tote their victims away, they eat it on the spot. Foxes, coyotes, and bobcats all like to dine in private. You'll usually find a few scattered feathers and little else.

Of course the size of the victim also has something to do with rather the predator takes your chicken home with him or decides to eat the chicken where it caught it.

A coyote then could well eat your young chickens like you or I eat parched peanuts, in other words on the spot and by the hands full. A grown chicken however is likely to just disappear.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

I am so very sorry to hear that

I have lost a few to raccoons on different occasions. It is very sad. I've tried live traps many times, losing some raccoons who actually bent the front frame of the trap. Check your local laws (or decide for yourself) about using a duke coon cuff. This is not a live option...it will trap their leg and you will have no choice but to kill it, but I've had an extremely high success rate. Bait with mini marshmellows and skewer the trigger with marshmellows so it's covered. These traps are dog proof, etc because raccoons are able to use their small fingers to reach under the trigger and pull it. I wish you didn't have to deal with it

Duke DP coon traps catch raccoons faster than a C-note will get you a good seat in a restaurant. However it is best to set your DPs where once caught the coon can't get tangled in brush or a fence, because once out in the open it seems to take all the fight out, and the coon will quietly await its fate. Sort of like a rat swimming in a barrel of water will swim for days on end as long as every few minutes it feels hard ground under foot, but if it has no hope of reaching dry land it gives up and quickly drowns.