lost our flock to a mystery predator

[HeritageGoose13]

I'm sorry for your loss. It must have been terrible to lose them all at once like that.

 

[pinkmartin73]

I'm so sorry.

 

[teria]

That's so sad, I'm sorry.

 

[red3101]

Thank you for your condolences

 

[slingshotandLAR]

Can't assume it was a dog.....

There are far mor predators than people think in suburban areas. Super easy living if they stay out of sight, and they do that quite well.

It could have been a dog, or a raccoon or anything else on your list with the exception of bears every single one of the predators on your list live and thrive in suburban areas. You will be amazed what you see if you but out a game camera or some traps. Lots of things go bump in the night.

I have a example: I work and live on my farm 24/7 it's my job as well as my home. When I first started trapping I thought I wouldn't catch anything because I didn't think there were many predators around, I rarely saw them so I figured they just weren't here....WRONG! Lol the first 4 days of trapping season I caught 6 raccoons, a skunk, 2 fisher cats a fox and a coyote.

It's amazing how many animals live directly with you that you never see. I still have never seen a fisher but they are always in my traps come season.

 

[roosterford]

I just had a big cat come kill mine... I live in the country and my chicks were 4.5 weeks old. I have a pretty **** well set up coop + run, more secure than a lot I've seen around her, but I woke up this morning and am still ****** off and really sad. One of my runs had no roof and they jumped in there, broke the door on the pen, and slaughtered everything inside. I'm sure it was a cat for a few reasons: it snuck past my dog, and it took them up to 8' high shelves to display kill them.

I'm so, so ****** off. I'm going to clean the place up and start fresh but it's not a happy day around here at all. My first try got ****ed over hard.

 

[red3101]

It's not just suburban, it's geographic location. I did some extensive googling and we do not have coyotes, wild cats, or weasels that anyone else has seen/trapped. Skunks we do have but there was no skunk smell.

 

[slingshotandLAR]

I just had a big cat come kill mine... I live in the country and my chicks were 4.5 weeks old. I have a pretty **** well set up coop + run, more secure than a lot I've seen around her, but I woke up this morning and am still ****** off and really sad. One of my runs had no roof and they jumped in there, broke the door on the pen, and slaughtered everything inside. I'm sure it was a cat for a few reasons: it snuck past my dog, and it took them up to 8' high shelves to display kill them. 


I'm so, so ****** off. I'm going to clean the place up and start fresh but it's not a happy day around here at all. My first try got ****ed over hard.

Sounds like a raccoon honestly....

A house cat( or feral) would just kill them, a bobcat would take and at a time. A raccoon will kill and take birds up into trees to eat them or in your case the shelves.

Could be anything though, I would set some traps. You will get your revenge. Use a live trap and the dead chicks as bait, make sure they can't move it and you'll catch what did it.

 

[roosterford]

I buried most of the chicks already and am getting an electric fence for the pen, but I'll ask my buddy about borrowing one of his traps . There are almost no raccoons around here and a lot of bobcats, but you might be right. Either way I can't believe it snuck past my dog. It just reminded me of display kills my cat did when I had one as a kid too. Either way, I'm upping security big time to prep for replacements.

 

[red3101]

I'm sorry about your chicks my birds were only 9 or 10 weeks old. Good luck getting revenge.

Maybe I'll have to set some traps on my yard to see what we get.