It's always frustrating to admit you could have done something to prevent a loss so I'll say that I know it's my fault I lost the two birds but I'd like to prevent it from happening again.
I'll preface the scenario by stating I had introduced two young pullets into the flock who were learning the house was for sleeping in and were hit and miss on roosting or piling up on the ground underneath the wire cage they were raised in that butts up against the older birds house.
Dec. 23rd I got home from work after dark and immediately had to leave and was out until past midnight. I got home and let the dogs out, kenneled them back inside and went to bed. The following morning there were several chickens (and the turkey) wandering in the back pasture. I grabbed the roommate to make herding a little easier. In the time it took me to get outside there were more chickens out. I knew there had to be a gap or a hole somewhere so after tossing some scratch down to keep the penned birds occupied I opened the side gate and started herding birds back in. The welded wire fence had been popped off the t-post next to the house where the pullets would sometimes sleep. Once everyone was back inside and penned I did a head count and realized one of the two pullets was indeed missing. I went back around the pen and found a feather trail that I followed across the pasture and into some tall vegetation and lost the trail in the woods. I assume that she was taken by a coyote, fox, or bobcat. I've seen a coyote crossing the yard in the late afternoon during a rain shower. I saw a bobcat following the back fence line a couple of weeks after moving into the house. And last month I saw a Red Fox that had been struck by a car a few miles up the road from the house. I couldn't make out any tracks but the ground had been disturbed as the predator obviously clawed/dug at the fence until they popped the fence clips and broke the wire I'd used to twist the wire more tightly to the post. The fact that the bird was carried off leads me to believe it was one of those three mammalian predators.
After that event I started making sure everyone went to bed and the hen house was closed and locked each night. Other than snakes I haven't had an issue with predators so I can count myself lucky.
I got sick on the 24th and after traveling the three hours (one way) to and from my family's Christmas Eve dinner I stumbled outside to take the dogs out about three am. I thought they were locked up for the night (my roommate does nice things for me sometimes...lol) when the geese weren't out sleeping in the yard. The morning of the 25th I got up and took the dogs out and realized the chickens were out. I turned them out onto the big fenced in back yard and realized the second pullet was missing. She was a loner now that her sister was gone and I thought she might have been hiding in the hen house. The sun was at that weird angle were everything is really bright so it took me a minute of looking around before I saw the pile of feathers at the right angle. I found her body in the chicken pen, between the house the birds sleep in and the tractor/prefabricated coop I use for young birds. She was actually partially under the nest boxes. Her head was missing and she was partially consumed. I'll add those photos to the second post so people can skip over that if they don't want to see them. I don't find the images particularly graphic, but I know some don't enjoy them. I did move her out into the open for a better photo. There were feathers all around the body which makes me think it might have been an owl? I think it was a bit early for a hawk, but I could be wrong.
Obviously she was sleeping out in the open again, probably in the opposite corner of the one her and her sister were attacked in before Christmas Eve. I was more shocked than anything because the geese, turkeys, and like thirteen other Orpingtons were sitting on (or under in the case of the geese) roosts less than three feet away from where she was killed and eaten. I think any mammal would have wandered into the hen house and continued slaughtering stuff. There were no signs of the fence being climbed by a fox, coyote, or bobcat (my suspects for the first killing) and with woodchips in the run I couldn't see any tracks.
I'm locking them up every night now whether the geese like it or not. There was a hawk attack on the 26th when I was on the road to Austin, but my roommate managed to drive the Red-tail off the Silver-laced Orpington cockerel and he suffered no lasting damage. They are certainly more hawk savvy now. They aren't getting to "free-range" in the fenced in back yard as that's where the hawk snatched him. Their pen is under a huge elm tree with very dense branches the larger hawks can't navigate through to make an attack and the birds run into the house now when there's danger.
My dad also gave me some game cameras. I've not quite figured out how to make them work but as soon as I get that figured out they will be set up to record any other visitors. Anyway, looking at the photos below and from the descriptions of the two killings, does anyone have an idea of who the culprit might be?
I'll preface the scenario by stating I had introduced two young pullets into the flock who were learning the house was for sleeping in and were hit and miss on roosting or piling up on the ground underneath the wire cage they were raised in that butts up against the older birds house.
Dec. 23rd I got home from work after dark and immediately had to leave and was out until past midnight. I got home and let the dogs out, kenneled them back inside and went to bed. The following morning there were several chickens (and the turkey) wandering in the back pasture. I grabbed the roommate to make herding a little easier. In the time it took me to get outside there were more chickens out. I knew there had to be a gap or a hole somewhere so after tossing some scratch down to keep the penned birds occupied I opened the side gate and started herding birds back in. The welded wire fence had been popped off the t-post next to the house where the pullets would sometimes sleep. Once everyone was back inside and penned I did a head count and realized one of the two pullets was indeed missing. I went back around the pen and found a feather trail that I followed across the pasture and into some tall vegetation and lost the trail in the woods. I assume that she was taken by a coyote, fox, or bobcat. I've seen a coyote crossing the yard in the late afternoon during a rain shower. I saw a bobcat following the back fence line a couple of weeks after moving into the house. And last month I saw a Red Fox that had been struck by a car a few miles up the road from the house. I couldn't make out any tracks but the ground had been disturbed as the predator obviously clawed/dug at the fence until they popped the fence clips and broke the wire I'd used to twist the wire more tightly to the post. The fact that the bird was carried off leads me to believe it was one of those three mammalian predators.
After that event I started making sure everyone went to bed and the hen house was closed and locked each night. Other than snakes I haven't had an issue with predators so I can count myself lucky.
I got sick on the 24th and after traveling the three hours (one way) to and from my family's Christmas Eve dinner I stumbled outside to take the dogs out about three am. I thought they were locked up for the night (my roommate does nice things for me sometimes...lol) when the geese weren't out sleeping in the yard. The morning of the 25th I got up and took the dogs out and realized the chickens were out. I turned them out onto the big fenced in back yard and realized the second pullet was missing. She was a loner now that her sister was gone and I thought she might have been hiding in the hen house. The sun was at that weird angle were everything is really bright so it took me a minute of looking around before I saw the pile of feathers at the right angle. I found her body in the chicken pen, between the house the birds sleep in and the tractor/prefabricated coop I use for young birds. She was actually partially under the nest boxes. Her head was missing and she was partially consumed. I'll add those photos to the second post so people can skip over that if they don't want to see them. I don't find the images particularly graphic, but I know some don't enjoy them. I did move her out into the open for a better photo. There were feathers all around the body which makes me think it might have been an owl? I think it was a bit early for a hawk, but I could be wrong.
Obviously she was sleeping out in the open again, probably in the opposite corner of the one her and her sister were attacked in before Christmas Eve. I was more shocked than anything because the geese, turkeys, and like thirteen other Orpingtons were sitting on (or under in the case of the geese) roosts less than three feet away from where she was killed and eaten. I think any mammal would have wandered into the hen house and continued slaughtering stuff. There were no signs of the fence being climbed by a fox, coyote, or bobcat (my suspects for the first killing) and with woodchips in the run I couldn't see any tracks.
I'm locking them up every night now whether the geese like it or not. There was a hawk attack on the 26th when I was on the road to Austin, but my roommate managed to drive the Red-tail off the Silver-laced Orpington cockerel and he suffered no lasting damage. They are certainly more hawk savvy now. They aren't getting to "free-range" in the fenced in back yard as that's where the hawk snatched him. Their pen is under a huge elm tree with very dense branches the larger hawks can't navigate through to make an attack and the birds run into the house now when there's danger.
My dad also gave me some game cameras. I've not quite figured out how to make them work but as soon as I get that figured out they will be set up to record any other visitors. Anyway, looking at the photos below and from the descriptions of the two killings, does anyone have an idea of who the culprit might be?
