Skunk and chickens

[Magpie1]

Ignore the loss of eggs for a minute...all of my goose eggs plus some of the chicken eggs. For a week now, something has been going into the chicken run and killing one to two chickens per day. It doesn't eat much or any, for that matter. It would slit the throat, open the neck and sometimes pull out the entrails. One chicken was skinned alive. It just kills them for sport, apparently. Now, I'm one of those people who try to find any way possible not to kill a wild living creature. However, I draw the line at bloodlust. This thing started out killing the neighbors chickens. When she penned hers up, it came over to my place. I progressively moved the chickens to tighter and tighter quarters, trying to protect them. I set traps with eggs. It would reach into the trap and pull everything out without setting off the trap, then go kill another chicken. We don't have many weasels in our area. We do have raccoons and that's what I thought it was. Except, my experience with raccoons is that they bite the breast out and leave the rest. I had smelled skunk but didn't really believe they could move fast enough to catch a chicken. It was obvious some of them had been chased. No dogs or coyotes in the run. Could have been fox, but why not carry them off? Well, this morning I went out to find a skunk in the trap. It must like Frosted Flakes since that's what the trap was baited with plus eggs. I'll update if the killing continues.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Ignore the loss of eggs for a minute...all of my goose eggs plus some of the chicken eggs. For a week now, something has been going into the chicken run and killing one to two chickens per day. It doesn't eat much or any, for that matter. It would slit the throat, open the neck and sometimes pull out the entrails. One chicken was skinned alive. It just kills them for sport, apparently. Now, I'm one of those people who try to find any way possible not to kill a wild living creature. However, I draw the line at bloodlust. This thing started out killing the neighbors chickens. When she penned hers up, it came over to my place. I progressively moved the chickens to tighter and tighter quarters, trying to protect them. I set traps with eggs. It would reach into the trap and pull everything out without setting off the trap, then go kill another chicken. We don't have many weasels in our area. We do have raccoons and that's what I thought it was. Except, my experience with raccoons is that they bite the breast out and leave the rest. I had smelled skunk but didn't really believe they could move fast enough to catch a chicken. It was obvious some of them had been chased. No dogs or coyotes in the run. Could have been fox, but why not carry them off? Well, this morning I went out to find a skunk in the trap. It must like Frosted Flakes since that's what the trap was baited with plus eggs. I'll update if the killing continues.

Raccoons will rip out the throat and head too. Skunks like to scavenge and eat eggs. A fox will kill for the sake of killing and not eat it at times as will a weasel. Where are you located at?

 

[Magpie1]

Raccoons will rip out the throat and head too. Skunks like to scavenge and eat eggs. A fox will kill for the sake of killing and not eat it at times as will a weasel. Where are you located at?

Head was left on all my birds. One of the neighbor's had only the head left. None of my birds died last night. I'm in NW Oregon, west of Portland.

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

Head was left on all my birds. One of the neighbor's had only the head left. I'm in NW Oregon, west of Portland.

You seem to have a ton of weasels in your area along with raccoons and ring tales.

 

[Magpie1]

You seem to have a ton of weasels in your area along with raccoons and ring tales.

There are weasels west of us, near the coast and also east of Portland. I've never seen one here but wouldn't rule it out. We have raccoons but I'm not sure what a ringtail is. I'll know if I catch it, though!

 

[A_Fowl_Guy]

There are weasels west of us, near the coast and also east of Portland. I've never seen one here but wouldn't rule it out. We have raccoons but I'm not sure what a ringtail is. I'll know if I catch it, though!

Take a pic of what you catch and good luck!

 

[nikijack]

I lost two hens in two days, and tonight I caught a skunk.