VERY Upsetting! Graphic Pic please help!!!!

[urbanchicks76]

We are all extremely upset right now. Can someone please tell me what you think could have happened. I built this run about a week ago and we have been letting our 5 week out chicks out during the day. They have been so happy and love being outside. I came home this after noon and found this! I just don't understand how this could have happened! I can't see how something could have gotten the chick. There is no holes in the netting. Could something like a hawk peck through the small holes and get her? I just don't understand. Could the other chicks could have done this? What should we do in the future to stop this from happening to the other 3? We are first time chicken owners and have been trying to do everything right. This is very upsetting to us.

Also the other chicks are very shell shocked right now they are very calm and scared huddled together. Is there something I should do to help them? I brought them back inside.

I can't believe this is happening!!!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Sorry for your loss.

Some predators are known to reach their paws between netting and grab the chicks / chickens when they come by. Most that I know do this are nocturnal. Do you know what predators you have in your area that could narrow down the list?

Many peeps put hardware cloth along the bottom 2 feet of their run in an attempt to stop the paws from reaching in.

It's hard to tell in the pic. what kind of wound / damage was done.

 

[Katy]

I would say it's either a coon or a cat...either one will reach thru and grab them.

 

[Jess N Jeff]

In an urban backyard...I would say a cat. You would be surprised what those kitties will do when they see a flightly chick.

Edited to add:

 

[silkiechicken]

In the Seattle area at least, I've heard of crows teasing chicks and when one gets too close to the edge, reach in and try and pull them out through the wire.

Not sure how big the mesh is, or if it is plastic or hardware cloth... but if it's not hardware cloth, if a dog or coon got in the yard, they would probably tear the pvc structure to pieces if not dig under to tip over.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
The EXACT same thing happened to us when our baby chicks were 5 weeks old. We thought we were predator-proof but didn't expect that a hawk would REACH IN THROUGH THE CHICKEN WIRE with its TALONS to grab one of our Silkie girls. It was horrific. Obviously he only got a hold of part of her as it appears happened to yours.
We were out on the deck on the back of our house, looking out at our coop when we spotted this hawk. We were smugly patting ourselves on the back for the nice design job we did that prevented him from geting INTO the coop to hurt them. We snapped this picture and photos of him on top of the avian netting above the run. It wasn't until we went to shut the coop for the night that we realized that he had grabbed one of the girls from the other side of the coop. We immediately reinforced the bottom of the run (only) with hardware cloth and have had no problems since. (knock on wood)

Red tailed juvenile hawk taunting the rest of our chickens:

 

[halo]

I was going to say a hawk too. I had hawks looking at some chicks I had, too, and one day found a chick, still in the dog kennel, with severe bite or claw marks on it. She survived, but I covered the dog kennel with hardware cloth from then on.

 

[urbanchicks76]

Thank you all. I honestly think it was a cat at this point. Our neighbors cat is always in our yard. I thought we were safe. I just wanted to make sure the chicks wouldn't do this to each other. We are going to have to get a new chick for my son. Now I will be asking all kinds of questions on how to introduce a new chick to 5 week old one. ahhh this sucks!

 

[silkiechicken]

Chicks to chicks is easy. Let them pick at each other for a bit and they'll be fine. Adults pick at each other much harder.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

Quote:
You may want to seriously consider getting two, not just one, new chicks. That'll avoid the singleton problem in the future (God forbid) PLUS allegedly the new chickens will fare better in the process of re-structuring the pecking order if there is more "love" to spread around (ie: not just one chicken to be bullied). Just a thought.