PNW keeper
Chirping
- Mar 29, 2022
- 60
- 39
- 71
We lost our silkie last week to a predator. While I don't know what it was for sure, I have a little bit of video footage of it's escape as I entered my backyard.
We live just outside of Seattle, our backyard backs up to a creek. We had 4 chickens at the time.
Last week I was just coming home from some errands and had let the chickens range in a section of our yard while I was away. Our yard is fenced, but not predator-proof. When I arrived I saw feathers and eventually discovered the body of our silkie behind the coop. She had her neck and back area chewed apart, head still attached, but the rest of her body looked untouched.
I went back to look at my Ring video footage (which does not record when small animals trip it - otherwise I'd be getting notifications all the time when my chickens forage). In the video noticed when I entered my backyard, a small long black animal left the area where the chicken body was found behind the coop and scaled the tree to escape over the fence. I didn't see live, only when I looked back at the video did I notice the animal.
In effort to prevent this in the future, I need to know what I am trying to prevent. My guess is a mink / weasel type animal. My 3 other chickens were silently hiding under shrub (took me a while to find them actually!). I think the predator didn't get to them because it was still working on the kill it had just made. I honestly think I was minutes before I returned home.
Thoughts on what the predator is?
Have a look at the video
We live just outside of Seattle, our backyard backs up to a creek. We had 4 chickens at the time.
Last week I was just coming home from some errands and had let the chickens range in a section of our yard while I was away. Our yard is fenced, but not predator-proof. When I arrived I saw feathers and eventually discovered the body of our silkie behind the coop. She had her neck and back area chewed apart, head still attached, but the rest of her body looked untouched.
I went back to look at my Ring video footage (which does not record when small animals trip it - otherwise I'd be getting notifications all the time when my chickens forage). In the video noticed when I entered my backyard, a small long black animal left the area where the chicken body was found behind the coop and scaled the tree to escape over the fence. I didn't see live, only when I looked back at the video did I notice the animal.
In effort to prevent this in the future, I need to know what I am trying to prevent. My guess is a mink / weasel type animal. My 3 other chickens were silently hiding under shrub (took me a while to find them actually!). I think the predator didn't get to them because it was still working on the kill it had just made. I honestly think I was minutes before I returned home.
Thoughts on what the predator is?
Have a look at the video
