1y.o. Egger Killed but not eaten 2-5 PM

[Luv Ducks]

Sorry...what is a fisher?

It's a small cat like animal belonging to the weasel family.

 

[Sondraa]

Oh ok. Never heard of it but weasles and minks are similar-ish to our quolls. Very effective hunters.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Oh ok. Never heard of it but weasles and minks are similar-ish to our quolls. Very effective hunters.

Wow, I have never heard of a quoll either. They are all probably related in one way or another.

 

[Sondraa]

Probably not. Quolls are just in Australia. If they are related it would be eons ago.

 

[Sondraa]

Probably not. Quolls are just in Australia. If they are related it would be eons ago.

Checked..not related. They are marsupials related to tasmanian devils and tasmanian tigers now extinct.

 

[5OneChick]

Fishers. They can squeeze through tiny spaces, climb, and burrow. They bite the neck, kill as many as they can, and then drag the bodies back to their den to stack them up. I had one wipe out my entire flock and most of my ducks. If they’re interrupted in the process of gathering bodies, they’ll leave the bodies. They will come back, and they’re tenacious.

Thanks for the reply. Had knee replacement surgery 2 days before your reply and had been out of it for a while.
I miss walking down our hill and hanging with the our flock. But the situation has made my husband become quite attached to our hens! So that’s a good thing
I also had not heard of fishers prior. Looked them up and would agree except I’m in So. California and it sounds like they aren’t around this territory. But I understand people around here keep ferrets as pets. If there are some wild ferrets nearby I sure wish they’d hunt the heavily populated squirrel population around here.
Other than aerial predators, fishers would be likely culprits since our dogs didn’t alert us to an outside intruder.

Luckily we have not had any more causalities since then but I do see many hawks scoping out the yard.

 

[FlockAround-andFindOut]

Fishers. They can squeeze through tiny spaces, climb, and burrow. They bite the neck, kill as many as they can, and then drag the bodies back to their den to stack them up. I had one wipe out my entire flock and most of my ducks. If they’re interrupted in the process of gathering bodies, they’ll leave the bodies. They will come back, and they’re tenacious.

I caught a dirty fishercat lurking tonight by my coops. We had downpours all day, I ran out to lock my flock up and the bugger dashed out in front of me. He would have had all 25 of my birds if I was seconds later. Wondering what to do tomorrow. I know he will come back.

 

[Luv Ducks]

I caught a dirty fishercat lurking tonight by my coops. We had downpours all day, I ran out to lock my flock up and the bugger dashed out in front of me. He would have had all 25 of my birds if I was seconds later. Wondering what to do tomorrow. I know he will come back.

About the only thing that would keep them out would be hardware cloth I believe. Then some kind of underground barrier in case they dig to get to them. So sorry that you have to deal with this. I could never let my birds free range here, the hawks would get them for sure.