Mostly just wanted to share with people that understand. I built the worlds strongest grow out brooder this weekend…. but didn’t have time to finish the lid. Tuesday I decided to let my 25 CornishX hangout in the unfinished growout brooder since it was such a nice day out, and they were all happy and cozy at the end of the day so I decided to let them stay out overnight. I stacked some plywood on top as a temporary lid and layered in a few pieces of metal shelving around the heat lamp chains, I was pretty proud of my handy work, even using metal clips to secure the shelving in place. It wasn’t enough.
The growout brooder was in the barn where my adult chickens are (different room) so I was happy to see my temporary lid still in place when I went to open up the hens coop. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes of me doing chores that I went to reach for the broiler food and remove the sheets of plywood. Everyone was gone except for 3 dead CornishX. Nothing else left except for a bit of blood, but not much. After removing the rest of the plywood I did find 5 living CornishX chicks piled in the corner behind the water. I took them back to my indoor brooders and got them to eat and drink a bit, but they’ve been terrified all day. I did find one additional dead chick on the floor of the barn. I put him in with the rest of the remaining deceased and covered the brooder back up. I had the intention of borrowing a camera and setting up traps after work using the deceased chick bodies as the unfortunate bait. When I got home from work the rest of the brooder was picked clean. No chick remains in sight, not even a feather.
I set up a camera pointed at the brooder, hopefully that will pick up the culprit tonight. This was never supposed to be the permanent lid, I had picked up a roll of hardware cloth on Tuesday, but never had a chance to build the frame for it. My “downfall” was the roughly 1 inch lip of the metal shelving raised it up enough for something to slip in and underneath it (and also carry the chicks out).
My first thought was something in the weasel family, but would they come back during the day? I was pretty sick to my stomach to come home from work to see whatever it was came back for the remaining bodies. My SO says rats, but I don’t think they could carry away 20 3 week old CornishX chicks so cleanly. There was very little blood, but I was able to find a rough drip trail across the barn, so they were carried, not dragged. There was zero trauma to any of the bodies other than a wound on their necks.
My heart is breaking for the little buggers.
The growout brooder was in the barn where my adult chickens are (different room) so I was happy to see my temporary lid still in place when I went to open up the hens coop. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes of me doing chores that I went to reach for the broiler food and remove the sheets of plywood. Everyone was gone except for 3 dead CornishX. Nothing else left except for a bit of blood, but not much. After removing the rest of the plywood I did find 5 living CornishX chicks piled in the corner behind the water. I took them back to my indoor brooders and got them to eat and drink a bit, but they’ve been terrified all day. I did find one additional dead chick on the floor of the barn. I put him in with the rest of the remaining deceased and covered the brooder back up. I had the intention of borrowing a camera and setting up traps after work using the deceased chick bodies as the unfortunate bait. When I got home from work the rest of the brooder was picked clean. No chick remains in sight, not even a feather.
I set up a camera pointed at the brooder, hopefully that will pick up the culprit tonight. This was never supposed to be the permanent lid, I had picked up a roll of hardware cloth on Tuesday, but never had a chance to build the frame for it. My “downfall” was the roughly 1 inch lip of the metal shelving raised it up enough for something to slip in and underneath it (and also carry the chicks out).
My first thought was something in the weasel family, but would they come back during the day? I was pretty sick to my stomach to come home from work to see whatever it was came back for the remaining bodies. My SO says rats, but I don’t think they could carry away 20 3 week old CornishX chicks so cleanly. There was very little blood, but I was able to find a rough drip trail across the barn, so they were carried, not dragged. There was zero trauma to any of the bodies other than a wound on their necks.
My heart is breaking for the little buggers.
