26 out of 49 dead/gone.

[Redneck306]

Sunday night I put 38 chickens and 4 guinea keet down in the chicken coop where I have 7 chickens already. I noticed Sunday night there were a few out so I plugged off the hole and closed them off for the night. The chicken coop is built off the lean too and that is where I found them. Monday I worked real late and didn't go down there and Tuesday I found 8 dead with just their heads removed from their bodies. I found the heads and birds and they were all in small areas. The other 18 are missing no traces of them. I set 5 live traps and made 3 weasel traps and it has been days without an attack and haven't caught anything. What could have done this?

 

[Redneck306]

They are 7 weeks old

 

[WI chick]

So sorry for your loss, Redneck306. That's heartbreaking. A coworker lost a chicken in the same way. Just the head bit off. We did a little checking on line an came to the conclusion that it was possibly a weasel or racoon. I think the best thing to do is make sure they have secure housing especially at night. If there's a way in, a predator is sure to find it.

 

[Redneck306]

Another 20 dead with out an attack all week but caught a mink. To bad it killed before going in the live trap... has anyone had more than one mink attacking at a time? Seems like 26 last week and only finding 8 and them 20 today seems weird for one... could 1 mink carry off 18 birds?

 

[howfunkyisurchicken]

It wouldn't be too strange for a mink to wipe out an entire flock (vicious little things), but I've never had them carry any off. We used to live right next to the river, and would see them fishing down there. They hit me good a few times before I managed to seal up their tiny entrances. So, how big is this hole that you plugged? Is that the only way for a predator to get in?

Some pictures or a better description of your set up might help. Are you using chicken wire or hardware cloth? Is everything covered over, even up high? With the missing heads and bodies, I'd think a coon might be the culprit, but owls can get into some pretty small spaces when they get a mind to. Sorry for your losses, thats a huge bummer :/

 

[hayley3]

I don't remember missing birds being the behavior of the mink. Normally heads are missing.

This is a really great post about identifying your predator:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/18670/poultry-predator-identification