3 chicks disappeared at once?!

[Flock Leader]

It does sound like a snake to me. They love eggs and chicks. Sometimes they will kill a larger chick or even a grown chicken only to find out that it is too big for them to swallow. Those birds you will find dead with a wet head and neck where the snake swallowed as much as he could then had to spit it back out.

It sounds like to me that the snake may be hid out in your coup because you said the hen was going ballistic and refused to sleep where she had before with the chicks. No doubt if the chicks had got out there would be a lot of predators available to catch and eat them, but it just sounds like a snake to me. They don't have to be real big to eat eggs and baby chicks. Here at my place a 5' rat snake (aka: chicken snake) ate an adult squirrel. That squirrel was well over twice as big around as the snakes head, maybe three times.

The only way to keep them out is to plug all your holes and use hardware cloth (wire) for your fencing. And don't think for a second that they can't climb, you have to cover the top of your run also.

Good luck, hope you catch him and give him a ride down the road to where there is no chickens. Oh, and if you do relocate him, go at least a couple miles away or he will find his way back (which amazes me).

Thank you; I know we definitely have snakes in the area, have lost a clutch of eggs to a snake this season.

But then, my dog was barking at *something* like mad this morning (chicken alarm again, but no losses) - which gets me thinking of something different, perhaps a fox. I couldn't let her off the leash because I feared she'd go after the chickens (she isn't very well-trained to leave them alone) but I think we startled the predator off, for the time being...

 

[Triple Willow]

Thank you; I know we definitely have snakes in the area, have lost a clutch of eggs to a snake this season. 
 
But then, my dog was barking at *something* like mad this morning (chicken alarm again, but no losses) - which gets me thinking of something different, perhaps a fox. I couldn't let her off the leash because I feared she'd go after the chickens (she isn't very well-trained to leave them alone) but I think we startled the predator off, for the time being... 

You're welcome. Your dog sounds like mine. I have to keep her seperate or she would kill my whole flock in minutes. She also goes nuts for snakes and kills them when she gets the chance. I hope you find out what's messing with your birds and can stop it.

 

[aart]

You say the chicks squeezed out of the coop......into what....a run?...a wide open yard?

Fox will hunt day or night.....so will other animals.

Sorry, they squeezed out into the open yard, I should have specified that.

I believe foxes, at least in our area, tend to come out more by night. But I don't exclude this possibility.

Well, it could have been anything.....coon, fox, owl, weasel, dog, coyote.......

 

[Triple Willow]

If you have a spot big enough for chicks to get out, you have a spot big enough for a snake to get in, eat chicks and go back out the same place. If you have a dog or cat you can trust or if you can keep your chickens seperate long enough, you could take one of them in the coop and they might show you if a snake is in there.

 

[chick lovers]

I will go with fox. I have seen foxes several times in the afternoon hunting for their pups.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

It takes a snake quite a while to kill and swallow it's victim so I say fox or dog because it quickly went GULP GULP GULP and left the area.

 

[Flock Leader]

It takes a snake quite a while to kill and swallow it's victim so I say fox or dog because it quickly went GULP GULP GULP and left the area.

I missed this reply before... thank you for responding! We had a few more disappearances since, interestingly enough all were males I was wondering how to place... karma?! Or was it that the males were cocky (sorry for the pun) enough to go to sleep in all sorts of odd locations? Last week, I had a surplus of 6 cockerels. This week I have only 2 left.

 

[Flock Leader]

Well, it could have been anything.....coon, fox, owl, weasel, dog, coyote.......

Coon and coyote are out of the question... we don't live in the US. We do have foxes, feral dogs, snakes, owls, and a variety of prey birds. Oh and we are overrun by wild boar, but I don't expect those would go for chickens...

 

[cafarmgirl]

Wild boar will eat anything, including chickens if they can get to them. Whatever is picking off your birds will keep coming back as long as there is an easy food source.

 

[ChickenLegs13]

It takes a snake quite a while to kill and swallow it's victim so I say fox or dog because it quickly went GULP GULP GULP and left the area.

I missed this reply before... thank you for responding! We had a few more disappearances since, interestingly enough all were males I was wondering how to place... karma?! Or was it that the males were cocky (sorry for the pun) enough to go to sleep in all sorts of odd locations? Last week, I had a surplus of 6 cockerels. This week I have only 2 left. 

You ever noticed that with regular chickens (not store bought house pet type) that when you or an animal enters the pen the young hens naturally shy away and avoid contact and it's the young inquisitive roosters that come foward to greet you and check it out? When they do that to a predator they haven't yet experienced as a threat it leads to their early demise.
My chickens don't see cats as threats and allowed a rogue cat to kill 15 of my young birds this summer. Started out 1 per week, then 1 every 2 days, sometimes 2 per night, then 4 one night, then I caught the cat in the act during broad daylight 10 feet away and shot it. Hatched 50 more chicks since then with 0 loss and haven't had to shoot any more of my cats either.