5 dear chickens heads and necks gone

[lexingtonsheep]

A hawk or owl
. They grab a chicken by the head and fly off and body falls off or eat where they are if no disruption. The brains are all they want because it has some kind of nutrient they need

 

[AGeese]

Just want to thank everyone for your thoughts and kindness. It really means a lot to have others like all of you share and wish us condolences.

There is definitely a large barn owl that lives around. Though again I’ve only see it at night. But it’s big, like wingspan of 4-6 feet it seems. I’ve had it fly off ver my head twice and it could feel the wind after. Again I’m gonna guess our chickens died around 8 or 9 am. So surprised if it were owl. Also all 5 were gotten.

I’ve seen Possums twice. Though neighbor killed one last year. I did see a baby walking through the chicken run one morning about 8 months ago. It climbed up one of the large spruce trees in our yard.

It’s been years since I’ve seen a Racoon, 5 maybe?

Did see a skunk about a year ago, under fence in run.

Also red fox in field that will walk through our yard at night.

So who knows. Whatever it was it was in the morning around 8:00am. Plenty of sun, Sunrise right now is around 6:00am

Anyway, figure this information is good for someone in the future. Guess we’ll have to build our coup into fort nox and let the chickens roam only when we are out.

I fear this myself as a free ranger. I do have geese on watch and they're good at it, but the chickens tend to wander at times so right now I'm working on fence. I have a dog, but he and my gander don't get along so once I have the fence finished I can raise up a guardian dog. I also have plans for a rooster, but that's down the road.

Pictures of the coop would be good.

 

[McChooky]

I fear this myself as a free ranger. I do have geese on watch and they're good at it, but the chickens tend to wander at times so right now I'm working on fence. I have a dog, but he and my gander don't get along so once I have the fence finished I can raise up a guardian dog. I also have plans for a rooster, but that's down the road.

Pictures of the good would be good.

Adding hot wires to a chicken tractor gives them all the protection they need. I started attaching insulators to mine today .