6 Ducks Gone

[anne23]

So we live out in the country where there are predators. Overall, we haven't had a problem in the 1 year we have had chickens with just one rooster dying due to an unknown predator, we think hawk due to timing. Boyfriend swears he heard the rooster crowing (very distinct, musical crowing) earlier in the day and by 2pmish, I went outside and found a ton of feathers. His head had been ripped off apparently. I had come home from a trip around 10 am but I can't recall if I saw him in the backyard (I thought I had seen him).


Well, the ducks were giving me issues with roosting in the main coop (trying to transition them). They wanted to sleep outside instead of roosting in the coop. Last night, I made the mistake of not rounding them up. Well, sometime between 10 pm and 10 am, all of our ducks were killed. One was still alive but too badly injured to save. One had it's head missing. One is missing but we found a hole near the back of the fence where there were some feathers so something may have dragged them away.


None of the chickens were injured although we only have four outside of the baby run (7 inside of the run that are too small to come out yet).


Boyfriend thinks it's a small dog even though I have never seen a small dog in the area. I think it may be a small fox. The hole is probably six by eight inches. It could also be a raccoon or a possum. We have seen possums in the yard. I think I saw a skunk three nights ago at like 1 am and told my boyfriend. He looked fat.

 

[TheTwoRoos]

Skunks are the ones who bite their head off.

 

[anne23]

Only one had it's head bitten off and another was mostly gone from what I heard (only it's back is how he described it). A third is missing but assumed dragged back.