8 dead. UPDATE

[reveriereptile]

I just checked my chickens tonight and as I walked up to the gate it was moved from the bottom out. We have a piece of plastic hooked from one way and have a chainlink gate leaning up against it the other way to block the bottom opening. I didn't think to much into it till I got walking around and seen part of a wing, then got walking around more and found the chicken. She tried to squeeze through a large crack in the concrete on part of an old garage. I got my FIL and we started counting the chickens and have 3 missing. Something ripped the wing off pretty good since there was a big chunk missing. He thought either a raccoon, skunk, or the neighbors dog. Our dogs usually bark crazily if their is a skunk or raccoon and the dead chicken and 2 of the missing ones were fast. I don't think a raccoon or skunk could of moved the gate and the rest of the fence didn't have any spots that I could see for something to get under at. Also with their being 4 chickens involved I'm assuming it is the dog. My SIL's dog has been in heat and the only other dog that comes down here has been fixed and been coming down for years without attacking any animals. This other dog is a black lab that the neighbors have only had for maybe a few months. Since her dog was in heat it kept coming down here since we live probably two blocks worth of land from the village. My FIL did run him out of our chicken area when he went in to feed them since the dog came in behind him. We have notified the owners of the dog coming down here cause of the other dog in heat and he was knocking our door open and coming into the house. One of the days my MIL drove down cause she seen the dog around earlier and when she got to the owner's house they said it must of been a different dog cause the dog was there but it had the same bright orange collar on it. We don't know what to do since the owners most likely won't keep the dog in their yard and the family has kids that play with it. One of my favorite roosters that just was recovering from a turkey trying to bred it and hurt him is missing. He was one that I planned on taking with me when my husband and me get our own place along with the hen. They are both WLR Cornish Bantams. Another reason we think it might be the dog was cause our dogs don't bark at him. There was a skunk around a while back which there usually is but I don't think a skunk could of gotten a hold of 4 chickens in one night with the chickens being fast. The missing area on the bird was a huge spot that would of had to happen very quick for the bird to of gotten into the crack before it died since the animal couldn't of gotten to the area where it was in the crack. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do? Our dogs are allowed to run free since it is a farm so I'm worried about use calling them or the shelter and them turn us in for our dogs about something or them come up missing. I don't want to see anymore of my chickens coming up missing or the turkeys since one just started nesting.

 

[MysticScorpio82]

I'm sorry for your loss.

 

[reveriereptile]

Anyone have any ideas of what else it could be that killed them? The hen that I found on the side of the breast gone. Looked like maybe something large bit out two hunks of meat going by the shape of the bites and ripped at the wing maybe after the hen got stuck. Found about half of the wing about 20 feet away and the bones looked like they had been bitten with large teeth. I didn't find any feathers around at all for the other chickens. I'm going to look again tomorrow and check the inside of the garage out since some of the hens fly into the garage window to lay eggs in the garage. The one I found dead was a Barred Rock and the missing ones are a WLR Cornish Banty roo, RIR/White Leghorn mixed hen, and a RIR hen. They are all full grown. This is the third year of having chickens and we did have a dog attack before. Last time was similar with chickens gone without any signs, some outside of the fenced area about 10-20 feet away, and others laying around injured. That time I had seen the dog in the attack. It was getting dark out so I'm going to check all the grass areas around the fence incase I find any and to look for injured ones. There is usually someone awake at any time of day or night here so when the dogs bark a bunch we usually check to see what they are barking at. Didn't hear any barking the last couple of nights. Right now we don't have a coop for them since we planned on moving them where they would have a whole building. We have some really tall saw horses that we put plastic over the top and they have roosting spots under it and the nests are in a different area.

 

[horsejody]

It could have been a raccoon. They are very stong, and their paws are nimble and more like hands than animal feet. I have seen an adult racoon move a bale of hay that weighed at least 50 pounds. Don't count them out because you don't think they can move a gate. Their closest relatives are bears. They have great strength for their size.

As for the dog, shoot it if you have to or take it to the pound. If you don't, it will either breed your dog or kill your chickens. If the family really cared that much about their kids' pet, they would keep it at home. If they don't care, why should you? If you wanted a dog like that in your yard, you would buy your own and still not need theirs. If you don't want to shoot or turn the dog in, catch it. Then take a shooting target and duct tape it to the dog. Write on the target, "next time it gets shot." It probably won't make the family any more responsible, but it would be funny.

 

[Tweeza]

Quote:
LOL!!! That is hilarious!! I hope to hear the out come of this!!

 

[reveriereptile]

We just checked today and more chickens are missing along with one of them being my favorite female cornish. We didn't find any bodies laying around but just a few feathers. We think the animal this time went through the garage window since we seen some feathers in the garage from some of the missing chickens. The window doesn't have glass in it anymore and is only 4 feet off the ground. There are also eggs missing. We have ruled out the dog after finding out more evidience. Also my SIL said a family of foxes of been living under her friend's garage in the village. The house is probably a half mile to a mile from here. We also heard some coys last night howling but we aren't sure of it being them cause we have two year old camels next to the fence that they haven't messed with and they have always been around but never near the farm. Also while checking both male turkeys have tail feathers that are broke off. The attack last night had to of happened between 3am-6am. We went out searching around after hearing the coys just incase but they had to be far out. The whole area around our house and barn is just grazing land so their is a long distance without any trees so I'm not sure if a raccoon would travel that far. My FIL had a better look at the chicken last night and said it didn't have a bitten area out of its side but the wing had been ripped and it had ripped the skin and meat from the bird. I also didn't find the piece of wing from last night. It was just bone, feathers, and skin cause of where it had been taken off. We gave the bird to our pigs cause we didn't want it around to cause more animals to come over. So right now we are thinking of foxes, coys, my husband said maybe a barn owl but I doubt it cause of eggs missing too, possibly a skunk (smell them around here lately but don't think it could do that sort of damage) or a raccoon family. Is there anyway to get rid of them? We are going to get the chickens and move them into the barn but they can't stay in the barn cause they need sun and grass. We are also planning on turning the inside corner of the garage into a coop that we can run them into at night and close the door and use for a nesting spot. Also if we were to have a friend come over and do a watch out while leaving a couple chickens in the fence to shoot the predators what would be a good way to stay hidden? Could we just have someone sit on top of the garage? Another reason I don't think it might be a raccoon is that we checked all over the farm and had the dogs with us and checked in the above areas and can't find any signs of any but I'm not going to rule it out though.

 

[countrypreacher]

on top of the garage at night with a rifle would be fun...

If you are interested in finding out what it is and figure out what to do then go get a game camera from wal mart that hunters take pictures of deer with at night. set it up and find out what kind of a problem you have. If it is raccoons or skunks get a trap and get rid of them. If it is coyotes need to stay up one night on top of the garage with a rifle...they are hard to trap....

 

[Birch Run Farm]

Sounds like the work of a fox to me.

 

[reveriereptile]

We finally got our garage-coop built last night. Still needs some stuff done to it but we put all the chickens and turkey hens we had left in it. The two tom turkeys were to big and we thought we would have a hard time fitting them through the whole. We put them in after they had been roosting so it would be easier to do. This is the first night within a few nights we didn't have anything eaten.