After 6 months, something finally got most of my chickens. Who dun it?

[wmcdow]

Chicken run: 4 ft wide hardware cloth on the bottom that is aproned at the bottom. Deer netting across the top to deter birds. Chicken wire on the upper portion.

Saturday night attack: I forgot to lock them up. There were feathers all over the yard of each kind of chicken I have but it turned out there only 1 was missing. It looked like whatever it was was chasing the chickens all over the place. Evidence: Only feathers. Suspect: Dog. I saw the neighbor's dog circling the run later than evening. The chickens have been locked up in their run ever since. Casualties: 1.

Sunday night attack: Still locked up, I check on them Monday at noon. Two of my silkie bantams have vanished. Feathers of my white silkie are on one side of the run. No evidence of any digging or break in. My run is pretty secure (so I thought). Suspect: Human....up until I found my black silkie's head near it's eaten body and a few of my white silkie's feathers about 15 yards away. Suspect: Mink. Casualties: 2.

Tuesday night attack: I lock them in the run and also lock them up in their coop and remove the ramp. I wake up this morning to find two dead chicken bodies laying in the run and 1 dead chicken in the nesting box. They died differently than the previous attacks. All three chickens had their head and neck chewed on and that was all. Suspect: Racoon?

I ordered a trail camera that I will be setting up. Is this the same predator? What is most likely? I live in Mississippi.

 

[wmcdow]

 

[Brookliner]

Any weazel like a mink or a long or short tailed weazel or a racoon could go over the top of your run by climbing. Chicken wire is only good for keeping chickens out of your vegetable garden it takes 1/2" hardware cloth to keep predators out. You might have accidently locked the predator into the coop if there were places for it to hide ...think something the size of a mink. Now that you know that you have a predator problem it is in your best interest to tighten up your coop security.

 

[bbhorsefly]

I wouldn't suspect three different predators three consecutive days the first time you've dealt with attacks. Seems more likely to me to be the same predator coming back to the same place it got a tasty meal the night before. It would appear to me, as it's gotten more comfortable and a fuller belly, it moved from dragging the kill away/eating the entire thing, to now killing more for sport and a "snack."