All Six Hens Are Gone. What Killed Them?

[sapphireriver]

I had a skunk dig under a fence and kill 2 chickens. It was a skunk because of the smell and we caught it in a trap. Raccoons like to have running water near by. We only have a pond and no raccoons lately. (There used to be ditches with flowing water, not anymore. We have not seen raccoons since then.)

There's a small creek down the wooded hill behind my house. It's about 400 ft from the chicken coop.

 

[McChooky]

I still haven't put my electric fence up or put the ground rods in the ground yet.I haven't had any issues here because my chickens are in predator proof coops and runs.I don't trust bears at all.They'll flip a coop upside down to get to the chicken feed.

 

[Judy Todd]

Anyone want to help me figure out what killed all my chickens? I had six full grown hens that free ranged in the two acre, fenced in field in front of my house in upstate South Carolina. Two of them were found dead without their heads. All that we found of the others was either feathers scattered in the field or nothing at all. A decent size freshly dug hole was found under the fence near a large pile of white feathers. The white hen's body was found a good distance from most of her feathers. The other dead hen was a good ways away from both the other dead hen and the hole under the fence. One hen may have been in the coop from the feathers left in it, but all the other scattered feathers and the two bodies were in the field. I saw all the chickens alive and healthy around 2pm on Monday and believe the killings took place later that afternoon. My kids noticed the pile of white feathers that afternoon but couldn't tell what it was. We didn't find out about the attack until the next day. Thoughts on what the predator(s) might have been?

We had chickens for two and a half years and have had one picked off here and there, but never had all of them killed. We have red shouldered hawks around, but the crows mostly keep them in check. Lots of people around us have dogs, but I've only seen random dogs come into our field once in the five years we've lived here. I can occasionally hear coyotes in the distance. I've never seen a raccoon around my house, though they are occasionally in our area they are not a common problem. There are lots of trees around the edges of the field.

Someone on the subject said that coyotes do not dig, wrong, wrong, that is the only way they have gotten my chickesn. Had one dig under and kill 3 chickens and my cat in just an hour. Did not see the loose dirt left there from repair of drainage area. I was gone on
only a short time running erands. I now block my fences along 3 plus acres with large logs.

 

[sapphireriver]

The camera has been up for about a week and hasn't caught photos of anything except the sheep that also live in the field.

 

[TOR]

Just me I would have put the camera by the hole in the ground where the predator gained entry. How big is the hole which was dug. Might be able to tell the size of the animal. Could the animal be able to lift the fence up some with its back crawling under the fernce?The fenced area can it be climbed like by a raccoon. If the fence could have been climbed than maybe just looking for a digger.

Just throwing out ideas.

 

[Chicken mob]

Possibility of foxes? So sorry to hear about your chickens

Probably coyotes

 

[featherhead007]

I got a game camera this afternoon and set it up facing the now empty coop. I guess I'd call where I live suburban edge. There's actually a neighborhood just on the other side of my long driveway that goes alongside the field the chickens lived in. Their backyards back up to my long driveway.

“Now empty coop” breaks my heart

 

[bizybirdie]

I am also in SC and had similar situations, both at night tho. Once was raccoons that dug under pen. Another time was sn owl that snatched hen off tree limb roost. Owls will rip off head 1st too, so prey can be easily carried away. I know it was owl 2nd time, as there must have been a struggle on ground & owl left some feathers behind, that did not belong to white hen.

 

[Wot The Flock]

Once a predators had a free meal it will always hunt your chickens. They also teach their young to kill them too. You don't have one you have a family.

Given the spread of the remains, I would agree. It will most likely be a mother teaching the young.

That is what we determined with next door's chicken massacre, mother fox and probably three young at least (Australia, so I don't know about your raccoons etc). There were two kills in the coop/run, the other three were in three different directions a fair way away.

It may be something other than a fox, given some had just their heads chewed off. These local foxes left nothing but feathers. Although, I think they may kill all the birds they can find, and come back later for the rest (or to cache the kills).

Another thing about foxes, they don't just hunt at night (mainly at night though). They are active during the day when it is cool - others have had their free-rangers taken at 3pm in winter, this was local to me. That was on an aussie forum, and when I first read the post about the free ranging in the paddock, my first thought was foxes. Six months later, fox or foxes got them, during the afternoon. And we have a lot of eagles in the area as well. Our eagles are pretty big, and anything under 10kg is in danger of being taken, including small dogs.

 

[Gardening Gal]

Once a predators had a free meal it will always hunt your chickens. They also teach their young to kill them too. You don't have one you have a family.

I had a raccoon kill 18 of my young 12 week old chicks. My hubby caught the momma because she couldn't get back in after we put chicken wire over the top of the run after that but then the next night she came back with her 3 kids and he watched them squeeze through a little 6" square opening. They got 4 more before he could get in to stop the carnage. I have 4 left out of 26 chickens. I cried most of the day and I am still devastated. Not sure I want to get anymore chicks. Like they did it just for fun. Didn't eat them, just took their heads off and left their bodies.