Another "What killed my [neighbor's] chickens?" thread

[avjudge]

We are chicken- & sheep-sitting for our neighbors, and after their first night away, my husband went over and found this.

The chickens had been locked in their winter quarters in the barn while the owners were away, so we didn't have to let them out a.m./put them in p.m (their summer quarters are a coop and run elsewhere on the property). The barn door was open overnight as it has been warm, and they thought the chickens were adequately protected.

I'm unsure what other than bear would rip through 1" lumber, but an 8" tall hole seems too small for a bear. And my husband thought the scratch marks showed a pretty small paw for a bear. 3 chickens were dead inside, one you see on the aisle floor, and the other 3 were gone.

There was some dark hair caught on the wood, pictured in my hand. It was quite soft, not coarse.

These neighbors have a history of losses to bears - many years ago their first chicken tractor was broken into, several years ago they had the electric fence of the chickens' summer run off during the day and a bear went through it before dark, and 3 years ago a bear ripped through the summer coop side (avoiding the electric fence of the run). They had sworn off chickens when a mysterious hen wandered into their yard two winters ago so they got companions for her the next spring. They've also lost hens to a weasel in the pictured winter coop many years ago, hence the hardware cloth behind the fencing.

So - small bear? Strong raccoon?

Whatever it was, it seems you need Fort Knox around here to protect chickens - the only thing that has not yet failed is electric fence, when it's on (which unfortunately makes it subject to human error).

 

[sourland]

Sure looks like bear hair. How deep is that coop? Would it have been possible for a bear to reach in and snag panicking chickens? Another possibility is a dog/dogs.

 

[nuthatched]

I vote bear for that type of destruction, maybe a young bear.

 

[avjudge]

I think the coop is about 10'x10' and the animal definitely went all the way inside; the dead chickens inside were about 1/2 way back from the front, next to their feeder which had its lid knocked off and some feed spilled out (though it was still upright and mostly full). Also, the hair was on a splintered side of the hole, clearly pulled off as the animal squeezed through.

Bears are definitely the #1 chicken predator in our town - it's not just these neighbors that have had bear troubles. Throughout NH we're advised not to feed birds from April through October because it invites bears into yards, habituating them to humans.

The other predators I see signs of (and that these neighbors have lost chickens to, but decades ago) are foxes and weasels, but they're relatively simple to keep out (don't free range, lots of hardware cloth!) and clearly weren't the perpetrators here. I don't hear of raccoon problems.

So sounds like (young, smallish) bear it is . . .

I feel so bad for our neighbors!!! Getting these chickens was the classic "triumph of hope over experience" for them.

I'm also going to be paranoid about our own for a while. They're behind poultry netting 24/7, locked into a tractor/coop overnight, and every night in bed I worry if I remembered to close the switch (reenergize the fence) after closing them in. I'm also preparing their winter quarters, building a coop inside our barn with a run to be added outside of that. I'll be sure to get the electric fence around that before the chickens are moved in. And I hope this is the kick in the pants my husband needs to get some electric strands on the fence around his beehives.

 

[McChooky]

Nothing else can bust solid wood like this but a bear.I just saw one a mile from my house a couple weeks ago.After that I ordered a fence charger and got it today.

 

[WIchickMama]

Cub maybe...otherwise do you have badgers or something similar?

 

[Mosey2003]

A fox could have come along after the bear ripped the board open and carted some off too?

 

[cmom]

I agree. I have electric wires around my coops and pens with a very powerful fence charger that will knock your socks off and will hurt. I've never had a bear test it but other predators have and when they do they don't test it again. Years ago I had the wires on a timer but the timer eventually died so now I just leave the wires on. The voltage on my wires is 10,000+ volts. Some people bait their hot wires to get the predators to touch the wires with their more sensitive parts such as their nose, lips and tongue. Good luck...

 

[avjudge]

Thanks, @ChickensComeHome2Roost, that's what I thought but the hole seemed so small for an animal that usually seems so big! But googling tells me that young bears can be under 100 pounds well after they're weaned.

I sent my father the pics I posted here & he shared them with the local highway department road agent, who drives the road to check things out on his way in to work in the mornings. He reports that he's seen 2 young bears near that house (~5am), probably the very culprit(s).

I just remounted my fence alert light on my own netting so that it faces the house, and makes consistent contact & therefore reliably stops flashing when the fence is on. If it flashes all the time it doesn't tell you anything useful! Now I should be able to look out from the kitchen after everything is shut up and know something is wrong if I see it flashing.

Also I tell myself, when my husband's dog digs holes under shrubs, next to stone walls, in the middle of the lawn, etc, that I really do think he discourages unwanted visitors. Especially during the day. Not completely, of course - the droppings, I believe fox, on the slope of the lawn overlooking the poultry fence & tractor show that they will seize their chance to check things out. But so far (knock wood) - and this goes back decades - we haven't had the bear problems that others in town have had. And that's in spite of the fact that we have practically a game superhighway just down the road from us, where our land provides an unbroken corridor from the mountainside across the road to the intervale and river beyond. But of course I will never take that for granted! Food and trash are always indoors, poultry fence & the horse fence in which the beehive enclosure sit are always hot. Fingers crossed that's enough.

 

[McChooky]

Thanks, @ChickensComeHome2Roost, that's what I thought but the hole seemed so small for an animal that usually seems so big! But googling tells me that young bears can be under 100 pounds well after they're weaned.

I sent my father the pics I posted here & he shared them with the local highway department road agent, who drives the road to check things out on his way in to work in the mornings. He reports that he's seen 2 young bears near that house (~5am), probably the very culprit(s).

I just remounted my fence alert light on my own netting so that it faces the house, and makes consistent contact & therefore reliably stops flashing when the fence is on. If it flashes all the time it doesn't tell you anything useful! Now I should be able to look out from the kitchen after everything is shut up and know something is wrong if I see it flashing.

Also I tell myself, when my husband's dog digs holes under shrubs, next to stone walls, in the middle of the lawn, etc, that I really do think he discourages unwanted visitors. Especially during the day. Not completely, of course - the droppings, I believe fox, on the slope of the lawn overlooking the poultry fence & tractor show that they will seize their chance to check things out. But so far (knock wood) - and this goes back decades - we haven't had the bear problems that others in town have had. And that's in spite of the fact that we have practically a game superhighway just down the road from us, where our land provides an unbroken corridor from the mountainside across the road to the intervale and river beyond. But of course I will never take that for granted! Food and trash are always indoors, poultry fence & the horse fence in which the beehive enclosure sit are always hot. Fingers crossed that's enough.

Thanks! Keep us posted!