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

[Finnie]

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

I was thinking along similar lines. Depending on how early in the night the bear made that hole, all manner of other predators could have gone in and compounded the problem.

 

[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.

My coop would last about 2 minutes if a young one decided it wanted the chicken feed or chickens

 

[rbcss]

if you have bears in the area I would make sure I would have a electric fence hooked up. I did some research for my area and would want to have enough power to carry at lease 5 joules. And have the fence at 3 different levels. One low and the next a foot up and the top about 3 feet up. You want to so when they smell around they get their nose zapped. A couple of zaps would normally deter them for a while.
I have all most everything around that wants to get to chickens. While I'm sort of new to chickens that's how my neighbors have protected thier flocks.

 

[DoozyWombat]

I see you're in NH, and that is in the range for wolverines. That hole looked too small for even a young bear, but a wolverine could easily rip through wood like that and get in and out. The hair also fits.

You might look at the wood for claw marks, and show them to someone who knows the animals. I don't know if you can tell the marks between the two animals, but since one is a weasel and one is a bear, I expect there would be differences.

Also, I would expect a small bear to eat one chicken and leave. But a weasel will kill the whole flock. Since you have an uneaten chicken killed and left behind, my money is on wolverine.

 

[avjudge]

I see you're in NH, and that is in the range for wolverines. That hole looked too small for even a young bear, but a wolverine could easily rip through wood like that and get in and out. The hair also fits. . .

Also, I would expect a small bear to eat one chicken and leave. But a weasel will kill the whole flock. Since you have an uneaten chicken killed and left behind, my money is on wolverine.

No, we don't have wolverines in New Hampshire. I did find a map showing that we are in their historic range, but no part of the eastern US is part of their current range.

And every time a bear has gotten in to our neighbors' coop it has taken out the entire flock, so they definitely will kill all.

(Actually I don't know much about the first incident, decades ago, except that the bear ripped open a tractor that the neighbors then left in their garden until they offered it to us last summer and we fixed it up. But this is the 3rd flock they've lost since I've been kept up on events, in the last 8 or 10 years.)

 

[ColtHandorf]

my money is on wolverine.

That was my first thought too, a wolverine could do damage like that.