Cannibal chickens! Help!

[WillowHens]

The predator eats the neck, head, and some of the body, usually leaving the legs alone. There is usually very little blood, if any, despite the bad injuries.

Our surviving adult chicken made it through the night (but sounded mournfully depressed this morning), so I guess we plugged the hole the weasel used to get into the house. Though the trap was AGAIN shut and the bait gone, even though I put the trap inside the run. Obviously, it's not a fox or cat - nothing that big could get through the chainlink fence to get to the trap.

We're thinking of ripping out the run and making a new, Ft. Knox-style run so our new batch of chickens that we are raising in the barn will be safe any time of the day or night.

 

[farmer boy]

ya it has to be small for eating like that and getting through places like that .. do you have any roos ??? if you do and if he is brave he will face a rat or a weasel but if it is not brave it will just run and hide lol

 

[Whispering_Raven]

WOW Willow! That is quite a tragic and heartbreaking story. So you found that it was definitely a weasel? I had no idea a weasel could do that much damage! I don't think we have any around these parts, but good to know anyway.

If you're going to scrap your old style for a new style, make sure you raise it from the ground a bit. I use 8x8x8 timbers cut from the local sawmill but I know some of the older farmers around here just use concrete block. The timbers are heavy as H E double hockey sticks so make sure you get some strong eye candy to move them.....once, or twice! LOL!

Best of luck to you!!!!

Tracy

 

[Sylvestor12]

That sounds about exactly like a racoon attack. They can bend car plates with ease and are one of the smartest chicken killers you can come across. I'd look up homemade racoon traps, almost anything that works. Racoons can build up families killing many at once. I'd try to get a nuisance liscense to try to kill them. If you can do it, try getting a few wildlife cameras and film multiple parts of the coop and run at night to try to figure it out for sure. I'm really sorry for your hens.

Just for off the record if you can't legally get anything and you're out in the middle of nowhere you could probably shoot them and leave the body for the flies. I don't recomend it exept for the LAST RESORT.

 

[WillowHens]

Success! We bought a bigger trap since the smaller one wasn't catching the intruder when it stole the bait. We placed the trap inside the fenced chicken run, and just last night, we woke to find the trap occupied with the killer.

It was a raccoon! I'm still SHOCKED that the animal could get into the pen - I walked around the pen again this morning looking for ways in, and I couldn't find any obvious holes. It is a smaller raccoon, but I still don't know how it's getting inside the run, let alone the coop. Can raccoons jump and climb very well? It is possible that it climbed the coop wall and forced its way through a vent hole at the top of the roof, but I don't know if it could have exited the coop the same way, unless it is a good jumper.

Another idea I had was that it may have been able to open a small, chicken-sized sliding door that connects the coop to the run, which we close to lock the chickens in the coop. It's a guillitine-style sliding door that we can operate with a rope and pulley system from outside the pen. I wonder if it was smart enough to somehow slide the door up... It is made from smooth painted wood without any texture or features that can be grabbed, and the bottom of the door sheaths an inch and a half into the door frame (so you can't reach under it to pull up on it), but perhaps it was able to open it somehow.

It beat the heck out of the trap as it tried to escape all night, bending some wires and slicing its paws in the process - blood was everywhere in the trap. Even being a small guy, it is obviously strong and dangerous.

So now I have to read up on raccoons and determine how to prevent future attacks - I gather there will be more out there in the woods and fields surrounding my house. I might keep baiting the trap inside the coop to see if this one had any help during the earlier raids, who may still be poking around.

Thanks to everyone for providing help and suggestions! It was comforting to have your support. If anyone has any experience with raccoons, please feel free to drop some comments in here!

Thanks again!

 

[Nicole01]

I'm glad you caught it! Yes, raccoons can climb up walls/wire/wood/ect... I'd be securing your run and coop top to bottom with hardware cloth and wood! Raccoons are extremely smart. They can unlatch doors as well and open them.

Last night I actually forgot to shut my run door. I leave the coop open at night leading into the run due to the heat. I got very lucky and nothing got in. Just a week ago a skunk was at our run trying to get in. I could smell a faint skunk smell all along the run in the morning.