Chicken CSI: help solve a murder

[TexasVet]

Quote:
My neighbor has 18 cats, and I haven't caught a single one of them going after my hens. Bobcats are a different story.

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.ChickenTrackin.com

 

[mikeksfarmer]

Ok I think I should win a prize here. Every thing except the digging suggests a raccoon. You have an excessive digger who can also hunt in trees. Grey Fox!

 

[Iowa Roo Mom]

Best guess is a fox. Put a little flour around the coop to get some tracks. There is an obvious difference in the tracks of a canine and feline.

 

[Blackbird]

Quote:
X10!!!! LOVE Abby!

 

[Peeper7]

We have raccoons that dig like crazy under the barn walls throwing huge rocks out of the holes. At least we think it is the raccoons. Trapped 4 recently. Never saw other critters and nothing has bothered my roosting birds in the tree... yet

 

[Bizzybirdy]

RACOON(S)....used to climb a 40 ft. tree and get my chickens that roosted there years ago. Would chase them across the fied in the middle of the night leaving only feathers! They are VERY fast and agile. I lost almost 20 chickens before I got a killing shot at one.

Had to pen all my chickens and put them in houses at night. Not more killed since, except for my pet cat. RACOON, again.

But I caught and dispatched it the next night.

Also had them pull a hen's head through chain link and rip it off. What you have is typical racoon killings. Good luck stopping them. I have hot wire and sheet metal around my chicken pen and sheet metal around the tree bottoms here. Aaarrrggghhh...like Ft. Knox. lol

 

[chookchick]

I am voting for raccoon also, let's look at the evidence:

--the perp reached through the wire to rip feathers off a rooster. This suggests very agile small hands (what kind of wire is this--hole sizes?) I think this would be difficult for a fox to do if the holes are not large.

--the perp moved a 4 by 4 post, this perp is very strong (once again, how large is this post, what is weight?). I think a house cat would have difficulty with that.

--the perp climbed into a tree and grabbed chickens. Could a fox really do that?

--the attacks all occurred between 4-6 AM, a favorite time for coon attacks. If the perp was a cat, I doubt he would only be a night-time hunter, same with dog.

Raccons may look lumbering, but I have seen them move extremely fast, and I have also mistaken a coon for a cat more than once.