Chicken Predator CSI - with crime scene PHOTOS.

[TeamChaos]

What closes the gap between your coop and the ground on the outside of the run? I'm so sorry for your losses.

 

[DianaMallory]

If it was a coon do what the others suggested and kill it. Someone told me that weasels will also kill chickens and they usually just bite their heads off and leave the rest of the chicken behind. We just installed a motion light facing our coop. I live in the woods with lots of threats to my coop, we used mostly hardware cloth to fence mine in. I have had this happen to me before, not making sure my birds had predator proof housing. I lost 17 the first night and 14 the next night. Wiped out entire flock before I ever seen the first egg. So this time I wouldn't even let them go outside until their coop passed my inspection! We even put hardware cloth over the windows that we put in. My very small community were I live just started trapping and killing coons, they were becoming a problem with trash cans,bird feeders and my garden. I think the total is up to 20 now on how many they have killed in a month!
I also don't feed my birds in their yard I feed them only in the coop. We had a cook out last year and left our corn hole game outside, our motion light came on and there was a coon eating our corn hole bags! And he ate every last one of them! Having the feed outside attracts them to the coop. Sorry about your loss. Trust me I know how you are feeling right now. But don't let the predators win! Try again~!

 

[firestrike09]

Listen ive had this happen many times. Normally the reason why the pullet is caught in the claws of the coon is because it is roosting next to the wire at night. At night a chicken is literaly the most apetising creature to any predator. Its an EASY kill. They reach in grab the neck, and then theres NOTHING the pullet can do. Raccoon claws go thru the throat and kill the pullet rather quickly. Then they just eat it thru the wire. U might wanna invest in half inch hardware cloth. They cant reach thru that. Not even mice. Id still trap it, because they do some narly things when food is scarce.

 

[centrarchid]

Listen ive had this happen many times. Normally the reason why the pullet is caught in the claws of the coon is because it is roosting next to the wire at night. At night a chicken is literaly the most apetising creature to any predator. Its an EASY kill. They reach in grab the neck, and then theres NOTHING the pullet can do. Raccoon claws go thru the throat and kill the pullet rather quickly. Then they just eat it thru the wire. U might wanna invest in half inch hardware cloth. They cant reach thru that. Not even mice. Id still trap it, because they do some narly things when food is scarce.

Explain location of chicken torso in second image.

 

[dbarwick]

Unfortunately I've had same experience
Live trap is about $60, best bait is peanut butter.
Our state law says coons can't be released, but can be shot if predator to flock.
It took a week of trapping to get rid of family of coons that took my chicks.
Amazing how smart they are and obviously teach their young the tricks.

 

[firestrike09]

Is there wire on the bottom of the coop part? looks like theres a hole where i my self could crawl in their!?

If it is inclosed then id say to "torso in the second photo" Have u ever cut a chickens head off.... what hapens.? They run around

 

[narnia]

Yep, the bottom of the coop is covered by 1 inch metal wire. It's great for cleaning poop, and I thought it would be predator proof too because the chickens roost 3 feet above (the roost bar is barely showing on the top right of the photo).

And yes, the "torso in the second photo" shows a headless bird in the middle of the run. I think its head was chewed off by the fence, and then the body ran away.

I have included a new picture of the 2 flocks. The older ones are the reds, and the younger ones are the colourful ones in front. All the older birds were untouched. 4 out of the 6 young birds were the ones killed. I think the older birds might have pushed the younger ones off the roost. They got along well, I guess the bullying only happened at night.

 

[centrarchid]

Firestrike and Narnia,

Kill a single bird by decapitation when preparing to eat. Note how long body flops. For present, note how much of bird in coop is missing. Consider how long it took raccoon to do that. Those two pieces of information will force rethink. For fun, place a live-trap in coop using one of the carcasses as bait tonight. I bet you will catch a coon even with door closed!

 

[centrarchid]

Additionally, I predict you will loose more birds tonight or following if you do not interdict.

 

[firestrike09]

.