Chicks Dead

[YellaDog]

We had 12 16 day old chicks. We let them out in a secure yard with aviary net and fencing in the day with momma hen and put them in a large metal bird cage on our porch at night. The last thing is to monitor temps @ night and last night we cobered with a towel and all went to bed fine. Dogs were barking @ 2:30 no problem noted. But this morning all 12 were dead. All had signs of trauma but was minimal in severity. Only one was dramatically injured. And the towel was in perfect position as we had left it. Cage door secure. We are heart broken by the loss. Any advice? They coud not have possibly done this to each other could they?

 

[speckledhen]

Metal bird cage with the usual gaps? Raccoon can easily reach through those. A towel will not deter any predators.

 

[colebarnhart]

Sounds very strange and bizarre! Do you have any pics? Not sure why they would kill each other off and if so there would at least one survivor. I would think it would have to be a predator of some sort, probably a rat, but without pics can't say for sure. How big are the openings between the wire in the metal bird cage?

 

[cupman]

Sounds strange, my experience with raccoons they only seem to take one at a time. Were the chickens eaten at all or were they just killed? It is possible a raccoon was trying to get a meal and simply just reached through and killed them one at a time hoping to be able to pull one out but being unsuccessful. I hate raccoons, their cuteness is very deceiving.

 

[yinepu]

I lost 13 in 2 nights due to raccoons.. they can and will reach through bars and pull them through.. or up to the bars and eat whatever they can pull through. I used to like raccoons until they decided my home was their new buffet. Went out at 3 am one night when the dogs were having a fit and saw the culprits. One really big male (30 or 40 pounds easily), his smaller buddy and a striped skunk.. I had already decided to wage war.. that just showed me who to wage war against!

 

[colebarnhart]

I don't think it was a raccoon because they don't just kill and leave, they kill and eat and would've pulled the towel down to see better what they were reaching at and it wouldn't just be "minimal damage", body parts would be removed from the chix. All predators will typically eat what they kill, the only usual exception to this is a well feed neighbor dog killing and leaving the dead chickens were they lay during free range time and I guess they do it for territorial issues. But anything is possible and without video of the event we can all just speculate.

 

[speckledhen]

I think we're going to need a picture of the cage in question to really give an educated guess.

 

[gjensen]

Sounds like something was trying to get to them and they beat themselves to death trying to get away, or something similar. We know how they freak out when something is trying to get to them. If the harassment is sustained in a small space . . . . . . ?? Maybe the openings are small enough that a raccoon couldn't get them out, but large enough that he could get his hands in ? ?

 

[Ken Phillips]

With out much adieu 'rats' this I know with much certainty.