Could anyone help me?

[Saku]

Hi! I'm new to the message board so nice to meet everyone. I need some help with predator problems. We had 8 "mohawk chickens" as the family calls them in a converted dog kennel. We thought they were safe as we had covered the top with wire and the rest was chain link but we were wrong. My mother went outside a couple of days ago and discovered a body with its stump of a neck stuck out through one of the links (our best rooster too). The head and neck were gone and the other chickens were fine but it was quite a gruesome and worrying sight. We covered the sides of the pen with even more wire and that night we shuffled all the chickens inside of a kennel and put them inside for the night and set a live trap. We caught nothing at all. So we took them in for a couple more days and continued setting the live trap and after still not catching anything decided it was safe and let them stay out in their pen for the night. Everything was quiet for a couple of days and then yesterday I came outside and my best hen had disappeared also. I live in Minnesota and all I could think of would be either skunk, raccoon, or maybe a weasel but I'm a first time chicken raiser so I have no clue what it could possibly be. If anyone could give me some help or suggest what it might be or how to trap it that would be great!

Thanks

 

[AccidentalFarm]

I'd say raccoon but it could be any number of predators. You can try baiting the live trap with canned cat food, or dare I say..raw chicken (store bought, of course).

You might also go ahead and buy some hardware cloth if you are going to continue keeping the birds in a chainlink pen. Get the very small mesh and wrap it around the kennel about 4 feet high. The birds wont be able to stick their heads out, and coons wont be able to reach through.

Edited to say: Welcome to BYC! Glad to have you here.

 

[Whirlwind]

First of all welcome.

From other post I have read on here kinda sounds like a coon. But unless you see it it you never know for sure. And coons love cat food. Also place a bowl of water in the trap they like to wash their hands. If it is a coon they will go for that eventually. When I leave cat food on my porch they soon find it. I always know cause the cats water gets really dirty and full of mud on the bottom.

Someone on here suggest you dust flour around on the ground and you could look at the tracks and identify that way.

I agree with afarm that you need smaller wire. I would go as small as you can. I use 1/2" cage wire. Nothing can stick its paws in that and only a very small garter snake can get in. Chain link may be ok for some people in a very suburban neighbor hood but not for most people. I live on a creek in a rural area and have all forms of wildlife and so I have my coop completly sealed up. No way for any thing to get in.

So sorry about your troubles. And I would for sure try to get some smaller wire around the bottom if you can.

 

[SpottedCrow]

Sounds like a raccoon to me too...sorry for your loss.

 

[Saku]

Ok thanks alot