Day time kill

L Happy Chicken

Hatching
5 Years
Jul 25, 2014
3
0
7
My 7 year old grandson, Landon's Happy Chickens, are not so happy. Lost 5 more hens and his only rooster yesterday afternoon.
3 were left piled up by the American wire fence and other three were gone but feathers everywhere. The rooster and Dixie Rainbow both were heavy over 12 pounds each. They had bite marks on their necks but not eaten. We have had major problems with dogs but I didn't think a dog could jump the American wire fence. Any thoughts?
 
My 7 year old grandson, Landon's Happy Chickens, are not so happy. Lost 5 more hens and his only rooster yesterday afternoon.
3 were left piled up by the American wire fence and other three were gone but feathers everywhere. The rooster and Dixie Rainbow both were heavy over 12 pounds each. They had bite marks on their necks but not eaten. We have had major problems with dogs but I didn't think a dog could jump the American wire fence. Any thoughts?

Welcome to BYC - so sorry it is under these circumstances.
Can you perhaps show us a picture or offer a better explanation of "American wire" fence? I am afraid that is a term I am not familiar with and it makes it difficult to begin to form much of an opinion about the scenario.
A better understanding of the enclosure will also help narrow the possibility of the three missing birds being taken by the culprit or having "flown the coop" to escape the attack - meaning they *might* be in hiding vs. dead.
That being said - killed and not at all eaten is generally a hallmark of dog(s) - they are killing not for food, but for play, so when one bird dies and is no longer fun to "play" with, they move on to another - until they have wiped out nearly all or all of a flock. Most "wild" predators kill and eat at least some part of at least one of the birds (some do kill for "sport" being worked up into a frenzy by the frenzy of the flock, but still tend to consume at least part of at least one bird, if not parts of all of the dead birds).

You say you have had "problems" with dogs and that you lost "five more" birds this time - how many attacks have there been and were they all within this same enclosure or were changes made after the previous incident(s) to try to avoid future issues?
 
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American wire fence is a livestock wire fence with a space of 3inches by 6 inches at the bottom and gets bigger at the top as it goes up. It looks as the hens were trying to get away from the "critter" and feathers are on both sides of the fence with feathers in the pasture next to our lot. I we have lost about 30 chickens this year, but I thought most of them were night time kills and maybe raccoons, but this was no way raccoons. Not sure if a dog could jump a 4 1/2 foot fence. The barn is tight that they are locked up in at night and now day. Is there a trap that I could set? Thanks for your help. I did catch a neighbors dog killing three hens last Nov., had I not caught them the new neighbor I'm sure would not have told me. We also lost 8 in March and neighbor was bragging that his dogs had gotten one of Landons chickens a few days later but it was on they lot. Thanks for the help.
These are therapy chickens as my grandson has Autism and they have helped him so much and we have to have organic eggs for him. He is doing great but this has been a real setback for him. He is also a 4-H clover bud.

 
It could be a fox. They will kill several at a time, then take them away to stash for later. Dogs don't usually take them, they'll kill them and leave them. The fox will keep coming back, and your fence won't do anything to even slow him down. I would recommend electrified poultry net, from Premier. That was the answer for me, for the fox around here. Or, maybe you could run a hotwire all the way around the perimeter of your existing fence, about a foot off the ground.
 
Thank-you, I bought electrified poultry net today, hoping to get a trail cam. I'm still not sure. DNR first said dogs, I then sent pictures of the bites and they said weasel or mink, but these were big chickens and they were piled up, so still not sure. Thanks again for the help.
 

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