Daytime predator question

[Folly's place]

I know, which is why our birds get out there whenever possible. Right now they are NOT pleased, because they are locked in.
Mary

 

[Arbutus Peregrine]

I know, which is why our birds get out there whenever possible. Right now they are NOT pleased, because they are locked in.
Mary

This too shall pass!! Mine have to live in an 8’x16’ run until I get the netting up in the yard— May/June? I also feel badly but the hawks came a-calling! And city life with flying bantams— the day they flew to the top of my 7 foot fence was the day we stopped free ranging in the yard!! Neighbor yards have dogs and all kinds of dangers. I think chickens are a challenge wherever you live! Especially since the Earth struggles with balance right now. So a lot of desperate critters.

 

[Bonnieg1]

Yet another 'who done it?'
Yesterday, sometime between 11am and 3:30pm, one of our bantam pullets was killed and partially eaten, by someone.
She was about 20 ft. away from the coop, under mature spruces. Her neck was eaten down to the bones, and her abdomen opened and partially eaten. She maybe weighed in at 1.5 pounds alive, so not large, and not carried off.
The other 31 birds were all fine and roosting inside at 5pm when I went to lock them in.
Weasel? Fox? The spruces are close together and about 35 ft. tall there, seems difficult for a hawk, but maybe a small one? Feral cat?
Southern Michigan, rural mostly.
Mary

I am sorry for your loss. We live in Florida and had an extremely upsetting situation a few months back. Rouge raccoon took out 3 of my beautiful Cochins in the middle of the day! Once he came down the tree while we were in the yard. I tried to trap him for a week, but them dang coons are smart and he wasn't having any of it. Caught him in the run, in the middle of the day before he was dispatched. My understanding, it didn't go well. My poor husband! We don't kill creatures around here and he could have been living the good life on the river right now. Damnest thing I ever seen.

 

[msmidwick]

We had opossums eating our chickens last fall and the way yours was killed reminds me of the same cinerio. It happened a couple days in a row. But I doubled the chicken wire around the bottom of the pen and it stopped. How sad. So sorry.

 

[The Brick Coop]

Sorry about your loss! Many years ago hawks took my Biggest and Best exhibition black JG hen. Parts were dragged across the back pasture but many parts were ripped up including the neck down to the bones the length. Found out neighbors watched it. It was an opportunity to see the roundworms and treat everybody for that. No more free-ranging show birds. Shortly after that we caught a mink in one of the live rat traps inside the barn. Surprise! Very very shiny dark fur, blunt-ish face, and stout but longish body. We caught a skunk in another trap near an outdoor pen same day. Took them to a friend's creek in the woods, gave the skunk a head start for several minutes, then let the mink go.