dead chickens. Canabalism

[50-45-1]

I have never seen a weasel where I live.

I have lived here for 60 years and the only 2 i have ever seen her are the two i caught after they had killed a bunch of my birds the night before. here is a website that shows the habitat of the weasel in the US.
https://nhpbs.org/natureworks/longtailedweasel.htm
I dont know if this is your problem preditor or not, but i wish you luck tonight. Hope you get what ever it is.
This is the weasel i caught last fall

 

[Cryss]

I have lived here for 60 years and the only 2 i have ever seen her are the two i caught after they had killed a bunch of my birds the night before.

And the reason you saw them is because you caught them. Until then they were as invisible as the others you aren't seeing.

 

[gtaus]

...And so is my 223 ammo supply. I am putting on my night vision scope and sitting in wait starting tonight. I have plenty on leg hold traps. I hate killing other animals like this but it has to be done.

I'd put out traps. I have those live traps for predators, but you can dispose of the catch if that is what you want. Sorry for your loss, but I have a suspicion its not your chickens eating themselves. Sounds like you feed them well and they are healthy. Please update the thread if/when you find out what is killing your birds.

 

[cmom]

I have never seen a weasel where I live. Coons are abundant and so are cats.
And so is my 223 ammo supply. I am putting on my night vision scope and sitting in wait starting tonight. I have plenty on leg hold traps. I hate killing other animals like this but it has to be done.

I have done that and sat. Of course the night I did it nothing showed up. Then I put a camera up and my predator was an owl. If you have a game camera you might also want to put it up and then you will know what you're dealing with.

 

[usmcpilot06]

Another bird this morning, nothing on the game cam. It was on all night. only one pic of dog when he went in there with me this morning. This time it stuck around long enough to eat almost the whole bird, not much left. The other two remaining birds refuse to go in the coop and I don't blame them. They hide somewhere. Tonight I will watch and see where they go.

 

[centrarchid]

Another bird this morning, nothing on the game cam. It was on all night. only one pic of dog when he went in there with me this morning. This time it stuck around long enough to eat almost the whole bird, not much left. The other two remaining birds refuse to go in the coop and I don't blame them. They hide somewhere. Tonight I will watch and see where they go.

Show picture of kill. Any signs of struggle?

 

[Mrs. K]

I think that you have a coon. The young coons are moving now and they like easy meals.

 

[cmom]

There are usually different sensitivity levels on most cameras. Make sure it is set on high sensitivity. I have some places where I have multiple cameras on an area from different angles and sometimes more than one will get a picture while another one won't. You can see another camera was set off in the background. Different view.

You can see lights in the background from different cameras and there is a coyote but hard to see.

 

[centrarchid]

Place camera up to view location bird lost was roosting in last night. Bait with marshmallows. Cage remaining birds in a different location for night.

 

[usmcpilot06]

I moved the last two birds to another location for the night. Set up my trail cam and got six pics of coons, could be the same one, not sure, but the pics were from 12:30 am to 4:30 am. 4am a black cat. At midnight another cat, yellow. 11:30 a black cat. 10:20 a black cat., I just have the whole neighborhood stopping by. I am getting a night vision scope. Can't see to shoot in the dark.