Dead Chickens... Untouched!!!

[LAMchop]

Or maybe an ambitious owl, since they were attacked at night. I have heard of owls going into coops. They can be big and bold.
I agree that you would know if it was a coon.

 

[Miltonchix]

Cat/cats
Of 30 killed by a cat I could only find a deep scratch/cut on one of them. It was probably the one that tried to fight back. All others had very small, hard to find puncture wounds to the head and neck.

Those who think a cat will not kill a chicken are.........well, quite frankly fools.

 

[CMV]

Quote:
There is no need for name calling on this forum. Cats are rarely predators to full grown chickens. They also generally eat at least a token piece of their prey even if they are well fed. Just because you had a bad experience with cats does not mean that every dead chicken has been done in by a cat. We are trying to help the OP identify a predator using clues from its MO. Cats are unlikely to be the culprit.

 

[Chickenmaven]

I am sorry for your loss. As others have suggested, you might not discover your predator. I suppose I am wondering "what if" you figure it out. What are you going to do? You have a bunch of birds in the wide open. It's gonna be pretty hard to trap "everything".

I don't want to sound disrespectful, but it seems to me that you could address this problem by securing your birds - now.

 

[midwestmilkmaiden]

Well, thank you for all of the suggestions and help!

I have had my chickens free ranging for 3 years now and have just now started having problems. Since the attacks.. I have started locking them in their coop at night. Which , yes is a pretty simple solution, but still was.. am.. wanting to find out what exactly is the predator.

Funny, someone said maybe it was a determined owl!.. The night after the attack we heard an owl right outside of our window in the nearby spruce tree.. next to the chicken yard!!!..

Maybe??!!! Seems to me that an owl would try and eat something out of the birds too, but again

Anyway, for now, they are safe as long as I continue to lock them up at night.

Thanks All!!!!

 

[Sunny Side Up]

When conducting a CSI: Poultry it helps to look over the body carefully for any breaks to the skin, any broken bones (neck? leg? wing?), and any parts missing. It also helps to look for feathers that fell off during the chase/struggle/capture. There's tell-tale patterns if the bird was chased, or smacked down by a raptor, or taken by a large strong animal. Look also for any prints in the dirt, bird feet with talons, or hand- and footprints of animals. And also check the feathers left on the bird to see if they're wet or disturbed by an animal's saliva.

The chicks you lost in the brush pile may have been taken by snakes. They can slide away unnoticed fairly easily. The snakes around here will sometimes catch & squeeze to death a chick that is too big for them to swallow. When I find a dead chick with its head & neck wet & slimy, but no other injuries, I know it was a snake that regurgitated the chick after it got to its shoulders. If you couldn't find the chicks they could have been taken by a large snake, or perhaps a feral cat bringing food to her litter.

I'm sorry for your frustration, it's so difficult to defend your flock from a predator you cannot identify. Your best general defense is to secure their sleeping quarters with strong sides, top & doors, and keep them in there at night. Next thing is to strengthen the wire around their run, maybe reinforcing the wire along the bottom few feet, maybe burying some of the wire. You can cover the top with netting or run some line across it and hang shiny things like old CDs, mirrors, & wind catchers. You may want to run some hot electric wire around the whole thing, or invest in one of those Night Guard lights.

 

[tdgill]

When conducting a CSI: Poultry it helps to look over the body carefully for any breaks to the skin, any broken bones (neck? leg? wing?), and any parts missing. It also helps to look for feathers that fell off during the chase/struggle/capture. There's tell-tale patterns if the bird was chased, or smacked down by a raptor, or taken by a large strong animal. Look also for any prints in the dirt, bird feet with talons, or hand- and footprints of animals. And also check the feathers left on the bird to see if they're wet or disturbed by an animal's saliva.

find anything yet?​

 

[chickeydee]

It nay be Identifying the predator affecting your flock is essential to control. Use the following guide. Welp Hatchery (39) also has information on predator diagnosis on its web site.

For daytime predators, such as dogs, an electronet fence around the poultry yard provides good protection from ground predators. Other predator controls include moving the house frequently to keep predators off guard, keeping housing away from wooded areas, keeping the housing close to a residence, grazing birds with cattle or other large animals, and grazing on shortgrass pasture, which predators do not like to cross in the daytime, Dispose of dead birds properly to avoid attracting predators.

Signs Predator
Several birds killed
Birds mauled not eaten Dog
Small bites on body; neatly piled; some heads eaten Mink or Weasel
Chicks killed; abdomen eaten; lingering smell Skunk
Only 1-2 birds killed
Birds mauled; abdomen eaten Opossum
Deep marks on head and neck; some meat eaten Owl
Only 1 bird gone; feathers remain Fox or coyote
Adapted from Berry, J. 1999. (40)

Reliable control for aerial predators such as hawks and other daytime raptors is difficult. In addition, birds of prey are protected by federal law from harassment or shooting. Some producers have a lot of hawk pressure and lose several birds per day to hawks; others lose only a few per year.

 

[Wildsky]

Most predators, wild ones would at least take a bite!

A dog would leave blood and torn up feathers and such.

I'm stumped, unless it is a human, disease or poison.

 

[horsejody]

Quote:
That sounds more like the injury from weasels. BTW my barn cats never bother the chickens, and I have some pretty tuff cats. I would only worry about chicks around them.

I wonder if the OP is dealing with a weasel, or possibly more than one predator.