DEAD CHICKS!!!

[buffboy]

I have never in my life seen a mink or weasel around here. Where I used to work yeah, it was filled with weasels but not around here. Not to say they aren't here I just have never seen one. And the snake thing doesn't make sense either. I've never known a snake to kill 7 chicks at once, eat 4 and leave the other 3. Besides if my coop can keep chicks in then if a snake got in and ate 4 of the chicks then how would it get back out? Doesn't it take awhile for them to digest their food? Especially four 1 week old chicks? Baffled! Anyways...I can't afford to redo the entire coop with 1/2 inch hard cloth but I did buy enough to secure all the brood pens. So that is what I am spending the afternoon doing. I am also setting two traps outside the coop tonight baited with the dead chicks I found on the ground this morning. Hopefully catch something and put an end to this massacre!

 

[ChickCrazed]

I have never in my life seen a mink or weasel around here. Where I used to work yeah, it was filled with weasels but not around here. Not to say they aren't here I just have never seen one. And the snake thing doesn't make sense either. I've never known a snake to kill 7 chicks at once, eat 4 and leave the other 3. Besides if my coop can keep chicks in then if a snake got in and ate 4 of the chicks then how would it get back out? Doesn't it take awhile for them to digest their food? Especially four 1 week old chicks? Baffled! Anyways...I can't afford to redo the entire coop with 1/2 inch hard cloth but I did buy enough to secure all the brood pens. So that is what I am spending the afternoon doing. I am also setting two traps outside the coop tonight baited with the dead chicks I found on the ground this morning. Hopefully catch something and put an end to this massacre!

That is a good plan. The only reason I know I have mink is that my neighbor down the road had one kill some of his pigeons and trapped it. They are seriously stealthy, usually only out at night and they do tend to leave at least some bodies when they kill as they like to drink the blood, super sad. I think it could seriously be a mink or weasel since they can get through a mouse sized hole (and mice can fit through the chicken wire) and would explain why you can't figure out how it got in or out.

 

[chick rookie]

WOW!! Sorry for your loss, hope you find out what is doing it and can b take care of the problem.

 

[buffboy]

Thanks chick rookie! Well I set the traps out last night and nothing tripped either one. But no carnage in the coop this morning either. So if it was a weasel maybe it went to someone elses coop last night. But I have heard that a weasel will generally wipe out adult chickens as well right? Just seems weird that what ever it was ate killed 7, ate 4 and left 3 dead. Not to mention they were all sleeping under their mamas wing so it had to get her riled up I would think. Do weasels climb?

 

[buffboy]

For what it's worth I killed a 5 foot long black snake in the coop last night. I didn't realize it was a 5 foot black snake until after the fact. I thought it was a 83 foot anaconda when I first seen it and while I was shooting. Hopefully that will ease the situation for now.

 

[lm84]

Snakes definitely don't kill what they aren't eating. They can't kill more than one at a time, and would have to finish eating the first before moving on the the second. They wouldn't bother killing one and leaving it dead.

 

[buffboy]

Well I agree and still cant figure out what it was. But it wasnt getting out alive regardless. I never felt like a snake was the culprit. Even if it was a weasel it would have to be a small one to get in. And it ate 4 good sized chicks and left 3. All whom were sleeping underneath their mama. And she was unscathed.