DEVASTATED. Lessons in newbie chicken-keeping UPDATE on P.3

[ninjapoodles]

We had one bedraggled pullet show up at the chicken yard just before sundown. I was hoping she was just the first of at least a few more, but no more have come. I wish I knew where she'd been hiding, so I could go look there.

So now we have 5 chickens. Yesterday, we had 28.

 

[FisherMOM]

I'm sorry for your loss. I am happy one more showed up though.

sigh, I cannot imagine.

 

[SpottedCrow]

I'm so sorry for your loss, Ninjapoodles...
Sounds like dogs to me too...
Chickens are a great plaything until they're dead....

If you know who's they are, hit em with a nice big bill...and didja call animal control? and take pics...when Tom was killed, I took pics, just in case it wasn't what/whom I thought it was.

There may be more that show up...they can get pretty spooked. have you tried calling them with their "treat" word?

 

[thechickenchick]

That is just awful. I feel so bad for you. Don't beat your self up about it. I know its hard but it happens. That is so sweet that your hubby ordered chicks for you. I have 21 and 4 of them are BO, they are by far my favorite. I have one, Huey, that will walk up to you and wait to be picked up. Except when my hubby bends down to pick her up she pecks him!

I think its funny, him, not so much! Hang in there, your chicken friends are here for you!

 

[ninjapoodles]

Thanks everyone. UPDATE: No more have shown up since that one hen (I wish I knew where she was hiding), so we still just have 5, two cockerels and three pullets. One of the roos is limping badly, but doesn't have any broken skin, just some bruising on either side, under the wing. Whatever got them, judging from the bodies we found, kind of got hold of their backs and crushed them. The injured pullet is carrying one wing oddly, and moving slowly, but is eating and drinking well. Those two will NOT come outside to range, which is fine with me.

We set up the game-cams, to see if we could "catch" the culprit. The camera works via motion sensor, and it was only tripped one time, at 1:07AM...by a FOX. You could knock me over with a feather.

Is it possible that a fox, or family of foxes, were responsible for the massacre, instead of dogs? It was my understanding that a fox carries its prey away to kill and consume. That might explain the 15 that were missing altogether, but the 7 who were just lying around, unmarked and dead?

Right now, we've got a motion-sensor alarm set up that will sound inside the house if ANYTHING moves around the chicken yard, and the .22 at the ready by the back door. I have no idea what to expect any more.

 

[jandmeg07]

I am so sorry to be reading about your tremendous loss. All of our animals are members of our family, so I can't imagine what you have experienced. Our thoughts and prayers are with you! Good for you for being so darn proactive though! That camera is such a great idea and hopefully you'll catch one of the stupid things in the act and scare them or get them with the .22! Good luck!

 

[ivan3]

Sorry, as well, for your losses.

I went back to your post of still captures from the game cam. (looks to be about as vermin heavy as this location). I just wanted to respond, specifically, to your question:

Is it possible that a fox, or family of foxes, were responsible for the massacre, instead of dogs? It was my understanding that a fox carries its prey away to kill and consume. That might explain the 15 that were missing altogether, but the 7 who were just lying around, unmarked and dead?

Yes, it is. We witnessed the aftermath of a duck massacre at our neighbor's pond (winter/frozen over). Some of the ducks were `opened up', some were still alive (barely). The majority were dead but `unmarked' (bite marks on neck breast for most part). This work was done by a pair of foxes. The neighbor shot one and it had been carrying a duck head. This was the same neighbor who lost all thirteen of her Silver Laced Wyandottes last summer, at about four in the afternoon (first day for the pullets to explore the yard and she went inside to get them treats, she came back out and found nothing but a few feathers). This is the more common fox action (also a pair in this case). They kill, or kill while carrying off prey. They cache the prey at a safe location nearby and eat the meal there (I found both cache sites - nothing left but the poor girl's feathers - seven piles in one spot, six in another).

It appears, from your cam shots that you are in a wooded location. If the attack was made by foxes then, it is possible, by searching the woods nearby, you might find the cache site (might even find some buried) where your poor missing guys ended up, it would also give you all a starting point to hunting down the den (look on all areas with good southern exposure (like the southern downslopes).

Foxes are trouble, as they will attack at any time of day (particularly active a couple hours before sundown) and are pretty brazen. We had one of our GSL pullets grabbed up by a fox no more than twenty yards from where we were standing. We got lucky and the fox dropped her, some members here haven't been as lucky. It could be the foxes have been lurking and sizing your flock up while you all have been out enjoying them. I leave `noses' of weeds and bushes uncut when I brush cut along the woodline. When the chooks give the ground pred alert these are the first areas we scan. The foxes think they have cover, they are wrong.

In addition to predator proof coop/shed and six foot, welded wire fencing, we keep three live traps set at all times and at least two leghold sets out (foxes/coyotes). I have found, at this location, with our predator load (avg. 30 raccons a year - 18 foxes last summer/fall) that preemptive retirement of vermin from the target pool significantly decreases the overall frequency of predation.

Another very useful adjunct (if you are home and awake) is a baby monitor in the coop. We keep a cheap $20 monitor cranked up at night and when the chooks/turks so much as start to growl and whine we're able to spotlight and harvest raccoons/`possum before they even get to the traps.

Hang in there and take care.​

 

[okiemommy]

I was guessing foxes as well, especially since you mentioned completely missing birds. Their signature trademarks are completely missing birds, and on the ones that are left, almost no damage at all to the bird except for a few bite marks. I'm really sorry for your loss :aww

 

[ninjapoodles]

Thanks for the input. Hubby just NOW dispatched yet another raccoon, but no sign of fox again yet. Besides the cameras, we put up two motion-sensor alarms that we normally use on our (long) driveway so that we'll know when something's on the move out there.

Belinda

 

[tazzy]

oh, I'm so sorry that happened. We have buff orps, too, and they are just gorgeous, incredible birds.

I wish we lived closer to you. We just had eight buff orp chicks hatch and another broody hen is sitting on six eggs. (We're in Kentucky, way too far from you...)

I'm so sorry for your losses.