first trip out of town dosn't fare so well

[phrogg]

left town yesterday about 11 am. I had a friend come and close my coop at dark, around that time, the friend called. He says he only sees 5 chickens out of 39. I had him leave the coop open.

30 birds, 7 weeks old
9 birds 4 weeks old

came home today to 18 older chickens in the coop looking very frightened and with slicked feathers as they had stayed out that night.

There were 4 chickens laying around the coop dead. Most had just one thigh and some surrounding meat missing with essentially no inards.

4 more chickens were laying more toward my home and one was found in the driveway of the neighbors on the other side of my house.
most were just the damage reported previously, one was just the spine and head basically.

So, I lost 17 or so chickens in like 8 hours of daylight.

I think this must have been one of the neighbor dogs, the home where one was found has 3 dogs that keep the coons and groundhogs under control, but I have a feeling that it was not them for some reason. One of the other neighbor dogs has killed on bird before but it was taken to their home and not eaten, I don't think there is anyway presently to really figure out what happened but I just thought I would share and see what kind of comments people had.

I am planning on not leavig the birds out anymore unless I am on the property, and hopefully these educated birds will pass on some knowledge to some future birds i may order. Once they are fully grown I imagine it will be harder for something to kill so many in such little time. I hope to leave them free range all the time again in the future

 

[Hillbilly Hen]

sorry for your loss

 

[k2chickens]

I am so sorry to hear this

It seems like there are so many predators that it is impossible to pinpoint just one! The only thing I could think of is that maybe some of the younger ones could have died from weather conditions maybe they got to cold cause I know my 4 week old chicks can't stay outside at night with this weather. So that might be the reason for some of them dying although it sounds to me like they were just being tormented by a predator!

I hope the best to the rest of your chicks and hope they will all be fine till you get home. Sorry for your loss!

 

[silkiechicken]

That sucks. Sounds like maybe dogs got them, did some killing, and then during the night, coons and scavengers came out to eat. Makes it harder to find the first reason. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Tala]

How close is the neighbor that was supposed to close up the coop? Like can they see your yard from their house/yard?

Kinda seems suspicious that the chickens are laying around dead everywhere around the coop, but he could only find 5. Like maybe he knew more than he was telling? He doesn't happen to own any dogs?

(I'm a really suspicious person, as you can tell)

 

[phrogg]

the person that came to close the coop lives several miles away, they were not involved nor are withholding any information about the chicken party.
The smaller ones were fine in the weather.

have a good day