- Apr 14, 2013
- 13
- 1
- 55
Good afternoon fellow chicken lovers,
We woke up this morning to a massacre in the chicken run. Partly my own fault as I completely forgot to close the coop door last night. I won't make that mistake again. Anyway, we had 30 chickens, nine of which are in a separate run inside the main one, as they are not quite mature yet. None of them were bothered.
Two of our adults are missing altogether. Two were dead with mainly head injuries. One was still alive but had lost an eye and its head was very damaged. We had to cull that one. Therefore, we are down five chickens due to an attack.
There are two spots around the fenced-in run where there are maybe a couple inches of space on the ground where something could have gotten in. In both spots, there are a lot of feathers on the ground. And, the wire fence is bent in a bit. Something very strong and very agile (and quite small) got in. It appears to have dragged two of the chickens away completely and attacked only the heads of the other three. We're guessing it was a fisher cat. Question, will a fisher cat return again and again like a raccoon? Do you think that's what it was? Any ideas, besides locking them up at night, for keeping our flock safe? I have been reading about fisher cats and it seems they're solitary except in mating season, and they don't have any identifiable sleep pattern, in other words they'll hunt both day and night.
We woke up this morning to a massacre in the chicken run. Partly my own fault as I completely forgot to close the coop door last night. I won't make that mistake again. Anyway, we had 30 chickens, nine of which are in a separate run inside the main one, as they are not quite mature yet. None of them were bothered.
Two of our adults are missing altogether. Two were dead with mainly head injuries. One was still alive but had lost an eye and its head was very damaged. We had to cull that one. Therefore, we are down five chickens due to an attack.
There are two spots around the fenced-in run where there are maybe a couple inches of space on the ground where something could have gotten in. In both spots, there are a lot of feathers on the ground. And, the wire fence is bent in a bit. Something very strong and very agile (and quite small) got in. It appears to have dragged two of the chickens away completely and attacked only the heads of the other three. We're guessing it was a fisher cat. Question, will a fisher cat return again and again like a raccoon? Do you think that's what it was? Any ideas, besides locking them up at night, for keeping our flock safe? I have been reading about fisher cats and it seems they're solitary except in mating season, and they don't have any identifiable sleep pattern, in other words they'll hunt both day and night.