Hi I am new here, very frustrated right now........ looking for some ideas, experiences of others?
We had 16 turkeys in a large pen that is chain link fenced, has a top mesh (strong nylon) , all the sides have wire buried into the ground, weighted down with heavy posts inside and rocks outside. This pen is inside our fence that goes all around the property also chain link.
Last night everybody was good, today I came to feed the birds and they were ALL lying down on their sides, first I thought they were sleeping it was fairly early, 6 am, but when I came closer I realized they are all dead!
There were no torn, partially eaten, headless or other wise hurt birds, just as if they fell asleep and died! I started exploring, found a spot of blood and a few feathers in one corner went to check the fence there and found a hole, something dug into the pen from within the property (had to cross, fly, crawl over(?) the outside fence) went in did whatever and left. No feathers outside, no blood, no clues I I can find.
When I was loading the birds onto a buggy I noticed one with a little wound on its back not big just scraped skin and two had blood under their wings but no bites or deeper scratches from a cat like animal or a coyote or?
My first thought was poison, food manufacturer was changed but that was week and half ago, we also have pheasants and meat chickens, they were fine (in different pens) any idea/theory would be helpful.
I am thinking could something crawl in scare the birds so they would have a heart attack? If at least a few survived I would not wonder but all of them is a little bit too strange.
We have never had problems with birds, you loose a few that is understandable we have coyotes, cougars, bobcats, hawks, owls you name it but this was something small like a small dog (judging by the hole) and it just disappeared into thin air......
Normally we have dogs here but my husband took them camping, they are due tomorrow, so hopefully he can find more once he takes some feather off (he is the one doing all the butchering) but any thought will be greatly appreciated .
Thank you very much
Jana
We had 16 turkeys in a large pen that is chain link fenced, has a top mesh (strong nylon) , all the sides have wire buried into the ground, weighted down with heavy posts inside and rocks outside. This pen is inside our fence that goes all around the property also chain link.
Last night everybody was good, today I came to feed the birds and they were ALL lying down on their sides, first I thought they were sleeping it was fairly early, 6 am, but when I came closer I realized they are all dead!
There were no torn, partially eaten, headless or other wise hurt birds, just as if they fell asleep and died! I started exploring, found a spot of blood and a few feathers in one corner went to check the fence there and found a hole, something dug into the pen from within the property (had to cross, fly, crawl over(?) the outside fence) went in did whatever and left. No feathers outside, no blood, no clues I I can find.
When I was loading the birds onto a buggy I noticed one with a little wound on its back not big just scraped skin and two had blood under their wings but no bites or deeper scratches from a cat like animal or a coyote or?
My first thought was poison, food manufacturer was changed but that was week and half ago, we also have pheasants and meat chickens, they were fine (in different pens) any idea/theory would be helpful.
I am thinking could something crawl in scare the birds so they would have a heart attack? If at least a few survived I would not wonder but all of them is a little bit too strange.
We have never had problems with birds, you loose a few that is understandable we have coyotes, cougars, bobcats, hawks, owls you name it but this was something small like a small dog (judging by the hole) and it just disappeared into thin air......
Normally we have dogs here but my husband took them camping, they are due tomorrow, so hopefully he can find more once he takes some feather off (he is the one doing all the butchering) but any thought will be greatly appreciated .
Thank you very much
Jana
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and Welcome To BYC! So sorry about the loss of your flock. You might also want to post in the Predator forum for help with figuring out what you are dealing with 
