Fox, coyote, raccoon?

packmomma

Songster
10 Years
Mar 10, 2009
354
0
129
Argos, IN
I have coyotes running the fields, fox with babies across the street in the neighbors woods and a day ago I found a raccoon in my coop run when i let the chickens out in the morning.
Last night I was a dumb butt and forgot to close up the coop. Around what I am guessing is about 5am one of my chickens (the best layer to be exact) was stolen from my coop. She had just got done laying an egg and was down on the ground. The rest were on the roost. I went out at 6 and saw tons of feathers in the coop, more outside. We have a fence that has squares that start at the bottom at about 2 inch go to 3 inch and then finally 4 inch squares the rest of the way up the fence. Its like cattle panel. I have a two foot piece of chicken wire to help keep the cats out. The chicken was dragged through the 2 inch squares or maybe the 3, then taken off our property to a bushy area with lots of cover and was eaten there. The only thing left was the back(completely picked clean) and the feet. I looked for prints but it had rained really hard and all are gone. I found a pile of poop pretty close to it. It was gray color with obvious berry seeds in it. The rest just looked like it had been eating grains or something. It sorta looked like softer dog poop. It was around the size of a females palm. Any ideas? I"ve searched the net for poop pictures and looked on here for the preditor list. Just hoping someone could help.
 
I'd say a fox, based on your description of the elimination. However, that doesn't mean what left that killed or ate your chicken. A coon or fox can do the same type damage to the carcuss. Whatever did it wouldn't need to get into the run, it could just snatch her if she came too close to the fence. So sorry for your loss.
 
this thing can fit through a 4 inch square, then they had to go into the coop. Only one chicken was killed, it left the others alone. The only reason I know it was at dawn was because she had layed an egg, but the egg was cold so it had been a bit. I have seen something around in my garden that looked like a cocker spaniel sized animal, sniffing around my broiler hens. That was about a month ago. I am guessing fox but with seeing that raccoon just the day before in the coop run itself, it makes me wonder. I guess I will try to find out what it is with a web cam and a small light. Wish I had one of those night motion cameras.
 
Ok, if it fit through a 4 inch square, which by your earlier description is elevated, I would say a coon. They can easily climb, fit through 4 inches, snatch a chicken and climb and pull it back out. I would see if your local animal control would let you borrow a live trap, set it with canned cat food, and then call them back if you catch the critter.
 
Yeah the 4 inch squares are at least 3 feet high off the ground. I was thinking either a coon or a fox. The poop just seemed too big for a coon but who knows..my little dog can sure poop alot..lol.
 

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