Hi,
I live in Whitehorse, up in the Yukon and woke up this morning to 27 dead (only 3 left living...tear), mostly decapitated chickens left randomly around our large 1 acre fenced in chicken yard. There are also 4(ish) missing - it looks like they were taken with the predator as there are feathers and blood drops around 2 areas of the fence. So here are my clues so far (!!).... the attacker is small enough to fit through a 5" by 5" gap in the fencing (my lab would NEVER fit through this just to give an idea of size ....more cat size). There were TONS of tracks - I think they are fox, but don't know enough about weasel to be sure. They are about 7cm in length - four toes close together (couldn't see claws - which made me think lynx, but I don't think it could fit through the fence), the print is more rounded than oval and there were many trails coming in. Maybe a fox family?! There was an interior door pushed open in the coop and also a wedged piece of wood in one of the nesting boxes - could a weasel be strong enough to push these down / open? I have certainly lost chickens before to fox, but only ever 1 at a time and the only evidence was a bit of blood and feathers - NO remains of the chicken. So to see bodies left everywhere has really thrown me off! Any ideas?? I have chicks coming in May and want to protect these 3 traumatized remaining chickens. But it's FINALLY warm out and I want to let them out! I'm also set to put up an electric wire, but I'm not sure this would help unless I can conclude it was a fox. Thanks for your ideas!!
Ellen
(PS - we don't have raccoons or possums up here - so you can rule them out!)
I live in Whitehorse, up in the Yukon and woke up this morning to 27 dead (only 3 left living...tear), mostly decapitated chickens left randomly around our large 1 acre fenced in chicken yard. There are also 4(ish) missing - it looks like they were taken with the predator as there are feathers and blood drops around 2 areas of the fence. So here are my clues so far (!!).... the attacker is small enough to fit through a 5" by 5" gap in the fencing (my lab would NEVER fit through this just to give an idea of size ....more cat size). There were TONS of tracks - I think they are fox, but don't know enough about weasel to be sure. They are about 7cm in length - four toes close together (couldn't see claws - which made me think lynx, but I don't think it could fit through the fence), the print is more rounded than oval and there were many trails coming in. Maybe a fox family?! There was an interior door pushed open in the coop and also a wedged piece of wood in one of the nesting boxes - could a weasel be strong enough to push these down / open? I have certainly lost chickens before to fox, but only ever 1 at a time and the only evidence was a bit of blood and feathers - NO remains of the chicken. So to see bodies left everywhere has really thrown me off! Any ideas?? I have chicks coming in May and want to protect these 3 traumatized remaining chickens. But it's FINALLY warm out and I want to let them out! I'm also set to put up an electric wire, but I'm not sure this would help unless I can conclude it was a fox. Thanks for your ideas!!
Ellen
(PS - we don't have raccoons or possums up here - so you can rule them out!)
