We live in West Central Indiana, out in the cornfields in a tiny little town, to give everyone an idea of what the area here is like. We have the usual raccoons and opossums, and I'm fairly certain that
I saw a weasel shortly after we moved in, and we have plenty of coyotes, but whatever got into my neighbor's coop last night was so stealthy that it managed to get into a completely closed coop and kill 16 chickens and 4 guineas! I can't imagine what could be THAT hungry! What concerns me is that my neighbors count on their guineas to sound the alarm at the first sign of predators, and they always do, and for 3 years they didn't have any problems with losing chickens to predators. But last night, whatever got into the coop managed to kill 4 out of 6 guineas without a single guinea making a peep! We didn't even know about it until the dad stopped my daughter this morning when she was outside and asked her if any of our chickens died last night. She said no, and asked him why, what had happened to his, and he told her that his coop had been attacked last night and that they hadn't heard a thing. He woke this morning to find feathers, blood and bones around the outside of the coop. My daughter, scared now, ran out to our coop to do another head count. Everyone was fine and dandy, nothing had bothered them. But now I'm concerned that whatever got into their coop could get into mine. Anyone have any ideas? My neighbor told my daughter that he thinks the birds might have been attacked from the outside and that whatever got a hold of them was trying to pull them right through the bars. And is there anything I can do to guard my coop against such an attack? 16 birds seems like a lot to loose in one night. If anyone can give me some insight, I'd greatly appreciate it, and I will pass the info on to my neighbors. Thanks everyone!
I saw a weasel shortly after we moved in, and we have plenty of coyotes, but whatever got into my neighbor's coop last night was so stealthy that it managed to get into a completely closed coop and kill 16 chickens and 4 guineas! I can't imagine what could be THAT hungry! What concerns me is that my neighbors count on their guineas to sound the alarm at the first sign of predators, and they always do, and for 3 years they didn't have any problems with losing chickens to predators. But last night, whatever got into the coop managed to kill 4 out of 6 guineas without a single guinea making a peep! We didn't even know about it until the dad stopped my daughter this morning when she was outside and asked her if any of our chickens died last night. She said no, and asked him why, what had happened to his, and he told her that his coop had been attacked last night and that they hadn't heard a thing. He woke this morning to find feathers, blood and bones around the outside of the coop. My daughter, scared now, ran out to our coop to do another head count. Everyone was fine and dandy, nothing had bothered them. But now I'm concerned that whatever got into their coop could get into mine. Anyone have any ideas? My neighbor told my daughter that he thinks the birds might have been attacked from the outside and that whatever got a hold of them was trying to pull them right through the bars. And is there anything I can do to guard my coop against such an attack? 16 birds seems like a lot to loose in one night. If anyone can give me some insight, I'd greatly appreciate it, and I will pass the info on to my neighbors. Thanks everyone!