*GRAPHIC PHOTOS* What Killed My Chickens?

GlicksChicks

Crowing
Apr 11, 2024
2,410
4,821
346
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas
Today in the middle of the day in Texas 12 of my chickens were killed, only 1 eaten.

I lost 10 American Bresse that were around 12 weeks old, nearing the size of an adult bird. And 2 d'Uccles.

These birds were in 2 seperate breeding pens. There was only sign of entry in the Bresse pen, we think it pushed some staples out of the bottom of the fence and squeezed in. No sign of how it got into the d'Uccle pen, the pens are side by side, so we think it may have grabbed those 2 through the fence when they were freaking out.

The ones who were killed died from a bite to the head/neck. Only one was eaten, and all that was left was it's head, legs, and back.

My father in law, who is watching my birds, said the punctures are the size of a nickel.

And the weirdest thing, to get into the breeding pens in the location that it was suspected to, it had to crawl over an 8 feet fence into my free ranging area where my layer flock hangs out during the day, ignore the chance to grab birds from in my open coop for my layers (there are atleast 5 broodies just laying in the coop easily), and decide to break into breeding pens instead.

So, a quick summary on this animal's MO:
- Killed 12 birds, ate 1.
- Eats everything but legs, head, and back.
- Kills during the day. (Today was 93°F, so a hot day)
- No real damage to pens, no ripped wire, just pushed it's way in.
- Breaks into a breeding pen instead of getting easy birds that aren't in pens, or are in an open coop and just laying in nests.
 

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I'm so sorry for your loss!
Heartbreaking
I am not real familiar with preditors in Texas, but wonder if you have anything in the mink, weasel, stout family?
This preditor type will kill by biting the head and neck. It shuts the prey up quickly as distress sounds can bring in competitive preditors. They also will "cashe kill" . Killing everything avaliable in hopes of stashing lots of food for future use. Some say they kill for fun, but that's just what it looks like to us, not actual fact.
I lost 5 chickens in one night, but heard the sounds of chickens being killed through my window and went out and scared it off. In my case it was a weasel(here in Michigan the short tailed weasel is the size of a red squirel). He had squeezed into the coop through a 1 1/2 inch knot whole in a floorboard.
I got my weasel the next night in a live trap after nailing the hole in the floor closed. I wired a raw piece of chicken meat in the live trap and he wanted it bad.
I no longer kill my preditors as I understand we need them to balance nature.
Instead I built a "fort knox" coop that will keep my girls safe from everything but a bear. A determined bear could demolish a window and get in, but nothing else gets in. Not even mice.
Weasels keep rodent populations down. And folks that have irradicated there weasels may soon have an uncontrollable rat problem.
Again I am so sorry for what has happened to your sweet birds. I have had that breed before and they are so nice, and beautiful.
I hope you can go over your coop and run setup and reinforce everything.
The coop I have today is the direct result of every kind of chicken killing critter showing me where my weaknesses were.
 
I'm so sorry for your loss!
Heartbreaking
I am not real familiar with preditors in Texas, but wonder if you have anything in the mink, weasel, stout family?
This preditor type will kill by biting the head and neck. It shuts the prey up quickly as distress sounds can bring in competitive preditors. They also will "cashe kill" . Killing everything avaliable in hopes of stashing lots of food for future use. Some say they kill for fun, but that's just what it looks like to us, not actual fact.
I lost 5 chickens in one night, but heard the sounds of chickens being killed through my window and went out and scared it off. In my case it was a weasel(here in Michigan the short tailed weasel is the size of a red squirel). He had squeezed into the coop through a 1 1/2 inch knot whole in a floorboard.
I got my weasel the next night in a live trap after nailing the hole in the floor closed. I wired a raw piece of chicken meat in the live trap and he wanted it bad.
I no longer kill my preditors as I understand we need them to balance nature.
Instead I built a "fort knox" coop that will keep my girls safe from everything but a bear. A determined bear could demolish a window and get in, but nothing else gets in. Not even mice.
Weasels keep rodent populations down. And folks that have irradicated there weasels may soon have an uncontrollable rat problem.
Again I am so sorry for what has happened to your sweet birds. I have had that breed before and they are so nice, and beautiful.
I hope you can go over your coop and run setup and reinforce everything.
The coop I have today is the direct result of every kind of chicken killing critter showing me where my weaknesses were.
I am not as forgiving with my predators. I will not release them back here, and releasing them somewhere else is dooming them to be killed some other way by being in another predator's territory.

As soon as I get back home I plan to look over everything and do what I can, as well as set every single live trap I have with bait.

We have long tailed weasels in Texas but they are super uncommon and I don't even know if they are actually in my area, no one has had weasel problems.

And don't weasels love the head of chickens, they love brains? One of the few body parts not eaten was the head. And does one weasel have enough stomach space to eat all of a chicken except for the legs, spine, and head?
 
I'd bet either some sort or mink/weasel or a raccoon.
I think coon is more likely.

Don't weasels love the brain of animals the most and eat the head first? The head was left on the one eaten one and on everyone else. And the puncture wounds were large. I have no idea how much stomach space a weasel would have, but I would be surprised if something so small could eat an almost full sized Bresse except for the spine, legs, and head. That mean it ate the breat, organs, thighs, and ribs.
 
I'm sorry. I'm in Texas too. This screams dog to me. Maybe more than one dog. Most predators (especially daylight predators) will grab and go. Dogs can kill for fun.
 
I'm sorry. I'm in Texas too. This screams dog to me. Maybe more than one dog. Most predators (especially daylight predators) will grab and go. Dogs can kill for fun.
Are dogs likely to turn down the chance of my free ranging birds and go for my breeding pen birds instead?

My breeding pens are inside my fenced in ranging area. My layer birds were out and about when the birds in the pens were killed.
 

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