Great Horned Owl killing baby chicks

[iwltfum]

Yes, that old tractor was scrapped and we are using the totally brand new this year without any missing protection now. The killing happened in the old rickety tractor (wide mesh) and that’s been acknowledged. Im mostly wondering what type of predator would be able to pull this off

I see. Obviously you don't need to me to say that it's hard to pinpoint, but a little protection goes a long way in that if your birds are protected from one predator, they are usually protected from many predators... Good luck with the identification.

 

[aart]

Yes, that old tractor was scrapped and we are using the totally brand new this year

Thought it happened......4 days ago?

4 days ago,

 

[ChristinLewin]

Thought it happened......4 days ago?

Yes, the attack happened in the tractor that I posted a picture of. The corner was breached.
After the attack, we scrapped the old tractor and starting only using the new ones we built this year (that were previously being used for younger chicks)

 

[hayley3]

Yes, the attack happened in the tractor that I posted a picture of. The corner was breached.
After the attack, we scrapped the old tractor and starting only using the new ones we built this year (that were previously being used for younger chicks)

Well I'm confused, the pictures of that hoop house is their protection at night?
It would be easy peasy for raccoons to just lift up the side and go in. They can lift up garage doors if they think there is food inside.

 

[Sarkchick]

Injured birds look like rats chewing on them. I think anything larger would have eaten more or taken the whole bird.
just a thought

 

[Finnie]

Well here is one suggestion. Those chicks look like they could be old enough to integrate with the hens. It will of course depend on what the hens’ living space is like. But if it were me, I’d rather take my chances with the hens than the predators.

 

[ChristinLewin]

Injured birds look like rats chewing on them. I think anything larger would have eaten more or taken the whole bird.
just a thought

i didn’t take pictures of the worst injuries since we culled the chicks as soon as we found the wounds and knew there was internal bleeding/damage.
And like I mentioned, we had 2 chicks taken completely, no evidence left besides feathers at the site of the breach. 2 taken completely, 3 needed to be culled and 2 (the cuckoo Maran pictured) are being tended to with antibiotic cream and healing salve

 

[ChristinLewin]

Well I'm confused, the pictures of that hoop house is their protection at night?
It would be easy peasy for raccoons to just lift up the side and go in. They can lift up garage doors if they think there is food inside.

I seriously doubt it, It’s hard for me to lift it by myself.

 

[ChristinLewin]

Here are the trail cam images

2:32am time stamp

- you can see the bait chicken is still in the trap when these were taken. The owl next perches on the camera, tilting it back and moving the trap out of view. Next morning, the bait was gone and trap untriggered

 

[iwltfum]

It looks like the bait can be accessed from either side but only one side has the trip plate. Is the correct?

Interesting how the chickens seem to be awake and watching the owl in those pictures.