Half of my flock got killed (what got them?)

[Pullet Press]

I got home yesterday to find half of my flock gone. Feathers were everywhere and one of the corpses was in a tree, probably 8-10 ft up. I have my birds in a pen, w/ 5-6ft tall fencing. It is about 2 ft away from my neighbors' fence. There is a sapling in between the fence in pen, which I've seen a possum climb up once. One of the corpses was found a few yards away, its middle torn open. The predator (whatever it is) ate everything inside. (I'll try to post pics if necessary) We have racoons (they've gotten 2 neighbors birds. We also have a bobcat that has killed cats, which could also be the culprit. I also went outside this morning to find one of my Barred Rocks (still alive, but missing an eye) a few yards away from one of the dead birds, outside of their pen.
Pls help, I need to avenge the deaths of my birds.

 

[sourland]

My bet is on the bobcat. Be on alert. Whatever it was will surely return. Avenge!

 

[mowin]

Your first priority is to get your coop and run predator proof.

 

[BlueBaby]

You could set up a camera to catch whatever did it and then set a trap for it.

 

[animalcraker]

Gotta make sure the rest of the birds are safe before trying to avenge to deaths of the ones you already lost. What does your coop/run set-up look like? Do you have any pictures of the da game, scratch marks, or paw prints to help identify the perpetrator? Bobcat, Racoon, and Opossum are all potential candidates. You can pick of a cheap trail cam or even a doorbell security cam off Amazon that are motion sensored and may catch the culprit in the act. Once you’ve secured your birds and identified the predator, then you can work on removing them. Keep in mind though some predators are legally protected and you may be limited on what methods you can use to get rid of them.

 

[McChooky]

I got home yesterday to find half of my flock gone. Feathers were everywhere and one of the corpses was in a tree, probably 8-10 ft up. I have my birds in a pen, w/ 5-6ft tall fencing. It is about 2 ft away from my neighbors' fence. There is a sapling in between the fence in pen, which I've seen a possum climb up once. One of the corpses was found a few yards away, its middle torn open. The predator (whatever it is) ate everything inside. (I'll try to post pics if necessary) We have racoons (they've gotten 2 neighbors birds. We also have a bobcat that has killed cats, which could also be the culprit. I also went outside this morning to find one of my Barred Rocks (still alive, but missing an eye) a few yards away from one of the dead birds, outside of their pen.
Pls help, I need to avenge the deaths of my birds.

You could invest a little time and money to better protect them or re-home them before the predators return and slaughter them.Its not safe that you keep these chickens in the pens you currently have after an attack that left 1/2 your flock dead .I'm sorry for your loss.Maybe you could temporarily house them someplace else until you can find where they got in?

 

[cmom]

Lessons learned the hard way and I have had my share in the past. I have several game cameras up on my property and see a multitude of predators mostly at night here. Some predators will come out during the day. Whatever it was will be back and if you can get a pictures of it then you will know what you're dealing with. I would set a trap too with some of the bodies of the birds killed. Don't be concerned if you don't get whatever it is on the first try. I have used leg/foot traps and live traps. Now with people buying land around us and building new homes I only use live traps. I bait the traps and let the predator take the bait for a couple of days then set the trap and bingo. It may not be the one that killed your birds but is most likely. I eliminate whatever I catch and as usual eventually more show up. If you don't want to eliminate what you catch there is most likely a wildlife rescue that will come and get whatever. I have electric wires around my coops and pens good heavy duty netting covering all of my pens and concrete under all of the gates. Nothing has gotten past the hot wires. I think that the adult predators teach their young that a bird isn't worth getting zapped for. Good luck...
It may not be too pretty but it works.

Recent visitors.
Bobcat at my chick/grow-out coop. I'm sure it knows there are electric wires around it too.

A coon at the outer coops.

Coyote near the outer coops.

 

[Pullet Press]

Did so. We also set up a trap w/ one of the carcasses in it.

You could set up a camera to catch whatever did it and then set a trap for it.

 

[Pullet Press]

Gotta make sure the rest of the birds are safe before trying to avenge to deaths of the ones you already lost. What does your coop/run set-up look like? Do you have any pictures of the da game, scratch marks, or paw prints to help identify the perpetrator? Bobcat, Racoon, and Opossum are all potential candidates. You can pick of a cheap trail cam or even a doorbell security cam off Amazon that are motion sensored and may catch the culprit in the act. Once you’ve secured your birds and identified the predator, then you can work on removing them. Keep in mind though some predators are legally protected and you may be limited on what methods you can use to get rid of them.

My coop is pathetic (believe me, we're working on a new one) prefab one w/ a tiny run. Whatever it is has only really come at nighttime (leaving them safe during the day) so I might just have to build a bigger coop w/out run.
I don't have any pictures of the predator. A neighbor of ours said that a coon would just rip the heads off, whereas a bobcat will eat all of the flesh inside one, and a fox or coyote will kill 'em all. Any carcass I've found has the meat stripped of it. We've seen all 3 of the predators (some of which in the day).
We have a gamecam set up. Haven't caught anything yet.

 

[Pullet Press]

Oh, one thing I should mention. We were out of town for the week and the animals' caretaker came every other day. They are in a big pen w/ the coop inside and some of them roost on the roof. Since she was only coming over every other day, she couldn't lock them up.
I have now been securing the coop locking them up at night (We nearly lost another the night we got home because we didn't lock them up. We were home and checked on the flock a couple times in the night).