heartbreaking murder last nite

shend

Chirping
12 Years
Sep 16, 2010
72
0
92
west michigan
The girls have been out in the coop for 2 1/2 weeks now with no problems. This morning the small door was open, 4 dead in the run, 3 living in the coop, but really spooked, and one came walking across the yard about 1/2 hour after I discovered the massacre!

I see I need to secure the coop door better today, but wondering what got in??

Of the four victims, 2 had heads missing, 2 just bloody heads.

No digging under the fence anywhere, but I have only bird netting over the run to discourage hawks during the day, so whatever it was came in that way. I just was surprised that it got the coop door open, did the deed and left the same way.

Any ideas what it would be? I know I have raccoons, skunk and possum in the woods. Also coyote, but it seems unlikely a coyote would climb the fence. The wily raccoon can accomplish alot and seems to be the guilty one by getting the door open, but just not sure.

I, myself, feel horrible!! I failed those girls by not protecting them well enough! The one walking in the yard evidently flew out of the run to save herself. Had difficulty getting her back in but I kept herding her that way and she was anxious to get back with her sisters, so it worked.

I know farmers look at the destruction as loss of revenue, but us backyarders have a stronger emotional attachment to the little fuzzies and are just sick about the loss.

Any advise would be welcome.
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Coons can and will open simple latches to get to food. You have identified the weakest link in your nigh time security, fix it. We had the same thing happen, dh put on a latch that I have a hard time opening in the morning. No more midnight raids even though we are surrounded by predators. Good luck. Sorry for your loss. Yes we backyard chicken people do love our birds.
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It sounds like a raccoon to me, as well. I am so sorry for your losses. The culprit will be back tonight, so you need to make sure your set-up is secure by then. A secure coop is your best bet. Identify your weak points. My old coop had weak latches, so I replaced them with combination locks. It seems over the top, but that's about as predator-proof as you can get. My old coop also had hardware cloth attached with staples, which something tried to tear through. I replaced all the staples with screws and washers. I had some workmen accidentally drop a support and punch a small hole in my coop. I thought the hole was too small to allow anything access, but a few days later I found feathers all over the place and little raccoon hand prints around the hole. A raccoon had reached through the hole and tried to grab a hen to pull through the hole. The hen lost a handful of feathers, but that was it. The hole was fixed that day. Raccoons are amazingly smart and persistent. Maybe if you post some pics of your set-up some people here can help you identify weaknesses. A fresh set of eyes is always good.

Good luck.
 
Sorry for your loss. I know how you feel about feeling guilty because you failed at keeping them safe. Something killed 47 of our chickens yesterday morning and I still feel sick about it.
A few of our chickens were missing their heads also, but most were squeezed to death. No teeth marks.
I feel so responsible for the whole thing.
It just so sad that it happened.
Good luck with your situation.
 
Oh, thanks. I read your post about the loss of 47. How horrilble!! I'm pretty sure this is a raccoon, in fact he didn't get them all so just reeked havoc in there!

The blood was pretty fresh this morning so probably in the early hours. A few years ago my dad was catching and releasing raccoons far away and he caught 13 over one summer!!

He was being kind-I don't think I feel so kind anymore. Think its time I learn to use a .22. I can mostly catch them in a live trap and finishing them off in there would be easy. thanks for the support everyone!
 
I'm sorry to hear of your loss. It sounds like a raccoon indeed. We had one crawl over the top and into the coop, kill one bird and eat her outside, then crawled back out. Our girls were spoofed--particularly one. Then one day a coyote or pack more likely killed off all but one bird..in the middle of the day with someone in the house who never heard anything.
 

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