HELP!!! I LOST MY FLOCK LAST NIGHT!!! SKUNKS???

[Acre of Blessings]

I think skunks like anything that smells fishy.

So sorry you all had to wake up to this.

 

[hinkjc]

I'm so sorry for your losses. Might want to consider weasels too..they have a musky smell and can easily get into fairly small places and do this kind of damage to a flock.

Jody

 

[the simple life]

I am sooo sorry that happend to you! How awful for your family. It makes me so angry when this stuff happens, especially when you think everything is airtight and nothing can get in.
I think it was weasels that got into my pen a while back( so I know how you feel), it had to be something Very small.
I hope you have luck rebuilding your flock.

 

[nnbreeder]

Wild critters do not kill for sport or fun. The reason that they kill all and only eat one or two is the same reason that you go to the grocery store, they are stocking up. The animal will be back, maybe not for a day or two but it will return. My vote too is for a Coon or Weasel, both are excellent climbers and Weasels can go through holes that are very small. The best defense is a tight coop and a secure run. Because no matter how hard you try you won't wipe enough of them out to really make a difference.

 

[Bizzybirdy]

So sorry for your loss. I also believe it was a racoon. Have had lots of experience with and losses to racoons which notoriously bite the heads off of chickens...sometimes I think just to silence them... and even pulling them through chain link fencing. Now I added hardware cloth to the bottom of the chicken run and my chickens are put up at night, except for a few die hard free rangers that I cannot catch and that roost in the trees. I did fasten aluminum 4' high around the bottom of those trees so any racoons cannot climb up them.

Shot 2 already and am looking for another that viciously attacked one of my White Rock hens brooding 4 babies in the corner of a shed in my FRONT yard. What nerve!

Her babies survived but she didn't.

I have seen skunks here but always going after eggs and once some dayold chicks but never an older one.

 

[ncgnance]

Thank you all for your posts and suggestions. I agree that it could have been a raccoon, though I don't know how he could have gotten into the coop or run. Unless the terrible storm we had somehow opened up a place. I work away from home, so I can't check it out until this weekend. My daughter looked, but didn't find a place of entry. And she said she smelled skunk on the carcasses. I have a hard time thinking a skunk would have killed so many at one time, but wild animals don't always fit a pattern. The trap has been set, though, using canned tuna, as suggested.

 

[Eliza]

I have to ask that question again... how did the coon get into the coop? Were the birds locked up, allowed to go in and out, or what?? Sorry for your loss. Not an idle question, just it helps to know. My birds are locked up - pop hole door locked with a lock, windows metal grills with locks, and the pen fence locked. I hope that that is enough.

 

[Eliza]

sorry, you just answered the question. I guess we can only do the best we can and then hope that that's enough.

 

[SpottedCrow]

IMO it was a raccoon too.
The skunk might've come along after and helped himself to the free eats. Most of the time they can't be bothered hunting anything more lively than a grub in your lawn.

So sorry for your losses.

 

[Fudgie]

Oh let me tell you about raccoons, the little varmits!!!! They raged war with me and my Mille Fleur chicks. We had 12 mille fleurs in our brooder in the barn. My DH thought we were missing some chicks and it looked like it but I said how the heck can they get out of the wire. The next day, we took 2 of the best hens to the state fair(thank goodness) and that evening we were missing a TON of the remainder.

Only two were left in the pen and there were feathers everywhere and blood down the front of the brooder it looked like a war scene. Keep in mind this brooder was (I thought) rodent proof. It was on legs about 2' tall and the box part was wooden in the back part and small wire 1/4" wire mesh on the bottom. With wooden sides, only one side had wire and that was the front. The front wire was normal 1/2" wire mesh. Evidently from what I have been told, the raccoons stand on their back feet like a human and put their little mangy hands in the pen and drag the chickens to the front and basically bite them and then yank them through the wire however they can ripping their little bodies completely apart, I was appalled!

Needless to say, at that point war was raged. un We set up camp in the barn and DH shot 2 of the critters. At that point we decided to get a trap to get the remainder of the stinkers(we figured about 4 or so). We captured 2 per night. We set up the trap at 5:00PM feeding and by 10:00PM we had a critter, then we reset the cage and had another intruder by the morning check. This went on for about 6 days straight, by the end there were

14 raccoons total that died!

I could not believe so many were in one area. Not to mention the fact that 2 were hit on the highway out front of the house. Now don't get me wrong, I like living creatures just like any other but when they get my prized babies and eat my food, they have "brought it" and this chick momma is gonna "bring it" right back!

Believe me when I say, don't coup your chickens in a dog box or anything else you think is rodent proof, that has big open wire on it without putting something way smaller in front, these little varmits can get their tiny hands right through. We have reinforced the brooder with 1/4" wire and now have no fear of coons getting in to it.

By the way, if you have cats, don't use cat food, they will get caught in the trap instead. I use cattle sweet feed which is what the raccoons were eating prior to eating my babies. It worked like a charm and the cats did not get in. Just remember, for those free range chickens, in the morning check before letting your babies out, disengage the trap so your prize chickens don't get accidentally trapped inside as well.

Thanks for letting me vent and share my story so no one else has to relive this horror

!