Help identifying chicken killer

[Lrkel]

I came home today and found my chickens missing from the coop. No bodies, just feathers scattered inside the coop. Something ripped at the chicken wire all around the coop. It started digging at one spot but ended up ripping a side of the fence open, popping out the staples. It ate all my chickens and left no body parts behind. I live in NC if that helps. We have a small wooded area behind our privacy fence but the area is pretty well populated. We found some small bits of tan course fur that looks kind of kinky.

 

[JerseyGiantfolk]

Coyotes or dogs could have done that. We'll see what others think.


So sorry for your loss.

 

[real_redhead]

Dogs generally kill for sport, or are "playing" with the chickens and kill them but they don;t eat them. I would say coyote.

Sorry for your loss!

 

[bj taylor]

that's really awful. sorry for you & your chickens

 

[justjim]

sorry to hear about your chicken i just lost 23 six weeks old baby chick 14 in one nite 9 the next what i found out that was killing my was rocky the coon she climb up a ten foot wall and went in the eaves of my coop she would kill and eat there heads off leave some feather or the body or she would take some with her i set two steel traps and the rest is history she will never eat another chicken of my .

 

[Lrkel]

That's horrible. I was planning to set traps too. I know we had a coon getting into our trash before this happened. Mine were about 8 week old silkies so they were small enough for a coon to carry away. Who knows. I will get to the bottom of this. In the mean time we are going to revamp the coop before our day old Ameraucanas are ready to go out.

 

[jlcfrog]

Its coyotes. We live in NC too and the exact same thing happened to us two years ago. My husband "bear proofed" the coop by putting up heavy gauge hardware cloth instead of chicken wire after we had them chew through the chicken wire. Have seen and heard the coyotes and they are getting more used to humans around here. We put up a 5000 Volt electric fence too. Haven't had any problems since.