I lost 4 of my 8 bantam hens today and I am devastated. 2 Polish, a Wyandotte and a Silver Sussex all dead and my Welsummer is injured.
I will try and give as much info as I can, so this is a long post. I need to identify the culprit so I know what, if anything, I can do to save the remaining hens from being picked off.
Please bear in mind that I am in the UK, and we don't have bears or coyotes or large predators, nor do we have guns. The only potential dangerous candidates where I live are: domestic cats and dogs, humans, foxes, otters, badgers, rats, birds of prey, stoats, weasels, adders, polecats, birds of prey like red kites, buzzards and owls. I think that is all, but maybe others can suggest more.
Here are the clues:
The hens all had two teeth marks like tiny puncture wounds about an inch apart on their neck, back/shoulder and/or abdomen. See pics. These looked like small canine teeth wounds. It is possible that where they were on the top and bottom of the bird, that the predator's whole mouth was around the bird, but the marks seem too close together to be that large a skull. Where they were just on the top or bottom, there were only two marks. That seems odd for a mouth with 4 canine teeth in. Perhaps they could be piercing rodent incisor teeth, top and bottom jaws?
One hen (the wounded but alive one) had a jagged hole about the size of a small coin next to a small puncture wound, where it seems the tooth tore the skin. I've treated it with veterycin and hope.
None of the hens apart from one appeared to have major life threatening injuries. Just a few small puncture wounds. The one that did, and sorry for being graphic, had her head totally ripped off
. In fact, out of all the killing, one head is the only part that the predator took away from the scene. All 4 bird carcasses were left.
The fight started around 1.30am at night because my dog went mad barking around that time. There must have been a big kerfuffle. It started inside the coop, going by the pattern of feather loss. All birds were found outside the coop in the run lying on the ground. Surviving birds are pretty traumatised. My coop was left open to the run, because we had mild temps and in 16 years of chicken keeping, I have never had a predator attack like this. I got complacent and will learn from this.
The run is not particularly secure. It is designed to keep the chickens in rather than predators out. They free range anyway during the day, unless in flockdown.
There were no signs of digging or fence breakage. My garden has 6 feet high fences all around. A fox could climb that but it would be harder for a badger. There are plenty of rabbits, voles, etc for them to easily catch and eat around here, so climbing my fence would be unnecessary effort. I have never had either visit before although they do live locally. I'm sure a fox or badger would eat more of what they killed than just a head.
There are no signs of rats in residence. I've had them a couple of times before, Giant Big Ones too. They have burrowed under the coop in past years and I got rid of them. I can tell if they come back, but they aren't here now. They could of course be visitors. I live rurally.
I live a half mile from the nearest river. Never seen otters and I think it extremely unlikely they'd visit as it's too far and they have much easier prey. They are apparently living in the County though. The bite marks seem too small?
If it were a fox, then surely they'd take a whole bird for dinner? Not just a head. I know they will often kill several just for the sake of it. Never had them visit before, ever. The bite marks seem too small and close together for a fox.
No neighbour dogs can get in and I would have seen it. A cat easily could, but no cats visit because of my dogs. Also, my bantams are too big for a cat to be interested I think.
We have adders, though they are shy and don't hunt by night. Whilst the puncture wounds could be snake fangs, I think the birds are way too big to be snake prey. Also a snake would kill and eat one whole prey, not kill 4 and leave with a head.
I think it unlikely to be a bird of prey. They hunt in the open in the day by sight, not going into a small building in a confined space. An owl, although hunting at night, will also scan the open fields and swoop down on mice, rabbits etc. They wouldn't walk into a small shed and drag chickens off their perches. Neither would they kill 4 and leave without them. Also, nothing that look like claw marks on the bodies.
It wasn't a human, as I would have seen them!
That leaves the Mustela family: stoats, weasels or polecats. I've seen them out in the wild, but never in my garden. They could easily get into the run. The modus operandii seems to fit stoats or polecats with the bite marks and the head being taken (weasels too small), from a bit of internet research. But this is just my best guess. Stoats will apparently kill 5x larger animals than them.
I almost wish they'd taken the carcasses because at least their kits could have a meal. It's such a waste of my hens lives to just be left to die for nothing. And I'm still puzzled as to why they died. There is hardly any blood at all and the punctures don't look like bad enough to cause major internal bleeding.
Please let me know what you think, and any suggestions for making sure they don't come back. Obviously the coop is locked up tonight so they should be safe at night. I just won't let them into the run until the morning.
Anyone have experience dealing with stoats or the like, etc?
I will try and give as much info as I can, so this is a long post. I need to identify the culprit so I know what, if anything, I can do to save the remaining hens from being picked off.
Please bear in mind that I am in the UK, and we don't have bears or coyotes or large predators, nor do we have guns. The only potential dangerous candidates where I live are: domestic cats and dogs, humans, foxes, otters, badgers, rats, birds of prey, stoats, weasels, adders, polecats, birds of prey like red kites, buzzards and owls. I think that is all, but maybe others can suggest more.
Here are the clues:
The hens all had two teeth marks like tiny puncture wounds about an inch apart on their neck, back/shoulder and/or abdomen. See pics. These looked like small canine teeth wounds. It is possible that where they were on the top and bottom of the bird, that the predator's whole mouth was around the bird, but the marks seem too close together to be that large a skull. Where they were just on the top or bottom, there were only two marks. That seems odd for a mouth with 4 canine teeth in. Perhaps they could be piercing rodent incisor teeth, top and bottom jaws?
One hen (the wounded but alive one) had a jagged hole about the size of a small coin next to a small puncture wound, where it seems the tooth tore the skin. I've treated it with veterycin and hope.
None of the hens apart from one appeared to have major life threatening injuries. Just a few small puncture wounds. The one that did, and sorry for being graphic, had her head totally ripped off
. In fact, out of all the killing, one head is the only part that the predator took away from the scene. All 4 bird carcasses were left.The fight started around 1.30am at night because my dog went mad barking around that time. There must have been a big kerfuffle. It started inside the coop, going by the pattern of feather loss. All birds were found outside the coop in the run lying on the ground. Surviving birds are pretty traumatised. My coop was left open to the run, because we had mild temps and in 16 years of chicken keeping, I have never had a predator attack like this. I got complacent and will learn from this.
The run is not particularly secure. It is designed to keep the chickens in rather than predators out. They free range anyway during the day, unless in flockdown.
There were no signs of digging or fence breakage. My garden has 6 feet high fences all around. A fox could climb that but it would be harder for a badger. There are plenty of rabbits, voles, etc for them to easily catch and eat around here, so climbing my fence would be unnecessary effort. I have never had either visit before although they do live locally. I'm sure a fox or badger would eat more of what they killed than just a head.
There are no signs of rats in residence. I've had them a couple of times before, Giant Big Ones too. They have burrowed under the coop in past years and I got rid of them. I can tell if they come back, but they aren't here now. They could of course be visitors. I live rurally.
I live a half mile from the nearest river. Never seen otters and I think it extremely unlikely they'd visit as it's too far and they have much easier prey. They are apparently living in the County though. The bite marks seem too small?
If it were a fox, then surely they'd take a whole bird for dinner? Not just a head. I know they will often kill several just for the sake of it. Never had them visit before, ever. The bite marks seem too small and close together for a fox.
No neighbour dogs can get in and I would have seen it. A cat easily could, but no cats visit because of my dogs. Also, my bantams are too big for a cat to be interested I think.
We have adders, though they are shy and don't hunt by night. Whilst the puncture wounds could be snake fangs, I think the birds are way too big to be snake prey. Also a snake would kill and eat one whole prey, not kill 4 and leave with a head.
I think it unlikely to be a bird of prey. They hunt in the open in the day by sight, not going into a small building in a confined space. An owl, although hunting at night, will also scan the open fields and swoop down on mice, rabbits etc. They wouldn't walk into a small shed and drag chickens off their perches. Neither would they kill 4 and leave without them. Also, nothing that look like claw marks on the bodies.
It wasn't a human, as I would have seen them!
That leaves the Mustela family: stoats, weasels or polecats. I've seen them out in the wild, but never in my garden. They could easily get into the run. The modus operandii seems to fit stoats or polecats with the bite marks and the head being taken (weasels too small), from a bit of internet research. But this is just my best guess. Stoats will apparently kill 5x larger animals than them.
I almost wish they'd taken the carcasses because at least their kits could have a meal. It's such a waste of my hens lives to just be left to die for nothing. And I'm still puzzled as to why they died. There is hardly any blood at all and the punctures don't look like bad enough to cause major internal bleeding.
Please let me know what you think, and any suggestions for making sure they don't come back. Obviously the coop is locked up tonight so they should be safe at night. I just won't let them into the run until the morning.
Anyone have experience dealing with stoats or the like, etc?
I'm sorry for your loss
(or zap me)! Thanks for the suggestion though.
