Help!! Problems

[bonstie]

I have a coop and a run for my chickens. For the second morning in a row, my chickens are agitated and lots of feathers everywhere and the eggs in the coop were smashed. The chickens look fine just irritable. The chickens have been laying real good after about a 5 week dry spell from moulting. I looked over the pen and there appears to be a small place in the fencing where a critter could get in.
I have trouble with stray cats in other areas. I will fix the hole, but what do you think is after my chickens eggs???
Don't laugh, but I only have 3 chickens, 2 plymouths and one red, but I enjoy them and love the fresh eggs.
I live in western KY and have just about every varmit on earth that lives. SkunK??? Help! Thanks

 

[1876 Farm]

Perhaps a rat or how about a snake? If you can put in a golf ball, I've heard that snakes will swallow them - which I think they will die from.

 

[Farmer Brian]

Bonstie, are your nesting boxes off the ground, or are eggs on the floor? Skunks are not great climbers. Opossums and coons will climb into the boxes. Could the chickens be crushing them? (I would assume the chickens would also consume them if they did).

 

[aart]

Skunk, possum, probably too cold for snake yet-but maybe hungry newly awakened one...coons would probably rather eat a chicken.

What ever it was it will probably be back, so I'd get out there and tighten the fortifications!

 

[smarsh]

are the eggs eaten? sounds like an inept critter, could be worse. may just be a squirrel eating eggs, with the feather loss just from them trying to get out of the way of the quick little critter. we do live in a vermine filled state.

 

[bonstie]

What I have is a coop that has a ramp , so the nesting box IS off the ground. The ramp opens into an enclosed chicken run, with a roof.
I have been leaving the coop door to the run open at night, but since having this problem , I have been closing the coop door, and no more problems. I will probably continue to close the coop door. I also reinforced my run with stakes. I think it was a skunk issue. My little dog had a near miss encounter on his night time pee outing Friday night. We were lucky, no shots were fired!

Thanks to everyone for the great replies. Chickens are calm and I am getting eggs once again for now.

 

[Bonstie2]

good answer

 

[goldfinches]

What I have is a coop that has a ramp , so the nesting box IS off the ground. The ramp opens into an enclosed chicken run, with a roof.
I have been leaving the coop door to the run open at night, but since having this problem , I have been closing the coop door, and no more problems. I will probably continue to close the coop door. I also reinforced my run with stakes. I think it was a skunk issue. My little dog had a near miss encounter on his night time pee outing Friday night. We were lucky, no shots were fired!

Thanks to everyone for the great replies. Chickens are calm and I am getting eggs once again for now.

It's a hassle, but I always close my coop door. I love my birds too much to risk something getting to them while they sleep.

It's a bit of overkill for your coop, but on a larger one, you can install an automatic door that opens when the sun comes up and closes when it goes down. Actually, there's a pulley type system that might work well for you, google pulley chicken coop door.

 

[bonstie]

Well it WAS skunk! My other dog, the mastiff, got sprayed when she was protecting her turf. Shot the skunk. Hopefully it was a loner. Btw, I am all for living and let live, but the critter was causing me huge problems for me and my pet family!!!

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Skunks are rutting now and they move around a lot at this time, stay on the alert.