HELP!!! Something is killing my chickens 😭😭

[GCrumb]

Hey, uhh. You don't need to buy predator urine. You're a predator yourself and make your own for free. My setup is much more predator-resistant now and I'd forgotten about it, but when my family's poultry free-ranged and roosted in a barn stall I used to pee around the barn. You will probably find that a lot of men and boys are pretty into doing this. All my high school buddies were.

It did seem to work.

A number of reasons this may be impractical spring to mind. They can (largely?) be solved by peeing in a container and then taking it out and pouring it. Somehow this seems like a weirder suggestion.

This is not likely to work if a predator has already learned that the coop is there and knows it's got somebody delicious inside.

I'd suggest you move your birds inside every night for a week or so, and pee circles 'round the coop.

My experience is that a weasel will take one and try to drag it off, so will a fox or coyote or skunk. But a racooon will pull the heads off as many as it can get and just eat the heads.

 

[Luv Ducks]

Hey, uhh. You don't need to buy predator urine. You're a predator yourself and make your own for free. My setup is much more predator-resistant now and I'd forgotten about it, but when my family's poultry free-ranged and roosted in a barn stall I used to pee around the barn. You will probably find that a lot of men and boys are pretty into doing this. All my high school buddies were.

It did seem to work.

A number of reasons this may be impractical spring to mind. They can (largely?) be solved by peeing in a container and then taking it out and pouring it. Somehow this seems like a weirder suggestion.

This is not likely to work if a predator has already learned that the coop is there and knows it's got somebody delicious inside.

I'd suggest you move your birds inside every night for a week or so, and pee circles 'round the coop.

My experience is that a weasel will take one and try to drag it off, so will a fox or coyote or skunk. But a racooon will pull the heads off as many as it can get and just eat the heads.

I totally agree with the raccoon theory as that is what happened to my Son's flock years ago. It was not protected enough and they took them one by one until they had the whole flock gone. I use my dog waste around my pen along with my NiteGuard devices and have been very fortunate not to have any attacks. My pen does sit up against my house though against Hubby's wishes but you'll have that. lol I think that helps to protect them too. He would rather have them farther out in the yard under the trees where the hawks like to perch and the raccoons hang out. As long as I am alive they are not going anywhere. lol He acts like they are all my project but as soon as he has a friend come over, where is the first place he takes them??? To go see my flock!!! LOL

 

[TOR]

Fortify or fix coop so no entry. Weasel can fit in a whole the size of quarter. They get their head thru they get their body thru.

Get game camera

There is designs and made weasel traps on the market. Sounds like a weasel or member of weasel family to me.

Without seeing coop, could be a different animal, sure sounds like weasel.

weasels also will store food, so if multiple chickens without heads maybe running to den and storing what it does not eat.

 

[GCrumb]

I totally agree with the raccoon theory as that is what happened to my Son's flock years ago.

They're the worst. I can't complain about the occassional loss of a free-ranger, but raccoons would just break in and kill everybody and not eat much.

Male hawks will eat just heads seasonally before breeding but it's still just one bird at a time.

I think being closer to the house does help.

 

[Coffetym]

I hope my final opinion on this is not offensive to the squeamish, but from my experience the best fix for this is, bait & eliminate! Usually during the night with a quality spotlight. Sooner or later, the critter population will depreciate.

 

[Painted Calls]

How are things now @jen61871? Were you able to protect your remaining girls? Did you catch the culprit?

 

[Bertie-Merle]

An animal has attacked and killed some of my chickens three times in one week!
the first attack it killed 5 chickens. We moved the surviving 5 to two different coops. Then a few nights ago we heard commotion in the big coop and ran out and there was one dead chicken and we thought maybe she was trampled in the confusion. Didn't see anything. Shut the coop back up and the next morning three more chickens were dead. It had come back. I called the game commission and we went out and bought 2 traps. We are pretty sure it's a weasel. It's biting off their heads, sometimes piling then and ripping out their entrails.
We checked and fixed EVERYTHING we could see and looked so hard to stop it from getting in.
this morning I went out and could see a little bit of a chicken coming out from the bottom of the coop door. Such TINY space!! I glanced in the windows and saw some bodies. But I don't know how many. I can't open the door. I have to wait until my honey comes home from work. I let the live ones out.
It has been suggested that I get cameras but I absolutely can NOT go out there to death even one more morning
anybody have any suggestions?

Jen,
One other thing, which I can't believe I didn't think to mention, is motion activated lighting. I put two small cheapo low brightness solar lights on my coop, like 5 lumens each, just so I can see it from the window at night, but more important, I have a 500 lumen motion sensor solar security light pointed at the coop and attached run to ward off critters. Whenever I come around the corner of the house towards that paddock that light comes on and it's pretty darn bright. I just attached mine at the top of my 4' chain-link fence with a couple of zip ties and it's been working great for over two years, even through a couple of freezes. (Solar lights can be iffy in quality and hit-or-miss though). Mine was only like $18 at "Wallyworld", but they have some that are really, really bright ... like 1500 or more lumens for around $30 to $60 and some even have a strobe setting so that it will flash when activated to further deter the varmints.
Here are a couple of example links:
This is the 500 lumen one I've got:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-To...tent=In-store&athbdg=L1600&from=searchResults
Here is the 1500 lumen version of the one I have:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hyper-To...fulfillmentIntent=In-store&from=searchResults
This is one with the "strobe", or flashing option:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bell-How...tent=In-store&athbdg=L1103&from=searchResults

I hope this might help if you haven't already thought of this. Take care.