- Nov 30, 2011
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Okay, I signed up to this forum a few weeks ago to get pointers on how to raise/butcher meat chickens…now I need y’all’s help in figuring out what has killed my chicks two weeks before slaughter!!
I’ve had two attacks…the first was when (on New Year’s Eve) my husband and I stayed out late (of course) and forgot to close the chicken coop up. I should add that for some reason these meat chickens (I have…had red broilers from Ideal) like to sleep outside in the caged area instead of going into their coop at night…they just all pile up in the corner. I had 25 chickens and on that first attack 20 were killed although the morning of I only found 3 dead in the yard. One had its foot chewed off but no other visible damage and the other two had bite marks on their chest area (about the size of a fox, dog, etc.) with no other damage. Over the next few weeks pieces of the other chickens started surfacing around the yard which led me to believe the predator had buried the other chickens and was coming back at night to feed and leaving pieces around my yard (which is securely fenced with no signs of holes/digging etc. for access which leads me to believe this predator can either jump extremely high or is climbing surrounding trees to get in/out).
Now this morning I woke up and went out to feed the 5 remaining meat chickens I have and found 2 dead in the caged area (side note: the caged area was enclosed and there are no holes that would have allowed something to break in) both the animals have their heads chewed off with no other damage…also I found 1 head right next to the fence like something just pulled it off and left it there (although there are some bite marks that indicate it was an animal). There are scratch marks around the cage but like I said no holes that would’ve allowed the animal to get in…which is REALLY confusing because one of the bodies is in the middle of the fenced in area.
Help! Has anyone had anything like this happen to their flock? Also, I have another flock of egg layers in another fenced area right next to the meat chickens which are allowed to free range as much as they want who’ve never been preyed upon…I’m so confused!
On a side note, I did purchase a trap from my feed store yesterday (ironic I know) so if I catch the culpret I will definitely let y'all know what it was but I'd like any suggestions...I'm thinking fox, bobcat, coyote but I'm not sure about the behavior of these animals so whatever knowledge y'all have is greatly appreciated!
Courtney
I’ve had two attacks…the first was when (on New Year’s Eve) my husband and I stayed out late (of course) and forgot to close the chicken coop up. I should add that for some reason these meat chickens (I have…had red broilers from Ideal) like to sleep outside in the caged area instead of going into their coop at night…they just all pile up in the corner. I had 25 chickens and on that first attack 20 were killed although the morning of I only found 3 dead in the yard. One had its foot chewed off but no other visible damage and the other two had bite marks on their chest area (about the size of a fox, dog, etc.) with no other damage. Over the next few weeks pieces of the other chickens started surfacing around the yard which led me to believe the predator had buried the other chickens and was coming back at night to feed and leaving pieces around my yard (which is securely fenced with no signs of holes/digging etc. for access which leads me to believe this predator can either jump extremely high or is climbing surrounding trees to get in/out).
Now this morning I woke up and went out to feed the 5 remaining meat chickens I have and found 2 dead in the caged area (side note: the caged area was enclosed and there are no holes that would have allowed something to break in) both the animals have their heads chewed off with no other damage…also I found 1 head right next to the fence like something just pulled it off and left it there (although there are some bite marks that indicate it was an animal). There are scratch marks around the cage but like I said no holes that would’ve allowed the animal to get in…which is REALLY confusing because one of the bodies is in the middle of the fenced in area.
Help! Has anyone had anything like this happen to their flock? Also, I have another flock of egg layers in another fenced area right next to the meat chickens which are allowed to free range as much as they want who’ve never been preyed upon…I’m so confused!
On a side note, I did purchase a trap from my feed store yesterday (ironic I know) so if I catch the culpret I will definitely let y'all know what it was but I'd like any suggestions...I'm thinking fox, bobcat, coyote but I'm not sure about the behavior of these animals so whatever knowledge y'all have is greatly appreciated!
Courtney
