HELP! Something killed 20 of my hens in one night!!!

[McChooky]

We had a very similar experience over the past year. We at first determined that it was a weasel, weasels are mostly nocturnal so we have left a light on in the chicken house for the past year and mostly stopped the slaughter. I say mostly because we recently started losing 1 or 2 at a time, something got into the pen again and we had a large rooster that had been attacked and was completely traumatized but died 2 days later. 3 weeks later we found several hens dead even with the light on and the coup door closed, one had a large wound on the neck and the other had a small wound on her neck. I am now suspecting that a family of ravens that took up residence near the chicken house this summer, I am pretty sure they are attacking the hens while they are in the laying bins, I am finding egg shells far from the chicken pen that are being carried off and eaten. We have had that coup in place for 20 years without problems, but this has been a rough year for our chickens. Good luck in solving your problem, you might want to try a light on it has not interfered with our chickens egg production.

Sorry but the member who made this post hasn't been active since it was posted 10 years ago.Thanks