Help! Whole flock killed!

[BDutch]

Sorry for your loss. Good to find out whodonit. And to make a plan for the future.

I thought maybe a fox did this, because of the surplus killing. Not many predators do that where I live. But in the states there are more predators who do this if they have the opportunity. The different bitings can mean that the fox/original killer went away with the missing chicken and other predators and scavengers came to eat from the dead animals.

To me it is clear that the guinea fowl got away because they are better in fleeing / flying.

Training a dog is not a quick solution. It takes time, patience and some drilling to get there. If you like training a dog it is a good idea for the future.

Anyway, for now I would buy slender chickens that are well known to be good in free ranging and can fly reasonable good for a chicken. Maybe get a rooster to protect the flock? And make a portable construction where the chickens can fly upon , > 2 meters (6,5 ’ ) from the ground if there are not enough trees around.

 

[NHMountainMan]

I should add that there are cheaper and faster ways than a dog to secure your chickens - a protected run and electric fence.

If you do go with a dog, don't leave him unattended if you've got a lot of coyotes. They will hunt and kill small dogs/pups.

 

[Klutch]

My guard animal.

 

[MidGaMarine]

Thank you for all your advice. I'm currently trying to talk the hubby into Great Pyrenees my neighbor just had puppies. I am hoping to get more chicks soon, so I will have to look into those. We had mostly Easter eggers and barred rocks.

 

[MidGaMarine]

Wow! The majority of my birds taken were Easter eggers. There were some barred rock, buff orpington, one black Australorp too. The leghorns, the rir's, and red rangers have made it

 

[featherhead007]

Thank you for all your advice. I'm currently trying to talk the hubby into Great Pyrenees my neighbor just had puppies. I am hoping to get more chicks soon, so I will have to look into those. We had mostly Easter eggers and barred rocks.

WOW, Sorry, Those are good breeds of chickens to have. Maybe free ranging is not a good idea in your situation.

 

[Gootsis]

We have a chicken tractor for our chickens that we move every few weeks. Usually they are free ranged with the guineas from 1-5pm ish then I put them up every night. We came home from the store at 4pm and all of my chickens except 1 are dead. The guineas are fine as well. All of them were eaten butt first, and two of them were barely even touched, any ideas got them?

It was racoons. That's how they eat chickens front butt first. I've had many killed like that. It's coon.

 

[featherhead007]

Kinda makes me want to recall my birds back to the covered run this morning, but We don't have many predators here. And I have an 8 ft. fence around the whole property, with many bushes and trees to hide in.

 

[cmom]

Have you figured out what killed your birds yet? Put up a game camera if you have one. I have several up on my property and regularly see predators on the cameras. Mostly at night here and mostly coyotes. The predator probably has and will be back. I have noticed from my cameras that many predators have routines and routes. I can actually identify some from characteristics. The predator will be back from time to time since it made a kill there. With a camera, then you will know what the predator is and take appropriate measures to protect your future flock. Good luck...

 

[Gcooper]

Yes I think we finally figured out what got them. Our neighbor runs rabbit dogs and we've caught him around our pen 2 times since. Today I lured him over and called his owner. Hopefully we can work something out so this doesn't happen again in the future. I have also started incubating some of the eggs my Easter egger was getting ready to sit on. So hopefully I'll have new babies here shortly. I also had a friend sell me a few almost mature red sexlinks so we should be back and fully stocked here shortly. Thank you everyone for all the kind words and advice, as new chicken owner I really appreciate it