- Apr 6, 2008
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I've free ranged my chickens for 2 months with only 2 losses, one of a hen who refused to come in the coop a couple of nights and by day 3 there was only a pile of feathers. We have a lot of predators in the wooded area where I lived but mostly at night.
But this wk...Mon hubby finds a raccoon in the run when he is shutting them in at dark. Tue am there is a pile of feathers in the yard (again, no blood or anything else). I let the chickens out thinking we would be home but had to make an unexpected ER trip. That afternoon I heard a chicken squawk and looked out to see a fox pulling feathers out of a hen. DH shot the fox but forgot he didn't have a heavy load shell in the gun so he got away. Amazingly the hen who acted like a zombie had no bleeding or other injury.
I tried to get everyone in the coop and realized my roo and a hen were missing. My hubby found the roo fully feathered with his head off and part of his entrails eaten.
One white hen refused to be penned early so I watched her but turned my back for a couple of minutes just before I went to let her in and she literally disappeared. This morning her body was in the yard, killed just like the roo. This afternoon I shot a large ferral cat who was eating on the chicken but I don't know that is what killed her.
How many kinds of murders do I have here?
Of course they are all penned now. I have 2 month olds that faired much better and they were outside also.
But this wk...Mon hubby finds a raccoon in the run when he is shutting them in at dark. Tue am there is a pile of feathers in the yard (again, no blood or anything else). I let the chickens out thinking we would be home but had to make an unexpected ER trip. That afternoon I heard a chicken squawk and looked out to see a fox pulling feathers out of a hen. DH shot the fox but forgot he didn't have a heavy load shell in the gun so he got away. Amazingly the hen who acted like a zombie had no bleeding or other injury.
I tried to get everyone in the coop and realized my roo and a hen were missing. My hubby found the roo fully feathered with his head off and part of his entrails eaten.
One white hen refused to be penned early so I watched her but turned my back for a couple of minutes just before I went to let her in and she literally disappeared. This morning her body was in the yard, killed just like the roo. This afternoon I shot a large ferral cat who was eating on the chicken but I don't know that is what killed her.
How many kinds of murders do I have here?
Of course they are all penned now. I have 2 month olds that faired much better and they were outside also.
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