Help with finding the culprit?

[SharynJoy]

Oh really? Ok, I didn't realize that! I'd read that once they were fully feathered they would be fine outside. I remember that week was the first week it was very warm here at night, though. It was 75ish and muggy that night, so they could have gotten too hot.

What is a better thing to use than chicken wire? We're so green with this!

 

[locoguru]

If you bought the chicks only 1 month before you put them in the coop, how old were they? and were you still using a heat lamp? They may had died from cold in that pile!

 

[SharynJoy]

They were 6 weeks old. We'd stopped using the heat lamp several days earlier. They had been in the house. That night, it was warmer outside than it was in the house.

 

[Robert5117]

Sorry Sharyn. We just lost 2 tonight. 1 survived and that is the ONLY reason we are not completely devastated. I don't think it was a fox as all the carcasses are still there. I think it is normal behavior to take the carcass away to its den.

In our case, our birds were pretty much chewed up - heads mainly. From what I've read, it could be a weasel or raccoon.

Again - sorry for this loss and shock and know that it happened to us too.

 

[spikennipper]

Hi, weld mesh as it's called in the UK or hardware cloth is what you need for your run, I would swap the chicken wire for this as it is much more robust and does not flex as easy, I also see huge gaps in your coop, they are good for ventilation but will let predators in so I would also seal these with hardware cloth, as for the chicks dying in a pile at 6 weeks I don't think they would have got too cold esp as that night you said it was 75, I also don't think they overheated, it is possible the predator just piled them up to come back later, if the kills were clean it sounds like a mustelid of some sort, perhaps stoat/weasel/mink, do you get them in your area?

 

[SharynJoy]

I'm not sure--I have never heard anyone talk about them before, but that doesn't mean they aren't here. We do have snakes, foxes, stray cats, birds of prey...

We are planning to add on to the original tractor, make it permanent, and put wire mesh all over--top, sides, bottom, just EVERYWHERE!!