Horrible and no sign of entry or exit

[chickengeorgeto]

Lower door and wire

Is this door open to the outside? Almost anything up to and including a fox could belly crawl under that door, no digging needed. Another reminder, there are two species of fox, the Red Fox and the smaller Gray Fox. Both species love their... I mean love your chickens to death.

 

[Chickie Baby]

This door is open in the pic and when closed it scrapes the ground with no gap at all. The ground slopes and it has the gap when open. There is a layer of concrete under the dirt around the entire coop to keep animals from digging in. If one were persistent enough, something could dig under the concrete, but we tried to make it difficult.

 

[ivan3]

Add a live trap on likely approach to run/coop (canned tuna oil on a couple of marshmallows will do for a starter bait) and pick up a cheap baby monitor for coop (if one is awake/at home the growling of the chooks is a good sign that something hungry is on the way - plenty of time, often, to ambush the pred before the game cams are triggered). Good luck!

 

[iwiw60]

I expect to have predators, but we did build our coop in hopes of it keeping out the larger animals. I feel so bad because, we get them and are supposed to protect them from things like this. I know we can't help everything that happens, but I know my little "Fort Knox" will be much safer by evening. I just hope my babies go back to their coop tonight for bed and are not so traumatized by what happened to their sisters and brother. littlelizzy, I have never seen any mink or weasels in our area, but that's not to say we don't have them around.
We have plenty of bobcat, racoons, possums and skunk....

Do you have a 'baby monitor' for out there? Just thinking that if you did you could hear the ruckus way before major damage could be done, and possibly catch the little scumbag at it! I bought a vTech baby monitor that's also a camera. I'm lucky in that I have electric out to the shed so I'm 'plugged in' at all times. Kinda fun watching them do their thing in the coop...antics I would otherwise never see!! Little spy that I am!! All the best, hope you catch whatever is wreaking havoc on your hens...keep us up-to-date!!

 

[iwiw60]

Add a live trap on likely approach to run/coop (canned tuna oil on a couple of marshmallows will do for a starter bait) and pick up a cheap baby monitor for coop (if one is awake/at home the growling of the chooks is a good sign that something hungry is on the way - plenty of time, often, to ambush the pred before the game cams are triggered). Good luck!

Funny you should mention 'live trap'....by sheer coincidence my brother called me last night and told me he bought a live trap when he was up in Bend shopping. He told me I could borrow it any time I wanted...woot! I told him "well, if my .22 doesn't get the little scumbag(s) I sure will take you up on it!

 

[Chickie Baby]

I have 2 traps for tonight... And the baby monitor idea is brilliant. I'm going to do this! Thanks to all for the great input. We will get whatever did this to my sweet babies and it's not going to be pretty!!!

 

[Michael Apple]

Very sad. It sounds to me like coons. They mutilate more than others predators I've seen. I came upon my folks' duck enclosure once. The necks were gone, intestines opened, and heads strewn about the house. They had pried a board loose and got in. I don't waste time with them any more. If I see them on the property, I set traps, bait them with tuna or cat food, and shoot them when they are caught. I hope you find better security and cull the bandits. From your pics, it looks like a well built enclosure. My coops are walled all around with windows up high. Nothing can get in there at night. My fencing is 6' 2x2" woven wire with 2' 1/2" hardware cloth running the whole perimeter along the bottom of the fence. My coop is within this yard and the top of the yard is covered with 1" chicken wire.

 

[iwiw60]

I have 2 traps for tonight... And the baby monitor idea is brilliant. I'm going to do this! Thanks to all for the great input. We will get whatever did this to my sweet babies and it's not going to be pretty!!!

This is what I bought...Walmart online...free shipping and "free is good"!!

 

[Chickie Baby]

I'm with you Michael, I think coon too with the viciousness of it all. Thinking how a coon could get in is beyond me. We have so many coons that all we see in our deer cams are coons, turkeys and deer... Mostly coons!
Iwiw, nice find. Will try to find mine from when my boys were babies.

 

[aart]

Big puzzle is the missing chickens....need a fair sized hole to drag a chicken carcass thru.
Sorry for your loss, best of luck on your revenge.