I can't believe they are gone!!!

[equine chick]

I have been incubating eggs and got some nice chicks over the last 3-4 weeks. One set was 10 days old and one set was just hatched over the weekend. Well I keep my brooder in my screened porch(really a sunroom). They were fine at 1230am. My dogs are crated at night and the cats are outside in the barn. I woke up and found my 13 chicks disappeared without a trace, that were only two days old and the most beautiful cuckoos and welsummers ever seen with only a few drops of blood in the box. The big chicks were bit at the neck or had become headless. What monster did this to my babies. My dh thinks some sort of a rat could have gotten into the porch. I am just sick. I must have spent 200.00 on these assorted eggs by egg bid and ebay and my show birds are gone. I was really hopeful for my cuckoos to be my breeder flock and now I have to start over. I am so mad, no I'm ticked and whatever monster got to my babies will be caught and killed what they did to my sweet chicks. I have some in the incubator to be hatched this weekend. Some blue marans and jersey giants and dh is building a new brooder in the workshop as we speak but I am heart broken. I have new chicks coming next week from a breeder so I will be ready for this varmit.

 

[tiffanyh]

rat, weasel...

....so sorry!

 

[EllyMae]

That had to be horrifying. I am so sorry for your loss.

 

[Farmer Kitty]

 

[Acre of Blessings]

Lately we all just need a big group

Sorry for the loss.

 

[dixygirl]

Hi there,
I am so sorry for you in your time of sorrow :|
I have 5 ducks and 2 chicks now in a brooder and I keep them in my garage. I used to keep them in my bedroom with me when they were smaller!

I experienced the SAME thing with my koi fish. I had grown them since they were babies and they had their own babies and grew to a huge size. One day i came out and found them floating headless and torn to bits in the pond .

I WANT to allow my ducks and chicks to free range but there are foxes, opossums, and racoons around. So I had better not.

 

[chikenlady]

I am so sorry that you lost your babies.

I'm curious...did you brooder have a cover on top?

Lori

 

[horsejody]

Sorry for your loss. Sounds like a weasel to me. Rats don't care where they bite and just start eating anywhere on the body even if it is still alive. And, unless there were lots of rats, they probably wouldn't have killed them all. Weasels like the neck and kill everybody. The older chicks bodies were left because they were bigger. What ever is left of the dead smaller chicks will be stored under your porch or in a nearby hole or hiding place. See if you dogs can find the bodies. Good luck to you in finding and killing the menace. We raised chickens and rabbits when I was growing up. Weasels are a scourge. It could be a close relative of a weasel too. Maybe a mink.

 

[coopist]

I agree. Taking the heads sounds like a weasel.

 

[yellowdragon]

I had a some about like this. I had 6 silkies about 10 weeks ( which is small). Some thing got their bodies through the wire... ALL of them, but 1 in one night.
I cried.
So I got steel wire( small square) and went along the outside with it. I haven't lost one in the run since. The last one got eatin 2 months ago( I cried then too). My Lou.