I can't TAKE it ANYMORE!!!! Another gone!

[rodriguezpoultry]

OK.

We found a Langshan pullet (my FAVORITE) that had been missed by the owl. So me, being the smart one...put the pullet into a rabbit hutch that IS the safest place we have. There are NO holes in this one.

I also put the two remaining silkies in there last night.

I come back tonight and guess what? My single silkie pullet is gone. NOT a feather, no blood. And my Langshan and silkie cockerel are perfectly fine.

A board on top of the hutch may, or may not have been moved and/or ripped from the nails and the latch on the front was still closed. There is NO way a bird could have gotten into the coop, and I'm assuming a raccoon would have killed the other two birds in his fun.

WHAT is going on here?! WHY the pullet? Is it a two-legged predator? What could have done this? WHY is there no trace of the bird?

I have moved the remaining birds into a pet carrier that is facing into the side of the house so that NOTHING can get to them.

What do I do?! What else IS there? Why has this thing not even bothered catching smaller, much easier to get to prey? Why has it not tried getting into the coops (open fronts thanks to the heat)...but instead a hutch?

 

[danielbrown]

I'd be sitting out in a camouflaged spot with gun and good view. You can set up a game cam with IR flash(not visible).

 

[saddina]

First decide if the board was ripped off, or already loose. If it was ripped off, would a coon have that strength? however, racoons can pull prey thru the wires, so is the wire streached or has dried blood?

I don't think it's a person, a silkie is sort of a chicken fetish bird, if you're not into chicks, you wouldn't know what to do with one.

 

[Bizzybirdy]

Figuring out predators is really stressful...most likely a racoon that was happy with just one but will be back for the others. If they are in a dog type plastic carrier be aware that a racoon can eat right through one of them. In fact I had a Cockatoo that ate through the top of one in about 30 minutes. Those kennel cabs are not very strong, even the bigger ones.

I too would be sitting in a window or outside waiting to see what it was and prepared to dispatch it.