I got a bounty on the head of a predator…

I have, did have 3 hens (one rooster) and 3 guineas. Now I have 1 hen, 1 rooster, and 3 guineas. They are free range 24/7 and I haven’t had any real problems before, a close call with a hawk once.
But anyway today I want to check on the birds and collect eggs and the first thing I see is one of my best layers dead on the ground (in the run), it looked like it had been tossed around, no bite marks or nothing just missing a few feathers near the gullet, and its left leg is out of socket.
So then I ring the bell and all the birds come running up from the field and I notice that my rooster is missing all of his tail feathers and that there was only one hen and I look around and notice that there are a few guinea feathers in the corner of the run. I fed them some millet and corn got up and looked for the other bird, and I found it laying about 9ft from the coop next to the tree, dead. In the same condition as the other bird, it looked like it had been tossed around missing a few feathers and that’s it.
There weren’t any tracks (we had a huge rain storm last night) and I think it attacked some time during the night. One dead hen (the one sittin dead by the tree base) had some ants on it, 2 eggs were in the coop and there were a few feathers in the coop (it didn’t look like much action happened in there). We normally get 2-3 eggs in a day, and I didn’t collect eggs yesterday, so it had to of happen during the night.
At first I thought it was a coon, but there are no bite marks or nothing, just it looked like joy kills. Something like what dogs would do. And lately there has been a white pit roaming the streets. What do u think it could be? We are going to put a game cam by the coop and see if it comes back. But im betting that its a dog.
The birds will only be free range now when I am home now, and the guns will be ready. If it turns out that it’s a dog I’ll have to get some pics of it trying to get in the coop first. I guess I’ll go ahead and dig a hole for whatever it is. What do you think I should do? What do you think could of killed my 2 hens?


& wow this fourm has changed so much, its been a wile since ive been on. Glad to be back! and this means more baby chicks this spring. : )

 

Exactley what i think, but i would hate to blame the pitt. Its just what came to mind first. And im sure what ever it is will be back too, I hope to catch what ever it is on the game camera first.

 

I caught a pit bull Friday, I was bush hogging and I saw the dog in the corner of the field. When I turned off the tractor It came up to me, It was well trained and very friendly. I was thinking of keeping it (If we didn’t already have 7 dogs), it was a pretty dog and didn’t have an interest in the birds, I have never seen the dog before and its never been caught on the game cam.
I called the owner and they came and got the dog. I told them "that it would be best if they try to keep their dog penned up, out here I have free range animals and I don’t want anything to happen to your dog, I’ve lost a few chickens before and I have a game camera with pictures of dogs." I think I kind of scared him. He said that they had just adopted the dog 2 weeks ago and it is the second time it had gotten out and they said that they would be giving it away shortly.
Its a pack of wild dogs that I’m after. they are all pit-bull mixes, they have no owner and are unfriendly. I have shot at them with the shotgun twice (in their direction, but not at them). The shot gun wont kill them at the distance in shooting from, I really need to do a steak out with a rifle. But I just don’t have the time to waste to do that. I haven’t seen the dogs since summer though.

 

No but im always on the look out.