Killed chicken and buried, mystery killer?

[blairctchickens]

Update on my events! I have a the trap set up with a live mouse in a small cage secured in the back of the trap, with small dish with wet dog food and tuna mixed. Caught a large Tom Cat and a large opossum, which both have moved onto a better place. but between the time of trapping of these two critters I lost my other Silver Laced Wyandotte pullet in the day light hours. The Opossum was caught on what was left of the remains of the 2nd bird, that I put in the trap as bait . I found the dead pullet stashed in the run behind some boards. Since then I have also moved my dogs running area up next to the coop and run to detour any critters during the day time. I researched good bates to catch a fox and it was suggested to use some KFC chicken on the bone. Going to have to give that a try next!

 

[Folly's place]

It will be tricky, but roofing your run, at least with wire, and excluding that nice maple in the process, will be a very big help. Could you frame around it, and roof out from there? So the tree is actually no longer in the run somehow. Mary

 

[blairctchickens]

Well that would be quite the feat to frame around that tree, but could give it some good thought to see if it could be done. Definitely going to get some kind of electric fence.

 

[aart]

Well that would be quite the feat to frame around that tree, but could give it some good thought to see if it could be done.

It can be done:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-building-coops.1191089/page-85#post-19034348

 

[blairctchickens]

 

[blairctchickens]

well as from the picture above you can see the large maple tree to the left of the coop that I am dealing with. LOL

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Doing my chicken count last night and saw I had a missing hen.... I found her buried in my compost bin... with just her feet sticking out. I... found her back tore out and the innards eaten.... My question is; would the possum do this type of killing...

What you described is a classic example of the feeding behavior of a North American possum.

My guess is that Pogo is sleeping in the compost bin inside your coop. Down in amongst all the rotting stuff inside of your composting bin is a sweet warm location for a possum to set up house keeping. BTW, so is inside of a rotting cow carcass.

 

[blairctchickens]

Well unfortunately it truly is a fox. I went into the coop after work yesterday and the fox was in the coop!! it had just killed my head hen that had gone broody. before I could react it was out the door of the coop and ran off. With a heavy heart i am using my lost chicken as bait in the trap. today calls for a bunch of rain so i have left the chickens pinned in the coop. lets hope for a trapped fox ASAP!

 

[Folly's place]

So sorry! Keep everyone in until this situation is resolved, or loose the rest of your birds.
When we had a bad fox episode a few years ago, I visited the neighbors and everyone within about a half mile who had chickens, to alert them. We couldn't get a good shot at him (daytime, very sick mangy boy) but a few days later, a neighbor with chickens down the road did get him, because they were watching. We had traps set up and he ignored them. We lost ten nice laying hens mid-afternoon, in a short time. Mary

 

[aart]

well as from the picture above you can see the large maple tree to the left of the coop that I am dealing with. LOL

Ah, yes, double trunk increases the difficulty exponentially.

Well unfortunately it truly is a fox. I went into the coop after work yesterday and the fox was in the coop!! it had just killed my head hen that had gone broody. before I could react it was out the door of the coop and ran off. With a heavy heart i am using my lost chicken as bait in the trap. today calls for a bunch of rain so i have left the chickens pinned in the coop. lets hope for a trapped fox ASAP!

EeeeGADS!!
Best bet is to make sure coop and run is secure and keep them in there. Good luck trapping the fox, they aren't called sly for no reason...and even if you trap it, there are probably others around.