DyingPhoenix
Songster
Went away for the weekend and come back to one of my pens compromised.
The pen has no top ( work in progress ) but is 6ft tall welded wire with 3 strings of electric wire around the base that really packs a wallop. I was honestly surprised something was able to climb the wire without touching any of them. Here's a pic.
Most of the fence is more snug to the welded wire than where I took the pic. Less of a gap between them.
Today I added a new wire at chest level. The top will be on the pens by the end of the week.
I'm thinking a raccoon did it. Nothing dug into the pen and it doesn't look like a bird kill. The two bodies were found still in the pen, the heads and some of the torso eaten. The wings were also torn off and gnawed. The birds are young and still like to sleep in piles. It looked like the kill took place at the pile and then they were dragged under the coop ( its on legs ) and eaten there. I'm grateful it didn't kill them all in one shot but it looks like one died Saturday night and then another last night. I'm also missing two young silkies entirely from the next pen over which is the same setup.
I'm getting ready for tonight. Hoping the extra wire above will help. I'm setting up a trail camera. Does this sound like a raccoon? I can't imagine a opossum doing all this but I'm honestly surprised it didn't kill everyone in there. There's a Tom turkey in a third pen next to them, they are all connected. The Tom was left alone.
The pen has no top ( work in progress ) but is 6ft tall welded wire with 3 strings of electric wire around the base that really packs a wallop. I was honestly surprised something was able to climb the wire without touching any of them. Here's a pic.
Most of the fence is more snug to the welded wire than where I took the pic. Less of a gap between them.
Today I added a new wire at chest level. The top will be on the pens by the end of the week.
I'm thinking a raccoon did it. Nothing dug into the pen and it doesn't look like a bird kill. The two bodies were found still in the pen, the heads and some of the torso eaten. The wings were also torn off and gnawed. The birds are young and still like to sleep in piles. It looked like the kill took place at the pile and then they were dragged under the coop ( its on legs ) and eaten there. I'm grateful it didn't kill them all in one shot but it looks like one died Saturday night and then another last night. I'm also missing two young silkies entirely from the next pen over which is the same setup.
I'm getting ready for tonight. Hoping the extra wire above will help. I'm setting up a trail camera. Does this sound like a raccoon? I can't imagine a opossum doing all this but I'm honestly surprised it didn't kill everyone in there. There's a Tom turkey in a third pen next to them, they are all connected. The Tom was left alone.