Losing lots of chickens to some unknown predator

[the poppster]

Ok...it could be a Bobcat...they may be very common in your area...here in the wilderness of the great UP of Michigan...that's what the tourists call it....after a lifetime of living in or near the woods....and I mean woodsy woods...hundreds of square miles of nothing but woods...I have yet to see a Bobcat...wolves, coyote, moose, deer, Fox, badger, eagles, owls, Weasels, Fishers, Porkies....wait a minute Porkies are no threat to my birds, they might try to eat the coop door...but not the birds...what I'm getting at is, for the most part, bobcat are night hunters and tend to be very elusive. At least around here....anyway yes it could have been a Bobcat...but I'm still betting on the raccoon.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I tried to follow along to see if the fence was ever fixed. In last few pages there's talk of animals reaching through the fence to get a bird. It's safe to assume you did not fix the fence. Near page 3 I read you lost the volt tester and were getting a new one. Did you? What is your voltage reading next to charger on beginning of fence? What is the voltage reading on end of fence?

You don't need to replace the original fence tester, just get a volt meter from parents or neighbor or buy a cheap one for $15 at a hardware or big box store. If your not getting well over 3K at end of fence then it's either grounding out or you never had the proper charger for it. The beginning of fence volts should be near same as end of fence or your losing a lot to ground and need to fix that. As for charger size over 4K in fence works for me. Some folks like it 6k or more but that's really bear stopping power and not needed to zap raccoon, stray dogs, skunks, coyote, etc. Due to sagging my fence will get to only 3k and even as low as 2k. At 2K it's merely an odd sensation and more annoying than a pain deterrent.

Sure things could be jumping the fence but they learned to do do after touching the fence and not getting enough pain or any to make them run from the area and never come back. I also never heard if you dog is left out at night to "protect" the birds or put in the house. He should be making an alarm if a predator is outside when he is. If not then I'd assume that fence jumping predator and dog size scat is his.

 

[costello]

Thanks for more responses.

Yes, there are bobcats in this area. I did see a large cat (larger than a housecat) crossing the field one day. It was carrying a rodent. It didn't look like a bobcat, though. It was dark and had a long tail.

The fence has been repaired, then broken (bad extension cord), then repaired, then broken (ground wire completely severed), then repaired. Currently it's largely coated with ice, but charging nicely where the ice is broken off. The ice splinters off when anything knocks against it, so hopefully a predator would get a shock.

The trail cam has caught mostly rabbits, but I've seen two coyotes, and possibly a raccoon, all outside the fence. None approached the fence; they all skirted it. There was one opossum inside the fence. I had traps set for it, but I can't seem to catch it.

I thought I had the problem licked, then I found another half-eaten pullet yesterday. I'm frustrated enough I stopped at the gun counter at Walmart to ask advice this evening. The lady at the counter happened to be a chicken owner who'd lost quite a few birds recently herself. She advised me to bait the trap with the half-eaten bird which I did tonight. Makes sense. Maybe I'll catch him tonight.

A couple of nights ago I saw a pair of eyes glowing from a tree hanging over the barn. I was able to get a pretty good look at it. It didn't look like an animal I'd seen before. I guessed maybe badger, but a facebook friend said he thought it was more likely a opossum. I didn't realize they could climb so well. Anyway, it didn't look like a opossum to me, and I've see quite a few of those, but maybe it was.

 

[WthrLady]

Opossums are great climbers. Raccoons too. I hope you figure out your culprit soon.

 

[WthrLady]

Badger or fisher cat?

 

[centrarchid]

Badgers are not avid climbers. Oppossums can climb but you should have been able to catch on of those with your hands. I seldom see oppossums in trees when they are looking for eats. Eyes do not usually reflect green. That is more typical of night adapted carnivorans. My dogs glow red when exposed to lots of light but blue green like a coyote when out in dark for a while.

If critter keeps coming back the raccoon would be high on my list of suspects.

 

[costello]

I've never even heard of a fisher cat before. It does look like what I saw, but I guess they don't get this far south.

The animal I saw in the tree didn't move at all while I shined a light on it and looked at it pretty carefully. I even climbed partway up a ladder leaning against the roof, and it didn't move, although it kept its face turned toward me the whole time. It made no effort to move away from me.

I so wish I'd had my camera with me. It makes sense it was a opossum, but I'm surprised I wouldn't recognize it if it were. It was dark all over - at least all I could see of it - and its face wasn't as pointy as a opossum. It had small round ears.

 

[WthrLady]

Mink!weasel!

 

[007Sean]

Costello, if i may....it's most likely it is a racoon and possibly 2 or 3! If it was a mink or weasel it would just eat the head...usually, the brain has the highest and best tasting fat content, at least to a,weasel. This past spring/summer i lost 12 young pheasants that were in my outdoor brooders. They were covered with 1inch chicken wire. At first i thought it was a weasel but there was nothing left not even feathers. So i put 1/2 inch hardware cloth around the bottom 8" of the brooders....still lost birds. They were strong enough to pull it down far enough to reach in and get to my birds.After this, i set steel traps...first night caught 3 coons. Set them again, a week later and caught 2 more. I haven't had anymore predation. If you can set some steel traps so that your dog can't get caught you might have a chance of catching the rascals. Of course you also risk catching house cats and any other animal that walks into the traps. If you use the live trap, bait it with a can of cat food....coons can't resist it. Also, make a funnel to the trap...it will act as a channel to the trap.
Hope this helps....i know what it's like to lose birds and can't figure it out.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

Ok...it could be a Bobcat...they may be very common in your area...here in the wilderness of the great UP of Michigan...that's what the tourists call it....after a lifetime of living in or near the woods....and I mean woodsy woods...hundreds of square miles of nothing but woods...I have yet to see a Bobcat...wolves, coyote, moose, deer, Fox, badger, eagles, owls, Weasels, Fishers, Porkies....wait a minute Porkies are no threat to my birds, they might try to eat the coop door...but not the birds...what I'm getting at is, for the most part, bobcat are night hunters and tend to be very elusive. At least around here....anyway yes it could have been a Bobcat...but I'm still betting on the raccoon.

I can agree with you on not seeing bobcats. A game warden friend of mine was astonished when I told him that I had a total of 5 minutes of wild bobcat viewing spread over 40 years. That was 30 years ago. In the last 9 months i trapped 2 of the sneaky suckers in a box trap no less.