Lost 10 chickens last night

[BroosterSpringsteen]

Woke up this morning to find a yard full of feathers. The latch on the coop door was broken, and 10 chickens are missing. There are no injured or dead chickens left in the yard. What kind of predator could carry off 10 chickens in one night? And the coop isn't far from the house. I don't understand how the racket didn't wake me up?

I suspect possibly a fox, since one attacked my neighbor's flock fairly recently. Last year I had a big problem with raccoons...packs of raccoons basically, but they usually left dead chickens behind. Just when I think I've finally converted my coop into Fort Knox, they find a way in.

Priorities today include fixing the coop door, and setting up my game cam to catch a picture of the predator. Should I put out bait? Is that a bad idea? I'd feel a lot better knowing what kind of predator I'm dealing with. I only have 9 chickens left.

 

[countrycakelady]

OMG!! I am so sorry.........this sounds so odd......I would almost venture a guess that a human being had stolen them? I know it sounds crazy.....a bear maybe? I just don't know.....

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

It's so terrible! I'm very attached to my chickens. And I've been working really hard on my flock for a long time. Whatever it was took all but one of my Marans. I really don't think it was a human. There are a lot of feathers around the yard, some of them bloody, and I think a human would have just opened the coop without breaking the latch.

We do have a bear in our neighborhood, or so I've heard. I haven't seen it. Are bears nocturnal? We think it happened sometime around 5am. My BF works at night and got home around 4. There were no feathers at that point. We also have a bobcat around. My son was awoken late in the night over the weekend by some sort of terrifying animal noise, which could be a fox or bobcat? It's a mystery. I'm fairly anxious to find out what it was. It would have to be fairly strong to break the latch.

 

[JanetS]

So sorry for you loss. This is the lock we use. No 4 legged predator can open this.

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

I repaired the door today with new latches. I also set up my wildlife camera outside the coop. The park rangers nearby think it was the work of a bear, but I'm skeptical. They assured me that whatever it was will probably come back for the rest of the flock soon, so I guess we'll see.

 

[Hayduke27]

That definitely sounds like a bear to me. Bears most certainly are active all night, and they could and would break the latch off. I think you've got a bear on your hands! When thinking about your coop door, see if you can eliminate, or at least minimize, any areas that a bear could get its claws into the door crack to pry on the door. You may even want to do a top AND bottom latch. Bears are strong and very persistent.

 

[ken-t]

Can you get a motion activated camera? there actually quit fun.

 

[ken-t]

I see thats alreadys been answered sorry

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

Something set off the camera at 5am, but there was already too much light, and the infrared video was too washed out to see anything. I'm going to play with the settings and try again tonight. Nothing got into the coop at least.

 

[BroosterSpringsteen]

The culprit: foxes! I caught 2 on film last night. Although I'm still baffled as to how 2 foxes pried open the door and ran off with 10 chickens. Crazy.