Lost Chicken

[Cuban Longtails]

Racoons can open latches too, if they're determined enough. I'd use something you could put a pad lock on.

Quite clever animals. I believe the rule is not to use anything a three year old child could figure out.

 

[jedmundson]

The chickens are young, this batch is only about two months old. There are ten of them living together, we keep the new ones separated until they get to full size from the others. In the past when we have lost bird to predators there would only be feathers left behind, no body to be found. One year we traced a string of loss to one of our own dogs, who is not allowed to run free in that area of our property anymore and not allowed out at night. It just seemed to me that the damage was so surgical and the other chickens were sleeping right beside the body as if nothing had happened, not huddled in the opposite corner of the house. Could there have been some kind of a gang chicken fight?

 

[tiffanyh]

I really think it was, IMO. A raccoon isnt going to relatch the door behind them. They really came close to killing my NN hen. Broke her beak, blood everywhere...I am really suprsied they didnt kill her.

 

[tiffanyh]

You know, she also may have gone on her own. Once they die, the others will peck at them also, ecscpecially if one starts leaves a wound. Then they all pick at it.

 

[Cuban Longtails]

Chickens can not see in the dark, the definitely can't see very well in poor lighting. I can walk up (and I have done this) to a group of them perched together, snatch one and the others don't even budge except maybe to move over and fill in the space.

 

[jedmundson]

Well my daughter and I have secured the roof over the laying box, since they are not laying yet, not latch, nails. We will run the search lights and guard dogs along with hourly inspections and head counts, I think I have watched "Chicken Run" too many times. No, thank you all for your help. I guess I will see if the more secure coop will work and I need to set the trap cage for the raccoon and possum that come to visit us every night at our back porch.

 

[New2chickensnky]

We had the same problem with a couple of ours being dead in the coop , all still intact , but still a mystery to us too. We think that the other hens did this to ours. Let me know if findout anything. We did juts kill a snake the other day and we are assuming , since it was between the two coops , that is was going for the eggs. My husband told me now that they are crawling , I needed to collect the eggs early in the day , and since there was a snake involved, I said no thanks , I do not like snakes and if I were too see a poison one , he would have to collect me with the snakes .. Does anyone know of anything that will keep the snakes away and not hurt the chickens??

 

[jedmundson]

The best protection from snakes that we have found, and we sure do have them here in Texas, is cats. I am lucky enough to have all four of the venomous breeds, copperhead, water moccasins, rattlers and coral right in my back yard. We tried dogs first, but they were also interested in the chickens, our cats make friends with the chics, or at least play with them without injury. The cats will go after anything that wanders up into the yard or garden area. Never lost a cat yet, although we have seen what we believe were snake bite on their heads, swelled up area that went away in a few days. One draw back is that sometimes they like to bring us presents, mostly disarmed from movement to the door, the kitchen, our bed.

I will be keeping a closer eye on the flock myself until I feel like the situation can be explained better. The kids do most of the work, but sometimes overlook things. I will let you know if we find evidence of what happened. Thanks again to all that helped.

 

[crtrlovr]

Raccoons can climb almost anything, they can walk a chain like a tightrope, and they can certainly reach through chicken wire and pull a chicken's head through it. I have a chain link dog kennel as a coop, the entire thing is covered with poultry fencing, and I tried to make sure that none of the roosts are usable within 1' of the outside walls because I don't want any decapitations... an acquaintance of mine had some kittens penned in a large dog carrier, and the raccoons reached through the ventilation holes and killed every one of them. They may be pretty, but they're crafty little buggers. I've had them steal entire bird feeders (the large kind that hold around 5# of feed. We found 3 of them (feeders I'd bought and then had disappeared) when we tore down an old house next door. grrrr!

 

[love-my-wolves]

Yep, sounds to me like a coon pulled the chick's head right threw the wire! Have heard it happen before. The other chickens probably didn't even notice. Sorry for the loss! Maybe put up 1/4" hardware cloth over the chicken wire. Good luck! Steph