Lost my first guinea at 6 months

[malinois]

After all the days and weeks of extra care and attention, after their many trips to the barn through the pastures, and across the darn road, and surviving sub zero temps, last night SOME EVIL creature got ahold of one of my hens, and made a real mess of her. I do not know what it was (yet) but it came out from underneath my arena barn, and grabbed her only about 10 foot from the coop door. Very few tracks in the snow to give me a clue, i almost thought it may have been a hawk or other bird of prey....but the remains were under a pine tree...? The game camera is set up, and a box trap has been set. Hopefully by this time tomorrow i will have caught, tried, convicted, and sentenced the offender.
Thank you all for reading, listening. Noone else would understand how that hurt me to find her this morning. I felt like i let them down. Would a raccoon do that? Or a fox? Whatever it was didn't bother to take her very far away, and were not bothered by the barn lights, or the horses....

 

[Hotcookie]

Oh, you poor thing. I know exactly how you feel, having lost one of my younger hens to a hawk a few weeks ago. Somehow it's worse when you see the remains of your pet just laying there.

Beings you said it happened last nite, I'm guessing it might be either an owl or a coon. If it was an owl, there wouldn't have been any tracks, of course. Raccoons like to bite the head off their prey, leaving the rest behind.

Hope you catch whatever it was. Once again, sorry you lost one of your babies.

 

[memphis]

So sorry. Hope you catch the culprit.

 

[malinois]

No luck for the trap overnight, and the game camera was blank too. I did notice a hawk hanging around today, but i was not sure if its here because of the bait in the box trap, or if its looking for another meal.
I have read on the chicken forums about using plastic owls, and or CDs hanging in case it is the hawk. Would the owl scare the guineas? This is such a strange dilema, trying to find something to scare one kind of bird, in order to protect another kind of bird.

I am sorry if this is a repeat topic, but it is new to me..... Unfortunately......
I guess i really do need to find the culprit first. I would like to know what others have done for predators in their area. Covering a run for them, or keeping them in is really not an option. I guess i have to expect some losses, but i am trying to keep that to a minimum.
Thanks

 

[linnieg]

I am sorry you lost your hen, I have one setting at the moment and she insist on doing it under the raspberries. I do have a fence around the yard and also an electric fence. My Guinea fowl roost in trees they refuse the comfort of a barn The guinea fowl I lost was to a fox.

 

[malinois]

Trap update...two opossums in a 24 hour period. I have checked out the predators thread here, and i suppose its very likely that this is what got my Guinea hen. I will keep the birds in a few more days until the traps are empty. Oiy and yuck!

 

[BridgetBarger]

Sorry to hear you lost a guinea , it is always hard. I lost several to a dog last fall.