something killed my six laying hens this morning between 7 and 9am. i forgot to close the enclosure gate last night. the coop itself has an automatic chicken door that closes between 9pm and 6am, but when it opened this morning they had free run of the yard. they never leave the yard, so something came in here and got them.
i heard them clucking , business as usual, around 7 or so,. this was before i remembered that i had left the gate open. when i went out around 9:30, they were gone.
i found an entire dead one (barred rock) across the street, some feathers from the black australorp in my own yard, lots of feathers and parts of a RIR in a side-neighbors yard, and lots of feathers of either the australorp again or the black star in the rear neighbor's yard.
would a fox have done this? not a hawk for sure. i'm thinking a loose dog. i never heard anything hat would have made me think there was an attack going on.
thanks,
-eric
i heard them clucking , business as usual, around 7 or so,. this was before i remembered that i had left the gate open. when i went out around 9:30, they were gone.
i found an entire dead one (barred rock) across the street, some feathers from the black australorp in my own yard, lots of feathers and parts of a RIR in a side-neighbors yard, and lots of feathers of either the australorp again or the black star in the rear neighbor's yard.
would a fox have done this? not a hawk for sure. i'm thinking a loose dog. i never heard anything hat would have made me think there was an attack going on.
thanks,
-eric
