Lost my whole flock

[WhatsUpDuck]

Our friend we buy our chickens off of said she thinks it could have been a raccoon..at this point I just don't know..so many questions with no answers. I'm so thankful our children didn't go out there this morning it was like a scene from a crime scene except with chickens. I've never really seen anything like it in my life. I just sobbed and sobbed in the coop. Our dog is so confused she went out there tonight looking for her friends searching all their hiding spots..she knows what blood and death is, but she didn't realize it was the chickens she was smelling. She knew something was wrong though, because I have cried all day and she is with me inside or outside. Whatever it is I hope my husband can trap and dispatch it. I'm just so beyond sad at this point.

LORD JESUS IS KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS!

 

[Pukkits]

I'm so sorry to hear this. We never know how secure our coops are until they are tested, and we pray we never discover their flaws the hard way. Predators are determined, and such wasteful killing makes it harder. The only time I've experienced chicken losses like that, it was a skunk. Same behavior.

You mentioned ordering traps to catch the culprit, which is a good idea as once a predator has found prey there, they will be back. I strongly, strongly encourage you to order live traps, the cage type. In the years I've had chickens, both as a kid with my parents and as an adult with my own flock, our live traps caught the wrong animal more often than it caught the right one. We did catch 4 skunks over the years (I'm now very experienced at relocating skunks due to animal control refusing to dispatch skunks there) which saved the rest of the chickens, but we also caught our cat, the neighbors cats more than once, several very feral cats, two pack rats and a porcupine. It's more hassle to try to dispatch inside a cage, but save yourself the heartbreak of catching the wrong critter.