Lost our flock

[annie3001]

my first thought was a 2 legged human.
sorry for such a large loss.

 

[C&C Chickens]

I think the 2-legged predator being referred to is a human, which is what I wondered when you said the chickens had their necks cut open but the bodies were otherwise intact. I'm curious about the weasel suggestion - does any animal really kill and then only drink the animal's blood?

 

[andysforrest]

Oh! Nope, not human. We found tracks in the fresh snow, something cat-like and one other that we can't identify. And our cat is indoors - she'd never go outside in the weather.

 

[andysforrest]

C&C Chickens
Today 1:38 pm I think the 2-legged predator being referred to is a human, which is what I wondered when you said the chickens had their necks cut open but the bodies were otherwise intact. I'm curious about the weasel suggestion - does any animal really kill and then only drink the animal's blood?




------I don't know about weasels - does anyone else know of predators that kill animals at the neck and leave the head and body?

 

[spartacus_63]

Does you chicken door lock closed?

 

[AHappychick]

so as far as you can tell there are no openings in the coop once you have closed up? you even blocked the vents?

yes I wonder about human but you said there were tracks, can you get pics? where do they go to? can you use some of the bodies to try to attract whatever it is tonight in a trap?

pics would be helpful, at this point I would think hot wire around the coop and a lock on the door but it would be good to catch the culprit and dispose of.

 

[EweSheep]

Sounds like weasel to me.....had a flock of 75 chickens and one night, a real bloodbath with the juvies, lost half of them. I was sick and then I re inforced the wire that had a small hole in the upper part of the ceiling of the cow milkbarn. Took care of that and it didn't happen again.

Weasels are so bad about killing chickens and they would just kill them all for fun instead of taking one chicken out each time. Raccoons would do damage but not that many in numbers unless it was a family.

If it was not weasels, how about sewer rats? I've lost a few chickens from bold rats and I set out poison for them. They have not been back YET.

 

[secuono]

Are there weasels in Virginia??
I thought human predator, too.

 

[andysforrest]

Well, I took pics of the tracks yesterday, but couldn't get a good one. I'm going to try the new tracks tonight, after the sun goes down - maybe I'll get a better outline??? The tracks this morning were definite cat-like, small, round in nature. The tracks yesterday appeared to have a drag of some sort, but couldn't tell if they were because of the snow or because of the foot making the track.

The door to the coop is on a lock with a 2x4 surrounding it, to bar against prying the door open. The door to the run is on a slide - from the inside - so that when it's shut nothing can push it open. Inside the coop, there are two rooms - a feed storage and the coop. The outside door opens to the feed storage, but everything is in sealed cans. The coop door is a half door with no wire enclosing the opening. But again, I don't see any holes or openings that would allow a predator to enter the feed storage area and it is checked at night before we lock up the chickens.

We had a problem with rats last winter, but we built a new coop and the old coop was torn down (pretty rickety) and bait was set out for the rats. No problems all summer long. There are a few tunnelling holes into the garage, but they look smaller, like field mice.

 

[bobbi-j]

I vote weasel. They will puncture the neck and drink/lap up the blood. I've also had them puncture the vein right under the wing. They can get into very small openings, as stated in other posts.

eta After re-reading your description of tracks, mink do have cat-like tracks. So, now I'm voting mink and/or weasel.