Lost two birds last night

[blitz1027]

It's a sad day at my house this morning. I was out getting something from my barn and as I was walking by one of my chicken pens I noticed the body of one of my 5 month old mille fleur cochin hens. As I went in to collect the body I noticed that one of my other girls was gone as well. There was no sign of her but the one body I did find had it's head ripped off and there was no sign of if. I couldn't find any point of entry for a coon to get in because the top of the pen is covered with a tarp and securely fastened down. But from what I've read it looks like a coon is the most likely suspect. I had three Mille Fleur Cochins hens they were named Winkin, Blinkin and Nod. Now only Nod remains.

 

[chicmom]

OH, so sorry.....Maybe you can put some hardware cloth over your pens. The darned coons can reach their little hands through the chicken wire and that's when they rip their heads off.

So sorry to hear that, as mille fleur cochins are so beautiful!

 

[loanwizard]

No question in my mind that it was a coon. I now lock my chickens up at night and built the coop close to the house away from the woods and trees. In fact, I have a couple windows in the coop that I hand move the chickens away from if they roost too close to them.

 

[blitz1027]

What makes it even worse is that my little sister was going to be entering a couple of them into the fair this year and now I have to call her when she gets out of school and tell her what happened. This will be bring the total number of birds I've lost in just the last couple of months to 3. The last one I lost was a Buff Silkie I had gotten for her.

 

[Farm_Maven]

so sorry!!

 

[sbtgal]

I'd suggest looking into getting a game cam. My hubby got one pretty cheap for hunting. It has a motion sensor and takes pics in the dark too. They also time stamp the pictures, so if you have a critter with a "routine" you can figure out what time to... erhm .... "catch" them. After DH pulls his from the feeder on the deer lease I'm going to snag it to see who has been digging holes around the edge of our run.

 

[Tripp16]

Gosh sooo sorry! I havent had any fatalities yet! ( Knock on wood!)

Hope your sister isnt too upset!

Give Nod some TLC for me!

 

[wildriverswolf90]

I'm so sorry.

 

[blitz1027]

Well My parents have a raccoon trap so I went and got it and I'm going to set it and see what I come up with. I would love to catch that sorry sap sucker and take care of it Permanently.

 

[ll]

winkin blinkin & nod - boyds bears, so cute

good luck with the trap!