Martinsburg WV Chickenstock Sept 24th 2011 8am- noon

[UrbanBlueShamrock]

Oh no! Just returned home from a fun filled day at the Jeff. Co fair to the sad sight of an abruptly ending trail of feathers and a missing rooster! Being a newbie this is our first chicken disappearance!!!

May be adding a new rooster to our wish list!

 

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

Quote:
Oh no...I'm sorry. I hope you find him ok. We will all have nice roosters for people to choose from.

 

[Soaring Chicks]

Just letting everyone know I am down to just 4 wm/ bwm.
Right now it's a quad but I might keep one bwm pullet for crossing with oels.

 

[UrbanBlueShamrock]

Thanks Tammy.

However tragedy struck again last night and I was wondering if you guys (being local) could help id what's doing this.

Went up to our duck pen this morning to find our entire flock of ducks dead! 8 total. The majority of them look like they're just laying down (no blood visible at all) then there was 1 with its head ripped off (head was still laying there throat was chewed up) No signs of struggling nada just little dead duckies

sigh im still crying. the pen has an open top on the run but its about 6" tall.

Also in the last two weeks our rooster disappeared with only feathers remaining (during the day) yesterday
And my two kittens disappeared without a trace

Not sure if it is coincidence or not.

Thanks for your input also any suggestions on how to take care of said big bad would be appreciated I live in town so shooting is unfortunately not an option.

Editing: There is one spot above where their food and water is thats open and only about 2-3' off the ground

 

[Soaring Chicks]

No blood in bodies means you have a mink . Start trapping they will come back

 

[JustTom]

Quote:
Sounds like a raccoons.

Sorry for the graphic descriptions...

Raccoon will usually just kill the bird and eat the contents of the craw and entrails, and occasionally the head, so body will look like it's been "scooped out" clean. They'll eat it in pen if they have to, but will usually drag it out and eat it elsewhere. I lost a few ducks a few years ago to a coon. Found the bodies in the woods about 30 yards from the pen. Was lucky that the dog caught it a few nights later and we took care of it.

Fox will take whole bird back to it's den. I have fox problem with my ducks, and never really find any trace. I know it's a fox because I actually saw it with a bird in a pen, and as soon as I moved, it jumped a 4 ft fence and was gone in a blink. After that I did free up the ducks. My Muscovy are too large for the hawks to take and they at least have a sprinter's chance in the open against a fox.

Weasels and minks usually kill with a bite to the neck and drain blood and eat usually nothing but the head.

Skunks will kill occasionally (though they like eggs better) and will tear carcass to bits. Hard to identify in chickens because other hens tear it up pretty good too.

Dogs will go through whole pen. They "shake" them to death so might appear like nothing wrong, other than the broken neck and tiny bite.

Coincidentally, I've lost a good number of my breeding Wels hens to what i think is a raccoon over the past couple of weeks. I had them in a hoop house with 2 feet of chicken wire over cattle panels with tarp tied over. I've never had problems with this house before, but instead of moving it daily in pasture as usual, I've had it stationary in the pole barn the past couple of months to provide additional shade over the crippling heat. So I guess he's had time to find wek spot. Coon finally found (or mad) a very small gap between the tarp and the wire, went under and climbed up and over. Even after securing it further, it still found it's way in and took another of my gals.

Tractor Supply is having a special on live trap cages right now. 2 cages for $25. I bought just yesterday.
I baited (canned chicken chunks) and put trap in the now empty hoophouse. Nothing last night, but I'm hopeful tonight. It was only killing every other night last week, so hopefully tonight will be his trip to his pantry.

If the cage in the hoop doesn't work, then I'll set it outside of house and try again. He hasn't managed to find his way into any of the smaller tractors I use as breeding pens that are there, but I've had a lot of water bottles and down feeders on the nearby rabbits, so he's still poking around.

hth,
tom

 

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

Quote:
You can go to the Hardware Store in town (either one) and buy hardware cloth. It is easy enough to install by using zip-ties goes up and over very quickly. Do you have any of your flock left?

 

[UrbanBlueShamrock]

Thanks Tonya and Tom for the help id'ing I think its either a mink or a dog based on those descriptions. I'll keep you posted as to what we find out. We have a live trap cage rented from the local humane society to help control the local cat ladys feral cat issue. Think we'll bait it differently and set it up by the coops.

Tammy, We only have 4 hens (marans) left out of all of our birds. I'm going to re-enforce and check every nook and cranny of the chicken coop and overnight run today and hopefully that will keep what ever it is out of the chickens. The runs are currently made of plastic hardware cloth. Unfortunately the duck run was never covered it was on the to do list that didnt get done in time. Because the ducks are relatively rare we'll have to wait until spring to order more ducklings. Sigh instead of selling ducklings at the spring swaps I'll be waiting for more to come in the mail

starting over from scratch is no fun

Thanks all for your help and concern!

 

[Majestic Lane Poultry]

Quote:
What type of ducks did you have and will be looking for? I will be attending several shows and swaps this fall. I could be on the look-out for you. I don't mind. Also, if you'd like a free silkie roo or large fowl orpington cockerel for your flock, I certainly wouldn't mind helping you out with that too

 

[UrbanBlueShamrock]

holy sh*t holy sh*t holy sh*t. I just went up to check on our chickens and they are all gone except for 1!!! I dont understand what going on. Last night when I went to bed we had 5 chickens this morning 4 (and I think 1 in hiding) and now we have 1. The chicken coop is closed pretty tight if something did get in it would be very hard for them to get back out and there are no signs of feathers or anything just an empty coop. Do people steal chickens? I know we just went over all this but what could take 3-4 chickens in the middle of the afternoon without leaving any sign? We've lost 13 birds in 24 hours. I'm sorry to use this place to rant on something not even close to being on topic but I dont know anyone else to talk to.

The sole survivor I have in a rabbit cage my house now. I dont know what else to do with her.

Tammy thanks for your offer I may take you up on it at a later date right now unfortunately I need to figure out how to keep my birds safe. The breed of ducks I had are Ancona's. Here's a link http://www.albc-usa.org/cpl/waterfowl/ancona.html If you do happen to run into any local breeders I would love it if you could get me their contact info.

Also it appears that whatever got in to kill the ducks tried to dig under the fence first. Not sure if minks/weasels dig.