Minnesota!

[lvie]

Thank you for the birthday wishes and photos. It helps me very much as I'm a visual learner.

Hope this beautiful day adds to your birthday happies!

 

[coldupnorth]

He/She came to visit an unused chicken coop pen today. Flushed it up as I was walking into the old attached coop to clean it. It sat in a fir tree the entire 1 1/2 hours as I was cleaning out the coop as our two dogs roamed and rustled beneath him. Must have found some goodies to eat in the run or he wants to make friends with my daughter's pigeon, who is the only resident of the coop (for now).

 

[coldupnorth]

Drea07 - I agree with Ralphie and Minnie that it could be a coon or weasel, but I am not an expert. My predator experience so far has only been raccoon and fisher The raccoon killed it and tried to eat in through the fence. Fisher killed them, carried full grown heritage size Orpingtons over the 6 ft fence and dragged it across our 10 acres before eating it at the edge of the field.

 

[Minniechickmama]

Sorry your not feeling so good. Hope you get better soon.

My Dad was thinking weasel as well, mainly because the blood is missing. The trees in the large run are small, only about 3 inches thick, and don't reach to outside. Left them in so the birds had some cover from searching eyes from above, and shade.

We do have other cats in the area, but my big oldest boy will chase out any other cat that tries to come on the property without my putting them there. Funny thing is, he will walk with me out to the coops at night or come out of the woods to met me, and then acts weird. He will start sitting between my feet, following me around, yowls at me and just makes a scene. Normally he is not a cat to make a racket and stays out from under you.

The night my husband and son went out to try and deal with the predator, they did see my cat come out of our shed in the woods (which happens to be on the path toward where the hen was dragged off to.) he walked right up to the coop, sniffed around, looked at the dead rooster and then went back on patrol towards the other side of the property. When I went out before the husband, my cat was sitting behind the coop that had all the birds locked up, watching the run where the rooster was.


Thought about putting up an electric fence, but then the cat would get shocked. Only thing I can think of that will keep our kids and animals from getting caught would be live trap. But then what ...

This is the time of year you will see a lot more rodents trying to get inside of places to live over winter. Weasels follow rodent trails. So, if you live near any woods, you very well may have a weasel. Make some weasel traps and put them around and restock the bait daily. Cheap hamburger works.
You can find how to make them on a number of trapping sites or other DNR type sites. Basically a box that you can remove the top easily enough to replace the bait daily. You put a big, strong rat trap in it so that they jump right into the trap when they go into it. Put the bait to the back so they can't take the bait and miss the trap.
I would use some traps called "Tomcat", they are strong and nothing gets out alive from them. Don't stop setting them until you catch whatever it is.
That is my advice.
I lost 30 birds last spring to a weasel. It came in 3 times and took out 10-12 birds per visit. I started leaving the pens open and I cut the grass short and didn't have another loss, but it is time for me to start watching for them and try to prevent them by getting all my mouse traps put out in full force to keep the rodents down in the first place.

Good luck!

 

[Minniechickmama]

Oh, and your cat reminds me...
My tom, Jerome, has never bothered a chicken, even the night he accidentally got locked in the brooder house with about 200 or more chicks in it. I just hatched those 6 Silkies last week, and he goes in the brooder tub, and snuggles and licks them!!!! What a goober! I don't want him breaking the heat lamp or knocking the tub over, so I put my handy dandy old oven rack over the top (it is heavy enough and just the right size for that tub to keep them in and him out. LOL

 

[Minniechickmama]

He/She came to visit an unused chicken coop pen today. Flushed it up as I was walking into the old attached coop to clean it. It sat in a fir tree the entire 1 1/2 hours as I was cleaning out the coop as our two dogs roamed and rustled beneath him. Must have found some goodies to eat in the run or he wants to make friends with my daughter's pigeon, who is the other resident of the coop (for now).

A grouse?

 

[coldupnorth]

Yes - a grouse!

 

[duluthralphie]

I give what is the bird? I even tried to lighten the picture.


Drea, I am thinking you might have two critters, the neck and head sounds like a weasel, but I doubt a weasel could drag away a full size chicken. A weasel could easily go through your fence almost anywhere. A coon could go over the top.

I am unclear did the bird have to be carried over the top of the fence to be moved? or was there a gate/door a dog or something could have drug it through.


I processed the first turkey and am glad I did. We watched him most the day, He would look fine for a while, then just plop down like he was exhausted. We decided we did not dare try to keep him alive any longer. It dressed out at 29 pounds!

The bird looked good, but I think the circulation was impaired as the fat was not as bright a yellow as the CRX's was. It had lots of fat, I bet we threw away 2-3 pounds of fat. Even the giblets were huge. The heart, liver, and gizzard weighed 1lb. 3oz. ( that was not included in the dressed weight.

Blanchranch based on that yours will do 25lbs or better dressed, I think.

My kitchen scale could not weigh that much so we guessed on the bathroom scale. My de-liar had dead batteries, Judy is getting new ones this afternoon for a second weigh in. I did ruin the skin on the breast a little. Someday I will get this scalding down right.

The other turkeys are now avoiding us. They gathered around us until the head came off our T day dinner. Then they scattered. They all had looks of disappointment on their faces when they looked at us.

The chickens were happy, they picked up anything we threw on the ground.

I had a handful of gizzard rocks, I washed them, they looked like rocks, so I threw them on the ground too. Judy did not want me to make her a necklace out of them. I think she thought she was too good for my homemade jewelry.

 

[duluthralphie]

Not a ruff grouse is it?

 

[coldupnorth]

It is a ruffed grouse. It had its feathers pulled in very tight as it sat up there trying to be invisible. At one point, it had backup on the branch closer to the trunk of the tree and it poofed it feathers out and looked like it should. You can only see the underside of the thing and a bit of the crest of it's head.