Murder at high noon:-(

[OccamsTazer]

Ok...need some help with predator identification. I have (had) a dozen young birds (5 weeks) in a large metal dog crate inside our coop (to keep the bigger birds from messing with them). There are six grown birds loose in the coop outside the dog crate.
All was well this morning. I went out just now to feed, and four of my chicks are dead. All the dead chicks were inside the dog crate with their necks chewed open. Two of the dead ones had their heads pulled through the bars of the crate. The live chicks had squeezed out through the bars of the crate and were cowering under the grown birds, who were also very nervous.
It looks like rat to me, but I've never known a rat to kill at midday.
I'm so frustrated I could cry!

 

[wyliefarms]

I am not sure what would kill in the daytime like that. Night I would say coon or opposum.

Sorry for your loss, and good luck on catching the varmit.

 

[OccamsTazer]

Lol the mood I'm in right now, I could seriously commit some atrocities on whatever did it!
Not that I will...but I'm going to enjoy the mental image.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

It sounds like a rat to me. Necks chewed on and the chicks partially dragged out of the cage. Rats like to store their food, so this sounded like an attempt to drag the bodies back to the tunnel, to their "pantry".

I think if it were a coon, the bodies would be more eaten or gone. Also, that would mean a coon had access to the inside of your chicken coop.

Rats are more wary during the day, but they are very much awake and active. Sounds like you need to take care of a rodent problem. I had a rat take some halfgrown quail of mine. I have chicks running loose, but rats seem especially drawn to caged birds. Everything I lost to rats was in a medium to small cage.

-Kim

 

[~*Sweet Cheeks*~]

I'm so sorry for you. Whatever it was was able to get in and out of the bars.

Rats, weasel, mink?

 

[Country4ever]

Is it possible that one or more of the grown birds did it? They can be very aggressive towards new/young ones. I had a sick grown chicken in a dog crate inside the coop and a couple of the others pecked it severely through the bars.
Sorry for your loss.

 

[OccamsTazer]

I had thought it might have been Cap'n Nasty (the evil bantam roo) but some of the bodies were in the center of the crate where no grown bird could reach.

 

[Country4ever]

Is it possible that he mortally wounded them at the edge of the crate and they just took a few steps to die?
My sympathies to you. Its hard seeing any pet animals like this.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

I will occasionally see a rat in the middle of the day on our property - maybe twice a year.

Makes me nervous, because the one thing our run can't protect from is a rat, and I was thinking they wouldn't be likely to strike in broad daylight.

 

[cassey40]

So very sorry for your lost.