My chickens are killing each other. No. They really are.

[polychip]

Yet another case of suspected chickens killing each other being proved false. In reality, it almost never happens that chickens kill each other. If, in the rare instance they do, it's almost always accidental or as a result of an infection following injury after a pecking order altercation or rooster over-mating a hen.

If you find a dead, partially eaten chicken, suspect a predator first and immediately take action to locate vulnerabilities in your pen/coop. Don't waste precious time assuming one of the flock is a killer when you could be hunting down the culprit and improving security.

So sorry you lost so many hens to this evil creature. Goes to show what crafty villains raccoons are.

The thing is, we thought that area was covered. I had covered it last winter due to an abundance of caution
We even went back and checked the hardware cloth on both sides. We couldn't even tell it had been disturbed. Crafty indeed. And I'm so so glad everyone kept me focused on predators. I just couldn't imagine how it was happening. My whole life I have never seen or heard of a chicken killing another on purpose.

Thank goodness for game cameras. Thanks again everyone!

 

[16 paws]

The thing is, we thought that area was covered. I had covered it last winter due to an abundance of caution
We even went back and checked the hardware cloth on both sides. We couldn't even tell it had been disturbed. Crafty indeed. And I'm so so glad everyone kept me focused on predators. I just couldn't imagine how it was happening. My whole life I have never seen or heard of a chicken killing another on purpose.

Thank goodness for game cameras. Thanks again everyone!

Just wondering where you got your game cam? Just in case I need one......

 

[polychip]

Just wondering where you got your game cam? Just in case I need one......

I got mine on Amazon. It's a Moultrie. The cheapest one that had nighttime capability. I got a 32 GB card. It's easy to use. It has to be for me to be able to use it. I think I spent $130 including batteries. Also records video although I've never used that feature. Takes great pics right? That surprised me.

 

[16 paws]

I got mine on Amazon. It's a Moultrie. The cheapest one that had nighttime capability. I got a 32 GB card. It's easy to use. It has to be for me to be able to use it. I think I spent $130 including batteries. Also records video although I've never used that feature. Takes great pics right? That surprised me.

Yes, that is so smart of you to get it! I love it but also am so very sorry for everything you had to go thru. I know how hard it is to lose them. I have lost some to bobcats. I have also lost some to some kind of sudden death that affected four of my chickens. I finally sent the last two bodies to UCDavis to try and find out what is going on. The first one they said got some kind of virus that causes tumors, I think it is called LL, and the second ones report came back today, they can not determine the cause of death. She was 7 months old and healthy. She died very suddenly, looking sick in the morning and dead in the afternoon. They do not think it is Mereks disease so that is good.
Take care and may all your chickens have nice long lives!

Marie

 

[Bird Fever]

Job well done. If you hadn't lost so many chickens I'd call this happy ending.

 

[Briamy Bill]

Hey, I Loved your story! I am a bit confused though and my curiosity wont let me not bother you! I had thought you said you had one dead chicken, every day, same place, with no signs of any damage or injury? Why was that? I was wondering the whole time as any predator is doing this for food so to kill for fun and not eat the chicken was really weird. Am I missing something? Sorry! And wow, great job on the camera thing, and congrats for the solving of the mystery. I have had chickens taken, and each time it was a real mess, like feathers, a leg here or there, you know what I mean.. really bad. Thanks!

 

[Skyehawk]

You can get a GameCam for under a hundred dollars at WalMart or nearly any sporting goods store. Many of them see in the dark with infrared lights. Might be fun to see what goes on when you're away.

 

[Anniebee]

I got mine on Amazon. It's a Moultrie. The cheapest one that had nighttime capability. I got a 32 GB card. It's easy to use. It has to be for me to be able to use it. I think I spent $130 including batteries. Also records video although I've never used that feature. Takes great pics right? That surprised me.

First, I am so very sorry for the loss of your chickens - it must've been absolutely horrid to go and find that almost every day.

The little 'coon bestard has now been caught and has obviously gone to another place, to be with some other passed on racoons.

And yes, the video cam is more than worthwhile.

One thing bothers me somewhat. May I suggest, now that you know who the culprit was, and before you remove the hard cloth ( shade cloth type of thing ? ) .... you might like to go purchase a small roll of snake wire and replace that very large holed chicken wire on the coop door, with snake wire. I am almost sure ( but not 100% certain - live in Australia, and can get it here ) ... that Texas would surely have snake wire available somewhere. The wire is about 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch ( near enough measurements, and only a very very small baby snake could get through it, and no other predator could manage it ).

Just to make 100% sure that you don't get any other predators visiting your chickens, and giving you such grief. ( including field rats - which we have, and our chickens look upon them as friends, always happy to share anything with them. When I fill in their holes under the fence, the chickens dig it out again for the rats to come visit !!

)

Just a thought - about the snake wire.

Cheers,
Anniebee.

 

[dragonfly82174]

I feel your pain. We had two chickens killed over this winter. Both were just about a year old. One looked like it froze to death because there were no visible injuries, but the other took pecks to the head and neck. Our coop looked like a blood bath. Their feeders & waterer were covered in blood. I even found blood smeared inside one of their nesting boxes. It was unreal. My husband thinks it was one of the other yr old chickens, he's affectionately nicknamed her "Dahmer". We just assumed they were getting stir crazy because of being cooped up all winter. We opened the door to their coop as often as we could but they were not fond of the snow.

 

[polychip]

Hey, I Loved your story! I am a bit confused though and my curiosity wont let me not bother you! I had thought you said you had one dead chicken, every day, same place, with no signs of any damage or injury? Why was that? I was wondering the whole time as any predator is doing this for food so to kill for fun and not eat the chicken was really weird. Am I missing something? Sorry! And wow, great job on the camera thing, and congrats for the solving of the mystery. I have had chickens taken, and each time it was a real mess, like feathers, a leg here or there, you know what I mean.. really bad. Thanks!

I don't know. I think it was maybe breaking the necks (or otherwise beating them up really bad) of the big chickens that tried to defend the babies and then just took off with the little ones. There were some tiny abrasions around the face. Looked like peck marks to me or even places where ants had eaten them. There were a lot of little ones in there at the time. It was hard to tell when one went missing. I thought, "Did I have just 6
Red stars or were there 5." Plus I had a lot of black copper Marans and they're hard to count when they all look the same.
That's why it was so hard for me to believe it was a predator. Usually if a predator kills a chicken of mine it makes a big show of it. Not this time. My black copper Maran roo is getting old enough to do his job now so I feel better having a rooster in the coop. I lost my best rooster to a skunk earlier in the spring. I'm so glad people on this forum kept me focused on predators. Otherwise I would have no chickens left by now. Thank goodness for the BYC community!