My whole flock was killed last night, please help me

BikerBabeRules

Songster
11 Years
Feb 13, 2008
216
1
129
Vermont, USA
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I just was in the barn digging out the lawnmower and underneath it and the tarp was one of my precious ducks. He was totally intact, yet his neck was eaten completley clean. How upsetting. I also found one of my porcelin bantam roos and 3 of his hens. One was completly missing her head, the other her guts were cleaned out. I still can't find the other hen or the roo. My big old blind in one eye roos is missing as well. I also see 3 piles of what looks like intestines. They all turned up missing last weekend, exactly a week apart from the first masacre. I've set 6 leg hold traps outside and a have a heart trap, nothing yet. I'm thinking racoon, no smell can't be skunk. I'm buying a baby monitor and borrowing one of my dad's gun and i'm going to use it. I have no more mercy.

I went to the barn this morning and found only a handful of chickens left. The turkeys, peacocks and the old rooster are okay. One small breed duck was stumbling around with a bloody head. Two big breed ducks and some silkie roos and a full grown chicken I found dead, all with the same head wounds. Something bit them all in the head. I am missing almost 30 chickens, no sign of them. There is only a handful of feathers in the barn and all the babies (3 mos. old) chicks are gone, vanished without trace. There are several bloody patches in the fresh shavings i just put all over the barn yesterday. There is no smell. No signs of chicken guts either. We've scourred all around the barn and no tracks in the snow, no sign of our birds either. I can't imagine how they got in, as every thing was still hunkered down as safe as we could make it. I'm devasted. We have a have a heart trap that we'll set outside the barn door tonight. I just can't imagine what could have eaten all those birds in one night and leave NO trace of them. The 6 that were dead all had their heads bit into, huge gashes and left to die. What could this be? I'm in Vermont. I hear coyotes at night sometimes, but they can't fit in the barn, they can't get in? The snow is hard due to recent rains then colder weather so no tracks.
thanks for any input....
-Kathy
 
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What a horrible thing to happen. I know you are just devistated.

Weasel is my first thought if you are absolutely certain that a coyote could not get inside. Even a domestic dog or cat will haul the prey away so that too could be a possibility.
I don't think anything ate all those chickens at one time. This was an animal that has a stash. Look further out and around for signs.
 
Im sorry this had to happen to you.From what i have read on this site its sounds like it might be a fox.But when i had chickens before the Rott next door had a litter of pups and took like 5 home into her basement.
 
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If it wasn't dogs or coyotes, could be a weasel, or a raccoon. I'm going to say weasel since the heads weren't bitten completely off. A bite to the back of the head, neck, or base of the skull is the weasel calling-card.
 
yes....it's probably to graphic for me to post pics of the dead ones and their wounds. So if it's a weasel, he must have carried them off and has them somewhere. I'm going to set the trap to night, maybe catch him. I will have NO mercy when I do either. Back of the skull bite, if that's trademark of weasel, then he's probably small? thanks again.
 
I am sooooo sorry. I went through that In November. It is devastating. My thoughts are with you.
Hugs-Theresa
:aww
PS--Lesser weasels can fit though a hole the size of a hot dog.
 

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