New member Spalding Lincolnshire needing advice

[tiggertoo]

My name is Caroline, I live in Spalding Lincs UK. I have had my chickens for only a few months, but all has been well until this last week. I have lost 10 chickens over this last week. They have bite wounds (only tiny) on the neck and head, this happens after letting them out into their run early hours of the morning. I found a trail of feathers through the adjacent field but couldnt see any tracks as it has been rainly heavily all this week. It appears to be one or two per day, this morning however i found one bird partially alive in the run, but it has since died. The run itself is made from heavy duty builders panels with finer weld mesh attatched to the inside to prevent anything from getting through the gaps. There are no signs of digging under the run, can anyone suggest what this might be and how to prevent any more dead chickens?

Thanks
Caroline xx

 

[kellysmall87]

Wow, I haven't got a clue but can offer some guesses... Maybe there's a hole or something you haven't seen? Maybe its a rat? What kind of bite marks? Bats maybe?

I would keep your chickens cooped up until mid morning maybe? They wont hurt in their coups. Are the chickens dead in the run or are they being dragged away?

A disgruntled neighbour? Sounds ridiculous. BUT we once had an aviary and the neighbour pulled all the heads off of our budgies during the night. Maybe a neighbour who doesn't like you having chickens is sending in a cat?

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi and welcome to BYC from northern Michigan

Sounds like a rat or weasel. Keep them inside until later in the morning if they are killed once out, if they are being killed in the coop or run then you have a little gap somewhere - maybe as small as an inch - that will have to be blocked. Whatever it is will be back, so you might consider a live trap. Good luck.

 

[Magrat]

Good Luck for tomorrow morning-

From the Suffolk Coast

 

[dawg53]

Welcome to BYC.

 

[4-H chicken mom]

Hi and from Ohio. So glad you joined. So sorry about your chickens. Someone needs to sit back with some binoculars and watch. Sounds like a rat.

 

[tiggertoo]

Thanks I've moved them out, I've sectioned a room in an old static caravan that i was going to dismantle, the floors are solid and it is raised 18 inches from the floor, there is a door so they can be let out during the day it is also nearer the house so any disturbance would be heard. I will let my terriers out whilst the chickens are in side, they can get underneath and any predator will think twice. I will also let them out later than normal. This is not ideal but will give me time to make any repairs to their run that are needed someone has told me that mink have been sighted in the area so possibly they are the culprits, some feathers were found in the middle of the field next to the run and there is a dyke between the two so must have been very strong to carry away. Apparently mink are hard to deter unless you can trap them once they find an easy target like a chicken they will find someway to get them. Hoping moving makes them move elsewhere for another food source.

Thanks for welcoming me into the group.

 

[dreamer5577]

Hi && Welcome!!!

 

[weimarmama]

&

from Alabama. Glad you joined us. So sorry to hear about your chickens

Lots of good luck

 

[Kevin565]