Newbie just lost two more hens

[idrooster]

I'm sad to say that I'm down to my last hen (I will try again next year assuming I get this predator problem solved)

At this point I'm trying to identify what it is.

From everything I've read, I can't figure out for the life of me what it might be.

I live in the panhandle of N. Idaho and my birds were fine when I last checked on them at around noon. I discovered them dead sometime around 5:00pm with the sun still plenty high in the sky.

We're in a residential neighborhood that is fairly close to vast wilderness.

The chicken yard is not well built - there is no top cover, and the fence is designed to basically keep the girls in... It's poly netting about 5 feet tall and keeps them in so long as I don't frighten them (they can fly out and I imagine it'd be fairly easy for a pred. to get in under the fence if it felt like it).

I found one of my Red-Stars nearly completely consumed (no organs left except the gizzard and some intestines). Even some of the smaller rib bones appeared to be eaten. The legs were fairly well stripped of meat and the entire chest bone / cartilage was gone. The head was eaten but the beak parts were there.

The crop was gone too.

Basically a feathery shell of an animal and two feet remained. This was a fairly large, nearly mature bird.

The second bird was a substantially smaller species and I suspect was the second target. From the kill site it was moved some 18 feet or so leaving a trail of feathers in it's wake. This carcass was substantially intact. The crop was fairly chewed up and the head was still attached. The leg meat was eaten quite a bit - I'm not sure if it were bit marks or what but it looks about nickle-width size bites if they were. The organs were mostly missing and the bird hollowed out but significant amounts of breast meat remained. Many of the small bones appeared to be either broken in half or bitten through (breast bone, ribs, etc).

I looked for but found no tracks.

I've setup a hunting camera in hopes of figuring it out. I also used part of the remaining carcass as bait in a trap in hopes for a return visit tonight but I'm not very hopeful.

If anyone has any questions or ideas I'd really appreciate it!

I have pictures if that would help but I didn't want to post them here without warning (they are graphic of course, as is the nature of the thing).

Thank you all for taking the time to read and possibly reply - your experience and guidance is greatly appreciated.

Be well,

Idaho Rooster

 

[GitaBooks]

I'm really sorry to hear about your chickens.

Raccoons can get over, through, under, or around almost anything. They are intelligent and if there is a whole family of them they may go after more than one animal. They generally eat the crop and head, but may eat other parts if hungry. They are capable of dragging prey with them, though don't usually hunt during the day.

Weasels will kill all the chickens they can get to, usually by going for the throat. Mink do the same.

Cats usually leave large bones and feathers and eat out the meat and organs. They can go after pretty large birds and are capable of dragging them some ways. Cats will hunt at almost any time.

I doubt it was a fox, bobcat, or stray dog, as this just doesn't fit their MO. Also, skunks and opossums probably aren't agile enough to hunt during day time and they don't usually go after adult birds. I've had opossums sharing chicken food right along-side the chickens, and skunks eating eggs in the barn without touching the birds.


I hope you can stop the predator. Best of luck!

 

[slingshotandLAR]

It was prolly a raccoon.....

There's a bunch of misinformation on this site about them. First, raccoons can and do hunt during the day especially this time a year when they have litters. You may even start seeing more road kills and such because of this. Daytime certainly does not rule out a raccoon, and it also does not mean it was unhealthy.

Definatey try again next year, just make your coop and run like Fort Knox. When you finish it, make sure every decision you make is making sure nothing can get in. Suburban predators are often much worse than middle of nowhere types. Because of always being in such close contact with people they are far more brazen and therefore far more of a threat to your birds and everything else for that matter. Predators around here avoid people like the plague, the ones caught out in the open don't generally make it home.

 

[Liberator]

Living in your part of Idaho, I wouldn't entirely rule out the larger predators, even during daylight hours. It would be best to consider fortification with welded wire.

 

[idrooster]

Thanks much all - nothing of interest on the trail camera thus far and no luck with the two traps I've set out.

I'll keep you posted of any changes.

If anyone else has any other theories please feel free to chime in!

Thanks again,

Idaho Rooster

 

[WildAnimalGuy]

Birds of prey are the first to think of in daytime but anything is possible.. Need coop and fenced in area..