OMG SOO Mad At Myself

[dieselgrl48]

. Well Im kicking myself all over on top of the tear's this morning.I Have 4 coops to close up at night.One beside the house which is housing most of my bantam's.It is lighted.I usualy go in there every night to check and make sure my frizzles and silkies are in.Well I didn't last night when I shut the coop.

I had about 25 graduated birds in there I had just put up for sale.Mostly OEGB's 4 or 5 silkie's and 2 columbian wyandotte young.I opened the door to let them all out and went inside to take the egg's in I collected from the layer's.I went back over to collect the water's to fill and get their feed.TOTAL HAVOC.All of the babies except 5 were dead everywhere.Some were crammed behind wire, a pile of 7 in one corner more behind nest boxes!Only a couple were chewed on one silkie had no neck! WT!

. Something Had to have been in there all night to have done that. It wasnt quite totalaly dark when I shut them.The odd thing is that it was all babies.I have grown cochin's frizzles and 2 silkies in there that roost low.Im feeling really sick and weary about my neighbor's dog right now.She has been staying here almost daily for weeks now.She did kill one and injured another a couple of weeks ago.Im wondering if she could have done it last night before I closed them up.I dont think it was a racoon or the birds would have been eaten all up.I got them boxed up in 2 boxes .Im at a loss right now I don't know what to do. My neighbor is ticked anyway over having to fix that chicken lot fence because of his cows. I just hate the thought of Trixie doing something like that.If I had caught her in the act like the other 2 I would tell him to keep her tied from now on.She has been around the birds since We moved here and Now this.

..Guess Im going to move those 5 survivors maybe put them in the old smokehouse in back or they will be next!
Im going to go disgruntle with myself a while longer now

 

[bobbi-j]

Could it have been a rat or a weasel that got in after you closed it up? They don't need a very big hole to get in. I would think the dog would have been a problem before now, but I don't know the dog. I hope you get it figured out.

 

[Lbrad7]

Sounds like a rat to me.

 

[ADozenGirlz]

That sounds more like a raccoon to me. That's the kind of carnage they create. They're not in it for the meal so much as the sport of it.

 

[SallyF]

Still could be a coon. We had a coon attack and only had one hen eaten & gone. Two others dead, left in run, and a badly injured rooster. The coons may wash their food, but they don't always clean up their leftovers!

 

[dieselgrl48]

Well Rats crossed my mind first thing.That coop is the top half of a large cellar.We don't have anything stored in there right now.But I went ahead and put some poision blocks in there.And then on top of that mess I went back out to see what the commotion was a little after noon and that darn hawk was in the trees awaiting a bird. I found a few feathers on the ground But I don't think any of my adult one's are missing so he musta barely got one . I feel like just giving up. Sooo aggravating!

 

[sourland]

I would set a live trap in the coop baited with one of the dead chicks. Set the trigger mechanism lightly so that a rat or weasel might trigger the trap. Whatever killed these chicks should return.

 

[Miltonchix]

Quote:
Tried this. Didn't work. I learned not to put chicks in coop too young. Rats wiped me out and could not get even one near a trap. Box or spring. FINALLY found their burrow and set off a Mole bomb, which is poison gas that infiltrates their tunnels. No more rats since and thats been nearly 5 years.

 

[dieselgrl48]

Well Dh got home this eve.I produced the 2 boxe's of my dead babie's.He say's Trixie.He is pretty easily grossed out and ususaly not apt. to mess with dead carcass's.He took every bird from the 2 boxes.I was soooo upset this morn when I found them.He noted a kill mark or bite on just about Every bird.He says the dog done it.That was my first gut instinct this morn when I found them.I got the few survivor babies penned only like 5 or 6 of them.

.We are at a loss with emotion if Trix did in fact kill them.She has been a really good companion here with Us even being a cattle dog We have fed her gave her shelter and loved her.It's sooo heartbreaking.We took the bird's and burned them this eve.

.I still have an OE hen sittin egg's under corncrib so keeping a VERY close watch for new hatchling's there.I will be double double checking everything not like I usualy dont do anyway but gosh one mistake and Whammmm.

 

[babalubird]

So sorry for your loss. Must be so frustratng.