I went out to feed the birds this morning and I had a dead Cornish x, its head and guts were gone. I do not have game netting over the top of my run and see no holes where something burrowed under so I am thinking owl, what do you all think?
owl?
- Thread starter chewball
- Start date
So sorry for your loss and that you are joining BYC under these circumstances, but welcome!
It could be anything - w/out a covered run, a predator that might normally dig under can just as easily scale your fending and go over. What sort of wire is around the enclosure? There are plenty of predators that can go through a lot of commonly used fencing w/out leaving a single sign of their entry.
It could be anything - w/out a covered run, a predator that might normally dig under can just as easily scale your fending and go over. What sort of wire is around the enclosure? There are plenty of predators that can go through a lot of commonly used fencing w/out leaving a single sign of their entry.
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Show a picture of what carcass remains look like. Especially with respect to feathers. Predators do not read our rules about how they process prey but you can still glean some information from how victim is handled or moved about.
- Thread starter
- #4
It is cattle wire with chicken wire going 3 feet up. That is why I am questioning what it could have been, I will be putting bird netting over the top today but want to make sure that I have all my bases covered so this doesn't happen again.
If raccoon, then bird netting will barely slow it down. Setup description is vague but I suspect you have a lot of room to harden it up against incursions by predators.
Can you setup a baby monitor and be ready to go out in the event the netting fails?
Can you setup a baby monitor and be ready to go out in the event the netting fails?
"cattle wire" as in large square "mesh" weld/field fencing or panels? If so, that with poultry netting over it will leave you open to all sorts of predators to either go through entirely (weasel family, rats, etc) or reach through (skunk/coon/etc) even the seemingly small, 1" poultry netting holes. This can be done w/out making an real noticeable change to the shape or integrity of the poultry netting, thus leaving no sign (save the dead birds) that someone has passed through it. Do you have a "no dig" skirting on the run? If not, what does the base perimeter of the run look like?
Unfortunately, once a predator learns to see your place as an all you can eat buffet, they will be back. Is your coop open to the run 24/7 or would is confining the birds in the coop dusk to dawn an option for you?
ETA - please know I am not opposed to setup such as yours. My own run is a cattle panel "hoop" style enclosure covered in poultry netting with no skirting....which would be laughed at by many here, but *shrug*. My personal assessment of the predatory risks leave me comfortable using this as a daytime enclosure (when they aren't ranging on the property that is), but I do not feel secure with it as a protective barrier during the dark hours because of the predators I know we have during those hours and the very vulnerable state of a sleeping chicken - so my solution has been to confine them in the more fortified coop from dusk to dawn.
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- Apr 13, 2014
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We had poultry netting on our run and after two days of the chickens being in there, one was dead looking like the way you described yours. It was most likely a raccoon that reach through the fence. We put hardware cloth around our run and a skirt around the bottom and we haven't lost a chicken since.
- Thread starter
- #8
The fencing is buried in a foot a and there is no way something went thru the fence. The only way in is over the top of the fence, that is why I was thinking owl. Could a coon climb the fence? And it was found in the middle of the coop so nothing grabbed it thru the fence.
So the wire over the cattle fencing is not standard poultry netting (aka chicken wire)? Because the point being made is that there are actually LOTS of things that can go through chicken wire/poultry netting.
- Thread starter
- #10
The head and guts are gone completely.
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