PLEASE HELP ME! Face being eaten? Beaks gone???? Help! GRAPHIC PICS!!!

[rancher hicks]

I agree it covering the windows with hardware clothe asap. I also covered my windows with screening to keep out skeeters.

Haven't read all the posts but I hope it's taken care of by now. I'm away so can't catch up.

Rancher

 

[ReeseTheChick]

Oh my god! I.. I have never ever ever seen anything like this! I am sorry that you had to lose your chicks in such a horrible way!

That is some bizarre stuff!

 

[Beaky Buzzard]

Determining what would do such a thing is secondary. The first priority is to kill these poor birds to put them out of their misery. After culling affected birds, coop needs to be totally disinfected and any possibliity of rodent intrusion eliminated. I would look for missing feathers as well as wounds on other places on the birds. It would tend to reason that if something was attacking birds at night that there would be signs of struggling. I would also set a clock and make occasional visits to the coop at night to see if rats are present. Look for droppings from rats etc. and consider giving the rats an alternative food source like d-CON. While parasites could be present they usually do not consume beaks, toenail, spurs, etc. Very strange!

 

[loot4louie]

How about a solar motion light. It wont fix problem but may aid it. Or those red lights that are sold to deter predator. My coop is outside my bedroom, I always leave our basement low electricity light on so there is a soft glow by the coop. I hope it scares away some predators. Do you have a dog, maybe leave it out in the enclosure til you figure this out? I would set a hav-a-heart trap, maybe even use one of your birds that was killed as the bait. Good Luck seems like you are covering all the bases!

 

[NewToFarming]

Gosh! Reading all of this, I think I will put a little night light in the coop. I hope you come to the bottom of what is doing this to your chickens!

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
It's a long thread, but even skimming would help let you know that the birds have already been culled. The owner is very responsible and attentive.

 

[jbowyer01]

I am so sorry that you have to go through this. Those poor birds. I would definitely put up a game camera and hardware cloth on the windows. You can also take regular flour and with a sifter sprinkle a fine misting of it around the outside of the coop (do this right before you go to bed). In the morning you'll be able to see what is investigating your chickens by their tracks (I read that here on BYC somewhere).Just to let you know the strength of a raccoon, two of them worked together to lift my brothers garage door to get into the dog food. It was amazing to watch how they did problem solving to get in. If its a possum or a raccoon they will do everything they can to get to them.

 

[Jerseycoop]

Quote:
Eewww I've never seen anythingblike this animal! Looks devilish..thanks for sharing

 

[thndrdancr]

I had this happen to one of my silkies still in the brooder. It was the other chicks that did it, as they were in the house and nothing else could have happened to them. It IS horrifying.

The only thing I can figure is it had a little food on its beak and you know how they peck each others beak sometimes? I guess it just got out of hand?

So you might be looking at the others as culprits, once they have started this bizarre behavior I dont know how to fix it. Mine was only a couple weeks old, so I figured the beaks were just delicate, never thought it could happen to an older bird. And I only had about 6 birds in my brooder so it wasnt overcrowded or any of that, it was just plain weird and I cried and cried that they could possibly even do that to each other.

So so sorry you are going thru this. Mine never did it again but I separated them all out from each other, horrified at the little monsters. I did have one guinea in with the babies and I thought maybe that was what started it as they are a bit more pecky than chicks usually.

 

[vetgirl00us]

I'd say regardless of WHAT it is, it's a predator. It wants your birds. It's going to eat what it can get. Either put the kids to bed and spend the night outside waiting to see, put up some trail cams or put out a live trap or some poison. Golden Malrin works good if you take it up and dispose of it before daylight because it will kill EVERYTHING that eats it. I would have a serious death wish for anything that did that to my critters and kill it no matter what way I had to do it. Rats, raccoons and opossums carry other parasites and diseases that you or your children could catch not to mention rabies (raccoons), leptospirosis (raccoons, rats) and at the very least parasites like ticks and fleas and worms. Whatever it is, it needs to die and not reproduce because it's young will be brought there and attempt to do the same thing.