- Aug 26, 2010
- 20
- 0
- 22
I was a first time chicken owner. As of this morning...
I had 5 Bantam mixed chickens, 4 hens and 1 rooster. These chickens were approximately 14 weeks old. I keep them locked up during the night and allowed them to free range in my yard during the day. I live in within the mountains and have a wide range of predators. The onset of early darkness has caught up to me. I wasn't able to lock my chickens up before dark yesterday. When I returned home I couldn't find them. I was hoping something had scared them off and they were nesting in the trees for the night, but I didn't give in to this conclusion for quite some time and I continued to look about the yard. Then I found my rooster. He was laying against his building in the dirt. When I shined the light upon him, he gave a last attempt for a crow. Very sad moment. None the less he was alive. His behavior pointed to me that he had suffered neck damage. I was/am under the impression that what ever attempted to slay my rooster was going after the back of his neck. As I continued to look, I found the rest of the flock. They were all placed within 1 foot of each other. They were dead. It didn't seem as if they were bitten by a large animal or even really suffered much battle damage. From what I could tell, they had suffered the same as the rooster, some kind of neck trauma.
I'm confused, Whatever murdered my chickens, didn't eat them. In fact they didn't take a single bit from them. Also, finding them together tells me, something put them there. I could find various dooms day spots around the yard where feathers had a flew. Further confusing me, I have seen these birds run from predators, A hawk and even some ground animal. Every time, they preformed wonderfully, 1 would fly about 50 feet away, 1 would jump into the fenced garden and the others perhaps would run/fly into there coupe were they could nest 15 feet above the ground. I had even preformed several drills, where I ran after the flock and chased them. Just trying to strength train them.
Sorry, if the above is too detailed, perhaps it is part of my grieving. I had to finish my rooster this morning as he didn't look as good as I could have hoped a good nights rest could do.
anyway, any ideas on what took my chickens out?
Thanks,
I had 5 Bantam mixed chickens, 4 hens and 1 rooster. These chickens were approximately 14 weeks old. I keep them locked up during the night and allowed them to free range in my yard during the day. I live in within the mountains and have a wide range of predators. The onset of early darkness has caught up to me. I wasn't able to lock my chickens up before dark yesterday. When I returned home I couldn't find them. I was hoping something had scared them off and they were nesting in the trees for the night, but I didn't give in to this conclusion for quite some time and I continued to look about the yard. Then I found my rooster. He was laying against his building in the dirt. When I shined the light upon him, he gave a last attempt for a crow. Very sad moment. None the less he was alive. His behavior pointed to me that he had suffered neck damage. I was/am under the impression that what ever attempted to slay my rooster was going after the back of his neck. As I continued to look, I found the rest of the flock. They were all placed within 1 foot of each other. They were dead. It didn't seem as if they were bitten by a large animal or even really suffered much battle damage. From what I could tell, they had suffered the same as the rooster, some kind of neck trauma.
I'm confused, Whatever murdered my chickens, didn't eat them. In fact they didn't take a single bit from them. Also, finding them together tells me, something put them there. I could find various dooms day spots around the yard where feathers had a flew. Further confusing me, I have seen these birds run from predators, A hawk and even some ground animal. Every time, they preformed wonderfully, 1 would fly about 50 feet away, 1 would jump into the fenced garden and the others perhaps would run/fly into there coupe were they could nest 15 feet above the ground. I had even preformed several drills, where I ran after the flock and chased them. Just trying to strength train them.
Sorry, if the above is too detailed, perhaps it is part of my grieving. I had to finish my rooster this morning as he didn't look as good as I could have hoped a good nights rest could do.
anyway, any ideas on what took my chickens out?
Thanks,
