Polish and Silkies
In the Brooder
- Jul 12, 2024
- 36
- 49
- 44
Hello, so I’ve been having a predator visit every night for the past week. I have no clue what to do I’ve tried everything I could from nailing up more wire to setting up traps. I’ve lost chickens ranging from hatchlings to full grown chickens. So far it’s been week old chicks, about 20 of them the first night, 9 nearly full size chicks, and 3 fully grown ones. All my tiny babies were gone, no feathers or bodies anywhere.
I tried setting some of the cages that had that trap door, but it never seems to go inside. I put the dead chickens inside of it and they’re always gone the next day. Sometimes it digs from the backside of it to try to go underneath but the chickens definitely can’t fit through it, so it must be going inside? It’s not like it goes inside and leaves before it sets it off either, the door’s never closed. I’ve had 2 bobcats kill lots of my chickens before so I have plenty of foothold traps, and I set those when the cages didn’t work. I set 3 around a pile of the dead chickens and cat food so if it goes to it, it’ll get trapped. The traps didn’t go off but it dragged on of the chickens away.
I’ve found some dead with no signs of anything, some without heads, completely torn apart and feathers/ organs everywhere, or just gone. I’ve heard owl do that, which we have some living in our abandoned horse house, but they don’t dig and can’t get in anywhere except the dirt. Raccoons eat them starting from their head, and skunks kill them by attacking the head/ neck, but eat their stomach. I don’t think raccoons are common, I’ve never seen one here. But then again bobcats don’t live here but I’ve had 2 which was too crazy to believe until we trapped it. I believe it’s a skunk doing it because we’ve gotten a few already, but how is it so smart?
There was 1 time when it went into one of my coops and pooped a lot, but didn’t kill anyone. There was NO sign of it getting in, no digging, torn wire, open holes, nothing. I’m not sure why it didn’t kill them but I’m glad it didn’t.
Below are pictures of everything, including some dead birds, nothing really graphic.
This one got dragged from the pile not too far, but didn’t make any traps go off, I put it nearly on top of it.
I was going to stay up tonight and see if I can see it come by. I’ve been locking my chicken up with cinder blocks covering the doors but I have so many different coops that I can’t keep doing this forever. I would appreciate any advice or insight you have on this kind of problem. I can answer any questions regarding fencing and protection on my coops!
I tried setting some of the cages that had that trap door, but it never seems to go inside. I put the dead chickens inside of it and they’re always gone the next day. Sometimes it digs from the backside of it to try to go underneath but the chickens definitely can’t fit through it, so it must be going inside? It’s not like it goes inside and leaves before it sets it off either, the door’s never closed. I’ve had 2 bobcats kill lots of my chickens before so I have plenty of foothold traps, and I set those when the cages didn’t work. I set 3 around a pile of the dead chickens and cat food so if it goes to it, it’ll get trapped. The traps didn’t go off but it dragged on of the chickens away.
I’ve found some dead with no signs of anything, some without heads, completely torn apart and feathers/ organs everywhere, or just gone. I’ve heard owl do that, which we have some living in our abandoned horse house, but they don’t dig and can’t get in anywhere except the dirt. Raccoons eat them starting from their head, and skunks kill them by attacking the head/ neck, but eat their stomach. I don’t think raccoons are common, I’ve never seen one here. But then again bobcats don’t live here but I’ve had 2 which was too crazy to believe until we trapped it. I believe it’s a skunk doing it because we’ve gotten a few already, but how is it so smart?
There was 1 time when it went into one of my coops and pooped a lot, but didn’t kill anyone. There was NO sign of it getting in, no digging, torn wire, open holes, nothing. I’m not sure why it didn’t kill them but I’m glad it didn’t.
Below are pictures of everything, including some dead birds, nothing really graphic.
This one got dragged from the pile not too far, but didn’t make any traps go off, I put it nearly on top of it.
I was going to stay up tonight and see if I can see it come by. I’ve been locking my chicken up with cinder blocks covering the doors but I have so many different coops that I can’t keep doing this forever. I would appreciate any advice or insight you have on this kind of problem. I can answer any questions regarding fencing and protection on my coops!
