Preditor that can slide open chicken door take 8 chickens

[LindaMarieLaur]

Did she have multiple Easter Eggers and Rhode Island Reds?

Yes she had at least two of each she selected as chicks

I would put a game camera us to see if the predator returns. Not long ago I had something open a gate to one of my coops pen and killed 2 birds. I never found the bodies but I found a lot of feathers outside of the pen. Whatever it was also knocked down the post the electric wire is attached to so I'm sure it got a nice shock. I wired the gate shut and the next morning the gate had been tampered with again but this time the predator didn't get it opened. We have been having off and on again fog so I have a camera pointed at the coop and pen but didn't get a picture of what tampered with the gate. I did see both a fox and a coyote on video. Here is a video of the coop.

View attachment 1704210

Great idea. I will pass this along to my sister. I think I would like one as well.

 

[LindaMarieLaur]

A raccoon can open sliding doors but won’t usually take more than one. A fox can also open a sliding door if it’s easily pushable and can and will take multiple animals.

Thank you.

 

[LindaMarieLaur]

How big were the chickens? Raccoons do take more than one bird quite often for me but they usually do not eat the full bird/birds. They also usually leave the birds in the run/coop but will take them out sometimes. If it was a raccoon you will find the bodies nearby. Unless they were bantams or juvenile birds it was not a raccoon.

Canines like fox and coyote will take multiple birds. They like to consume their kills away from the coop. Fox will cache their kills around in the fields or forests. Bobcats can also destroy flocks in one night. All of them can work a sliding door.

Thank you.

 

[LindaMarieLaur]

I think fldiver97 had some good thoughts... about the human possibility and even more likely that the others escaped with the door open. If something came in and got one or two, the rest didn't feel safe and left... definitely go out and call for them... and watch for them come night time, they may come back to roost. Or even during the day to lay.

They did not return.....

 

[cmom]

Yes she had at least two of each she selected as chicks

Great idea. I will pass this along to my sister. I think I would like one as well.

The game cameras are good for catching two legged thief's too. I had noticed things missing so I stayed up but never saw the thief the nights I stayed up. I put up a camera and sure enough the thief showed up around 3 am. It was someone I know. We are very rural on a dead end road. Mostly I get 4 legged predators on my cameras.