Rats? A Cat? Something Else? What killed my chickens?

[Anon112]

On Wednesday morning I found my Delaware hen, Greta, dead in the run. She was laid out and something had consumed some of her face and there was blood around her vent area. For the last few months, I'd been thinking she was headed for heart failure, so I thought "Oh, she died and some lucky rat went to work."

Then Thursday morning I found another Delaware dead. Same half-eaten face. But this hen was clearly killed. I found blood spatter where she'd been roosting (though no sign of blood anywhere else?!), and she looked like she'd been possibly dragged to where I found her. (She was not super near a wall or other indications that something tried to take her out of the coop).

So . . . what did this?!

My main association with predators in the night is a total massacre. This animal (or animals) is just taking one chicken at a time, and just eating the face and maybe a bit of the body.

I know that rats can get into my chicken area. My chickens do not have a proper rat-proof coop---they roost on branches and bars in the run. I did a big inspection of the run yesterday and found to my horror that a section of wire that looked secure was actually totally detached from the board, meaning there was a huge (like 2 foot) section of wire that an animal could have crawled through. There is a ferral cat that comes through my property and spends a lot of time around my chicken run (because it hunts the rats), but I've never seen it in my run or try to get in my run.

I know that there could be other predators (minks, weasels, etc) that are around but I've just never seen them.

Has anyone experienced anything like this? Just one bird killed, face eaten but that's about it? Could a rat take out not one but two large hens (we're talking 6 pound ladies)?

I spent last night in a hammock in the run with my grumpiest barn cat, so no fatalities last night. This weekend I'm going to try to cobble together a totally predator proof roosting box for the hens.

This is so stressful: I've had deaths before obviously, some of them terrible massacres, but I always knew what did it and how they got in. Having both be a mystery is really doing a number on me!

 

[Al Gerhart]

While you should deal with feed sanitation by using a proper feeder the rat isn't likely to be the culprit here. I'd vote for a mink or a weasel from the description you gave. You are on the Eastern seaboard, correct?

BTW, you are not likely to build a rat proof coop. Deal with the feed and the rats have to leave unless you or another human are feeding them with an artificial food source. Few natural environments have enough food to host a rat colony.

Sorry for your loss. Fix that hole!

 

[Anon112]

While you should deal with feed sanitation by using a proper feeder the rat isn't likely to be the culprit here. I'd vote for a mink or a weasel from the description you gave. You are on the Eastern seaboard, correct?

BTW, you are not likely to build a rat proof coop. Deal with the feed and the rats have to leave unless you or another human are feeding them with an artificial food source. Few natural environments have enough food to host a rat colony.

Sorry for your loss. Fix that hole!

I fixed the hole as soon as I found it, and I have treadle feeders. It's mostly dealt with the rats, but there are a few stragglers holding on. The two hens who died were my elderly ladies, so I thought maybe a rat or several could have taken them by surprise.

I guess if it's a mink or weasel I'll have to do an even closer inspection of the run for any smaller holes.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Any idea on what is feeding the stragglers? That is the key to getting them to leave. Some treadle feeders are more rodent proof than others too so maybe the stragglers have learned to use the feeder? If so, can you increase the pressure required to operate the treadle?

 

[Anon112]

Any idea on what is feeding the stragglers? That is the key to getting them to leave. Some treadle feeders are more rodent proof than others too so maybe the stragglers have learned to use the feeder? If so, can you increase the pressure required to operate the treadle?

I think that some of my girls are raking a bit of the feed out onto the ground. That's the only thing I can think of. When I do treats, I stay there while they eat them all.

I did have chicks and so I had some feed out and unguarded. I think that the treadle feeders really cut down the rat population, but then they had a little boom with the access to the feed for the chicks. Two weeks ago the chicks finally got old enough to work the treadles, so no more open buffet.

I'm hoping that the combination of winter and no open feed/only treadle feeders will drive off the last of them. I do realize that any time I go back to having feed available in the run it will pull them in again, but I'm hoping not to do chicks for a while at this point after so many this summer.


Regarding the predator attacking the chickens, an inspection today revealed a hole in the wall of their run behind their dust bath. Certainly big enough for a weasel or mink. I also realized that there are a few sections of my run where there is only galvanized wire and not galvanized wire combined with hardware cloth. I closed up the hole I found and ran hardware cloth all along the galvanized wire. It won't be truly secure until tomorrow when it's light and I can weave the wire sections together.

 

[Al Gerhart]

Check the feed level in the lower feed hopper of the treadle feeder and if it is too high, use some cardboard to choke off part of the throat that the feed flows through so there is just a small pile at the bottom of the angled feed hopper and a thin layer of pellets or crumble flowing down from the throat. Excess vibration also leads to too much feed flow so make sure the feeder is well secured to a wall or post and sitting very level and solid on some patio blocks. If it rocks or wobbles, the feed will flow too much. Or order a feeder lip extension if one is available. This is assuming that you are feeding a uniform commercial feed, nothing with treats scattered through the feed that leads to feed raking for goodies.

 

[Anon112]

Check the feed level in the lower feed hopper of the treadle feeder and if it is too high, use some cardboard to choke off part of the throat that the feed flows through so there is just a small pile at the bottom of the angled feed hopper and a thin layer of pellets or crumble flowing down from the throat. Excess vibration also leads to too much feed flow so make sure the feeder is well secured to a wall or post and sitting very level and solid on some patio blocks. If it rocks or wobbles, the feed will flow too much. Or order a feeder lip extension if one is available. This is assuming that you are feeding a uniform commercial feed, nothing with treats scattered through the feed that leads to feed raking for goodies.

Great advice, thank you! I'll give this a try and see if it helps reduce the little bits of feed on the ground. It's a standard crumble feed and the feeder is very well secured.

 

[WhatsUpDuck]

Just a note from observing my cats they will eat the heads off of things they kill. (They have never killed a chicken)
When we lost our whole first flock from a mink/weasel it sadly took our WHOLE flock and took some of their heads and killed the rest. Sadly that is our experience with that type of predator.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

When you have chicks, remove feed at night, they don't eat at night but of course rats do.

 

[Anon112]

Just a note from observing my cats they will eat the heads off of things they kill. (They have never killed a chicken)
When we lost our whole first flock from a mink/weasel it sadly took our WHOLE flock and took some of their heads and killed the rest. Sadly that is our experience with that type of predator.

Ugh, I'm so sorry about the loss of your flock.

The head being gnawed on (but not totally gone) is what made me consider the feral cat, because I've observed the same eating pattern in my cats when they catch prey.

At this point I'm confident that the cat can't get in because I fixed the wire gap that would be big enough for him. I think/hope I've covered almost everything that's big enough for a weasel/mink (just need to weave some wire layers together).

I've never had just a single bird killed in the run. It's always been one bird if they are out ranging and one is grabbed by a fox. In-the-run kills have always been massacres. Obviously I'm glad that there hasn't been a massacre, but it's very mysterious to me.

I moved one of my Ring cameras to inside the chicken run, and I'll update if anything interesting shows up on the footage. (Yes, I'm checking it like every 5-20 minutes!).