Something ate my chicken

[amberdoodlebear]

We just recently moved 3 of our chickens to the coop and we came home today and something somehow managed to get ahold of 1 and it only ate one side, kinda left a hole and didnt eat the inside or anything else, it was all still attached just from under the wing to a lil bit above the leg, but left the 2 bigger ones alone.. Anyone know what it could be that ate it?

 

[sourland]

Were there feathers scattered around the killed bird? Sounds as if it may have been the work of a hawk.

 

[Stiggy]

Or a hedgehog. hedgehogs are vicious regardless that they look 'cute' . if its a hedgehog then it will come back for the chicken, they always take out the smallest/ sickest/weakest and they will chew a hole in the bird and eat them whole ( a small chick/ bird) or just the inners and leave the carkus if its a big bird

 

[aart]

Or a hedgehog. hedgehogs are vicious regardless that they look 'cute' . if its a hedgehog then it will come back for the chicken, they always take out the smallest/ sickest/weakest and they will chew a hole in the bird and eat them whole ( a small chick/ bird) or just the inners and leave the carkus if its a big bird

I don't think hedge hogs live wild in the US.

 

[sourland]

Not in Vermont for sure!

 

[amberdoodlebear]

Well thankfully it hasnt yet been back for any of the others so hopefully whatever it was will stay away from them. We have decided to try putting electric wire around the coop to keep unwanted visitors out

 

[jenneverett]

I found only 2 of 6 hens alive.....I moved them into a large dog pen... you know the all metal box style pen for large dogs inside the house?
well today I find one more dead!!!! pulled halfway through the 2inch by 3 inch fencing! its breasts and innards were all eaten and the leg that was closest was gone. the other bird was calm and quiet. I Think.....it may have been a raccoon... I had seen one snooping around the coop but it was too fat for the small hole the first killer made in the fence. we do have fox's so maybe?

 

[jenneverett]

It WAS a raccoon! I put my one remaining chicken into a dog carrier and then into the large dog cage just for extra precaution and later I looked out the window and seen a raccoon stealthily
approaching the cage. I scared it off and then mixed up some poison with chicken feed and set it out. in the morning the feed was all gone and clear evidence that it had tried Very hard to get my last chicken. I am going to put out more laced feed tonight.

 

[slingshotandLAR]

It's safer to just trap or shoot the coon....

Live trap works great, lots of critters can get into that poisoned feed. Depending on the poison you use anything that finds that raccoon can also be poisoned. Crows, Hawks, neighbors dog, mice, who knows what else.

I'm not the ethics police or anything like that, you do what ever you feel the need to do. I just think poison is pretty risky.

 

[jenneverett]

Feel pretty sure that only the coon is getting the poison as everything is on my back deck 15 feet off the ground. ...and the entire contents of the feed bucket are getting eaten in 1 night.