Something creeps in...

[farmgirl1995]

I started with 55 chickens in a coop and little by little they started disappearing. I didn't notice it at firstbecause of the many chickens but after a while i noticed. And then I couldn't figure out what was getting them. But every night more and more disappear no matter how much i board up the coop, more and more go missing. I'm down to 20 now and I've almost tank proofed the coop and the killings have stopped but I still want to know what it could have been. There are no bodies or feathers lying around.

 

[crj]

How about a person sneaking into your coop and plucking a few chicks at a time? It's possible. Could be a snake too.

 

[farmgirl1995]

I really thought about somebody doing that. A bunch of my neighbors that are all teenage boys have busted a hole in our mailbox and rip the sign off of it for our farm. But I don't know. We have cameras back there and have caught nothing. I never thought about the snake...thats alot of chickens though

 

[ZombieChickens]

Put in one of those cool game-cams. If it IS a person, how cool would it be to confront the person with the footage?!?!

 

[farmgirl1995]

Just about the most awesome thing ever besides chickens of course

 

[Lbrad7]

How old are your birds? If they are over 12 weeks, I seriously doubt it would be a snake and if it was, it would more than likely not be able to get out of the coop with a full belly of chickens. (unless you had a pretty large hole in your coop)

 

[farmgirl1995]

theyre about 5 months

 

[bobbi-j]

Rat, snake, mink... they can all make chickens disappear and none of them need a very big hole to get in and out.

 

[33yardbirds]

It would take forever for a snake to eat that many chickens unless you are over run with them. If it was a mink you would be wiped out 'cause they just kill everything for the sake of killing. If they are disappearing it has to be something that likes to dine elsewhere. Are there Bobcats in your area?

 

[farmgirl1995]

Are there minks in GA? I live in the mountains. And yes there are bobcats and mountain lions. I've only seen small bobcats on my property. They seem to be scarce.