Something getting into chicken coop

[quackiemama]

Buy powdered sulfer for copperheads. In plant section at lowes. Used for roses. It Won’t hurt apple tree. Copperheads like to bite on the face. Poisonous will have swelling around bite.
He may have a nest near coop and not know it. Even in coop. They will use pre-existing holes from gophers, moles, etc to burrow and nest. My concern would be what if this is a slow illness from poor water maintenance or something else. To me, this almost sounds like constriction from a rat snake. They will take over a nest and leave during day when people are around and return at night to eat eggs. If she was close to what it has claimed as home and food, he needs to go check coop after dark. They will pass over a chicken for her eggs but if sitting in nest sleeping it will kill chicken, leave and spend all night eating eggs.

Also, don’t know if you have Cow Ants but deadly to smaller animals.

I have no idea about cow ants but will look that up. I also don't know how clean their coop and water situation is. Over here they get clean water and food every day. I just feed and water them while I am feeding and watering my ducks. I am actually going to Lowe's right now anyway so I will check it out. There is a huge brush pile in the apple orchard which my husband said is likely where the snakes nest. The guys that were mowing and cleaning up that lot left and said it was snake infested so I think we may have found the culprit. It makes me sick to my stomach. I wish I could have seen the last 2 that died overnight so I could take a good look at them. We do have a whole lot of groundhogs over there too but they won't hurt them would they? And they seem too big to get in the coop UNLESS there is an opening. Argh the anxiety

 

[CaliFarmsAR]

That is a beautiful rooster ! And hen!

 

[Miss Lydia]

Beautiful roo an hen. No ground hogs will not kill chickens they are vegetarians.

 

[DuckyDonna]

I have no idea about cow ants but will look that up. I also don't know how clean their coop and water situation is. Over here they get clean water and food every day. I just feed and water them while I am feeding and watering my ducks. I am actually going to Lowe's right now anyway so I will check it out. There is a huge brush pile in the apple orchard which my husband said is likely where the snakes nest. The guys that were mowing and cleaning up that lot left and said it was snake infested so I think we may have found the culprit. It makes me sick to my stomach. I wish I could have seen the last 2 that died overnight so I could take a good look at them. We do have a whole lot of groundhogs over there too but they won't hurt them would they? And they seem too big to get in the coop UNLESS there is an opening. Argh the anxiety

Can you burn the pile of brush where it is? It's always bad to have messy piles of "habitat" around.

I've even taken to mowing a big chunk behind our barn into about 30' of property that isn't really ours to reduce the habitat of undesirable things like snakes, coyotes, foxes etc. For a couple of years nobody has been haying it and it was getting overgrown and scary. Then, last year they did a lot of logging out there which really displaced all the wildlife. We never had a snake problem until they did the logging. Now, thankfully they are back to haying again but until the trees grow back we're always on the lookout.

 

[quackiemama]

The lot and house is vacant since the old guy died several years ago, his family is finally starting to clean it up so I am going to suggest they burn it. They are a somewhat volatile group so we will not be burning things on their property.

 

[quackiemama]

OMG one of the hens that disappeared last week has found her way back she just showed up out of nowhere. I saw her come running out of the woods so Red now has 2 hens instead of one. My heart is happy

 

[Miss Lydia]

Aww she was probably hiding! That’s so awesome she is home. Any word on whether neighbor will let you have them for keeps?

 

[Evelyn's Mom]

My neighbor's chickens are dying one by one by some predator that nobody seems to know what it is. It is actually getting into the chicken coop at night, he keeps finding another dead one just laying on the ground. Do you think a copperhead or something? It concerns me for my ducks even though their duck house is more secure than his chicken coop.

I know the little biting midges are bad around here and can kill chickens, they crawl in their nostrils and suffocate them. It would be more likely to happen during the day though, I would think, they don't like darkness so they chickens will stay hidden during the day. Has he noticed this happening?

 

[MinniesMomma]

It sounds like it might be a chicken snake. I have killed four already this year. They will strangle the chicken even if they can't eat it, leaving no visible marks. Check under everything anywhere near the coop. I found one hiding under the dogloo that my ducks use as a house to lay eggs in. ( and for the snake lovers out there, I know that chicken snakes keep mice and other rodents under control, but their safety ends where my coop begins.)

 

[quackiemama]

Aww she was probably hiding! That’s so awesome she is home. Any word on whether neighbor will let you have them for keeps?

Not yet, he left early this morning and is not home yet. I think she was hiding too, that one just disappeared last week but the past 2 casualties were in the coop overnight. So now we have Red, BlueBell and Mable. I have missed Mable she is a hoot.