Something is killing my chickens :(

[Lewis319]

Over the past week two of my chickens have been killed in the woods about 100 feet away from my house. About six days ago, my rhode island red chicken went missing between noon and 4p.m.. After searching for it, we had no luck. Five days after that, one of my leghorns went missing around the same time; however, this time, we found feathers in four locations throughout the woods, but there was no body found. We let our chickens free range, so they sometimes go into the woods, but we never thought something would kill them in broad daylight. My family and I fear that it is a coyote because only one chicken was killed at a time and it was during the day. We have never heard a coyote at night. Can anybody help me to identify the predator and tell me how to catch it? I want to capture it before any more chickens die (we have six more). If this helps to narrow down possible predators, I live in central Pennsylvania.

 

[graybeard]

It could possibly be a feral cat. In the woods, there is no telling what it might be. Just because its during the day, doesn't mean every other predators aint hungry or have figured out these little chickens are around every day. You could try different size traps with a can of TUNA. It always works for me. If you come up short after a week or so, you have a big flying killer on your hands. You may need to invest some time in a livestock dog. There are several breeds that are great at the job. If you don't already have a protective dog. I suggest a pup from the animal shelter. They are usually inexpensive, vaccinated, and you can get them "fixed" very cheap. My big male Pit bull is my chicken guardian. I think he enjoys watching them chase each other around, but a cat or anything that size or bigger is in a heap of trouble if it comes in eyesight. I got lucky when I got that dog. Like I said above, start with a puppy, something about 60 lbs grown or 40 if it has a lot of heart. Hope this helps.

 

[docsmullins]

I'm betting fox. We've lost 8 chickens over the last month. My chickens free-ranged during the day, and were locked up in the coop at night. We live in a rural subdivision on a 2-acre lot surrounded on 2 sides by woods. We see plenty of foxes. All attacks happened mid-morning, twice while we were home. First time, got 1 pullet, second time got two roos. last attack he jumped a modified pen and got the remaining 5 pullets. No evidence left except some feathers - (except the roos - he snatched them in the woods.) So now we are back to the drawing board. Going to build a small but fortified run and only let them free range while we are outside. The next step will be to adopt a good guard dog. Killing or trapping will only temporarily solve the problem. A new fox family will likely move in.

 

[Valkyrie123]

Get a trail cam and set it up. Sooner or later you will find the culprit. My guess is fox or coyote. Central PA isn't known for lots of big predators so bears, wolves and wolverines are probably not the cause. I have all of those and many more. The body is missing so whatever it was big enough to haul it off. Do you have eagles out there? Once you know what you are after it makes it much easier to remove said problem.

I'm going to hope it's a Bigfoot just because I want there to be a Bigfoot. Good luck.

 

[jellybellyx6]

I'm going to say fox. We lost our flock last year to them. We raised a Livestock dog all winter and are now getting a new flock going and we have not seen any signs of a fox this year. However I think the foxes have gone down the road because I hear shot guns through out the day going off. The Foxes always came around during the day. After they took out our flock we would see them crossing our yard at all times of the looking around for more chickens.

 

[cooplord]

Hmm. same thing happened to me, but she was still inside the coop, and all of her feathers up to her head and neck were gone, and her head was pretty chewed up. Also, my dad heard a noise and investigated and heard a noise and across the fence there was a small pair of eyes, maybe knee high, so my guess is a mink, but could it be a rat?