Something stole 11 of our chicks. Any ideas of what it could be?

[Cassiblu]

Weasels and rats can squeeze through impossibly small openings and do the kind of destruction you've been seeing.

Besides setting traps, I would spend a few hours locating all vulnerable spots where openings and cracks two inches or larger exist and blocking them by screwing sheet metal over them. Sheet metal in rolls that can be cut to size with sheet metal scissors are available at any hardware store.

I like bucket roller traps for rats. Easy to set up, safe around chickens, and rodents are easily disposed of by simply dumping them out of the water in the bucket. Other predators aren't as easily trapped, and predator proofing your run and coop is the best way to deal with them.

So sorry you lost your chicks

 

[Soto Hobby Farm]

Hey everyone.
Thanks in advance for reading my post.

Sunday of last week, we were putting the chickens to bed, and forgot about 1 of the broods. They were outside in the chicken run inside an enclosed cage area.
Apparently there was a little opening on top and next morning we come to see that all of them are dead - except for one.
The sebright hen was half eaten and all other chicks were missing except for some legs and feathers.
There was one chick that survived, untouched, and it was always chirping trying to find its mother. We took it in the house and it started getting attached to humans and following us around (The chick is almost a month old).
Unfortunately, I was not able to get photos of the incident,

Almost a week later, (last night) the second brood of chicks (8 chicks) with the other sebright mother were in the coop, like usual, and everything was closed off. We have netting all around both run areas and the coop is all secure. We're not sure how, but something got in the coop (probably the same thing that got the other one) and took all of the chicks (who were 1.5 months or so) except for one. The sebright hen survived with her one chick.
This morning we checked and there were some dead chick bodies laying around, and some were completely gone, but the broody was untouched.

So all in all, we lost 11 chicks in less than a week.

We're not sure what this could be. A fox would have been way too big, and we haven't really seen other predators except for possums and hawks, but hawks hunt during the day.

Today, we are getting a trap from a fellow chicken owner and we are wondering what we should use as the "bait". Cooked chicken maybe?


Thanks for any help and suggestions.

Sounds like a mink... they’ll kill everything. And they can fit in impossibly small holes. Do you live by water?
Minks love fish... it’s the best bait there is. Anytime I’ve put fish in the trap I’ve caught one. And they usually keep attacking the same coops for a bit.

 

[Farmerdoug]

Hey everyone.
Thanks in advance for reading my post.

Sunday of last week, we were putting the chickens to bed, and forgot about 1 of the broods. They were outside in the chicken run inside an enclosed cage area.
Apparently there was a little opening on top and next morning we come to see that all of them are dead - except for one.
The sebright hen was half eaten and all other chicks were missing except for some legs and feathers.
There was one chick that survived, untouched, and it was always chirping trying to find its mother. We took it in the house and it started getting attached to humans and following us around (The chick is almost a month old).
Unfortunately, I was not able to get photos of the incident,

Almost a week later, (last night) the second brood of chicks (8 chicks) with the other sebright mother were in the coop, like usual, and everything was closed off. We have netting all around both run areas and the coop is all secure. We're not sure how, but something got in the coop (probably the same thing that got the other one) and took all of the chicks (who were 1.5 months or so) except for one. The sebright hen survived with her one chick.
This morning we checked and there were some dead chick bodies laying around, and some were completely gone, but the broody was untouched.

So all in all, we lost 11 chicks in less than a week.

We're not sure what this could be. A fox would have been way too big, and we haven't really seen other predators except for possums and hawks, but hawks hunt during the day.

Today, we are getting a trap from a fellow chicken owner and we are wondering what we should use as the "bait". Cooked chicken maybe?


Thanks for any help and suggestions.

Sorry to hear about your losses.
I had a similar problem and put up a trail cam to catch the culprit in action. It works well and gives you an idea what the issue is and what you need to trap it.
My issue was a fox.
Good luck.
Dp

 

[Chickenclaude]

Weasels and rats can squeeze through impossibly small openings and do the kind of destruction you've been seeing.

Besides setting traps, I would spend a few hours locating all vulnerable spots where openings and cracks two inches or larger exist and blocking them by screwing sheet metal over them. Sheet metal in rolls that can be cut to size with sheet metal scissors are available at any hardware store.

I like bucket roller traps for rats. Easy to set up, safe around chickens, and rodents are easily disposed of by simply dumping them out of the water in the bucket. Other predators aren't as easily trapped, and predator proofing your run and coop is the best way to deal with them.

Tell me about your bucket roller traps.

 

[azygous]

 

[Ursuline Chick]

Possums can squeeze through very small spaces as well, especially juveniles. They will eat chickens. The smaller possums will eat chicks and smaller birds, a large possum will eat a full grown full size hen.
People will tell you they are only after the eggs, however, my girls scream for Mom (even in the middle of the night if something spooks them) and I have caught a possum red handed with one of my hens in his mouth. The hen ended up being okay, the possum did not fair so well.
Don't discount possums yet.

 

[Chuckie chicken]

Besides shooting the raccoon, what is another way to humanely euthanize a raccoon? Just wondering.

If you could seal the trap in something semi air tight, running your vehicle's exhaust into it for half an hour = permanent nap time. Shooting it is faster, cheaper and easier tho.

 

[33ChickenLovers]

The only opening I see that could be the issue is about 1.5''-2''


I narrowed it down after some research, and decided it was some sort of weasel/mink.
We borrowed a trap and we will set it up tonight with canned cat food and fresh chicken thighs.
We also borrowed a trail cam so we can really see what it is if we don't end up trapping it.

Does that sound okay?

So sorry to hear about your loss
It could definitely be a rat or weasel, but I‘m thinking it could be snakes.
They fit through any gap! Could you take a photo of the coop?
Then I could suggest what you could use to fix the gap, like another layer of mesh or some tape.

The photo below is an idea for a brooder box, simply a plastic box, with a rectangular hole cut on the lid, fixed with mesh put on top and woof nailed/screwed on top of the mesh to keep it supported.
If you make this for your chicks they will be a lot safer. You could also keep the brooder box (with your chicks inside it) on your porch so they are close by.

 

[Diane's Canine School]

Hey everyone.
Thanks in advance for reading my post.

Sunday of last week, we were putting the chickens to bed, and forgot about 1 of the broods. They were outside in the chicken run inside an enclosed cage area.
Apparently there was a little opening on top and next morning we come to see that all of them are dead - except for one.
The sebright hen was half eaten and all other chicks were missing except for some legs and feathers.
There was one chick that survived, untouched, and it was always chirping trying to find its mother. We took it in the house and it started getting attached to humans and following us around (The chick is almost a month old).
Unfortunately, I was not able to get photos of the incident,

Almost a week later, (last night) the second brood of chicks (8 chicks) with the other sebright mother were in the coop, like usual, and everything was closed off. We have netting all around both run areas and the coop is all secure. We're not sure how, but something got in the coop (probably the same thing that got the other one) and took all of the chicks (who were 1.5 months or so) except for one. The sebright hen survived with her one chick.
This morning we checked and there were some dead chick bodies laying around, and some were completely gone, but the broody was untouched.

So all in all, we lost 11 chicks in less than a week.

We're not sure what this could be. A fox would have been way too big, and we haven't really seen other predators except for possums and hawks, but hawks hunt during the day.

Today, we are getting a trap from a fellow chicken owner and we are wondering what we should use as the "bait". Cooked chicken maybe?


Thanks for any help and suggestions.

I would be concerned about raccoons. You could set up a web cam and see what creature is doing this. Amazon has them and are not too expensive.,,

 

[Crazy Kat]

I have had raccoons and opossum eat my chickens. the raccoon put his hands through the chicken wire kill one chicken pull parts through the wire.yuck!