Ten chicks vanished!

[BallyBrookFarms]

I have lost chicks before, in fact this has been the worst year on our farm to date, but I have never had ten three week old peeps taken from a brooder coop with nine other six week chicks left unscathed. No feathers, no blood, no struggle, no sign that anything was disturbed. The entire coop is buttoned up tight. Only corner that could be questionable is still blocked off with 1" wire and plywood. A snake could enter at this corner, but no way could a snake big enough to eat ten whole peeps be able to exit through 1" wire. I'm baffled! Any ideas out there? Could a snake really eat ten peeps in one night?

 

[carlf]

A snake can easily get through 1" wire. Even after crushing and eating 10 peeps.

 

[BallyBrookFarms]

Really? I haven't seen any big snakes and would think it would need to be a big one to take that many. More so....I really didn't want it to be a snake. The only good snakes I know are dead ones. Yuck!

 

[Birdydeb]

I think snake too. Anything else would have left some evidence behind. A friend of mine who raises chickens walked into her coop and discovered a snake in the process of swallowing chick number three. Who knows how many it would have swallowed if she hadn't come along? One inch is nothing to most snakes.

 

[BallyBrookFarms]

Ugh! That's horrible! Im not sure how I would have handled that situation if I had walked in on it. It's a shame, that was my highest percentage hatch also! 10 chicks out of 14 eggs that went into lockdown. Heating up the incubator to try again!

 

[Birdydeb]

She told me she was hysterical ....and I can believe it. I probably would have been too. Even though my attitude is that the only bad snake (other than poisonous ones) is the one that gets in my coop. I just don't freak over snakes but I don't want them in my coop!

 

[Weehopper]

Weasel or rat?

 

[Rock Home Isle]

I have lost chicks before, in fact this has been the worst year on our farm to date, but I have never had ten three week old peeps taken from a brooder coop with nine other six week chicks left unscathed. No feathers, no blood, no struggle, no sign that anything was disturbed. The entire coop is buttoned up tight. Only corner that could be questionable is still blocked off with 1" wire and plywood. A snake could enter at this corner, but no way could a snake big enough to eat ten whole peeps be able to exit through 1" wire. I'm baffled! Any ideas out there? Could a snake really eat ten peeps in one night?

10 peeps gone...no blood....no feathers...just vanished?

If is were raccoons...you'd see destruction...and not just 10 birds, but all of them. If it were rats, there'd be dead chicks with bites all over them, partially eaten. If it were weasels...to frightful to picture...but again, it would most likely be a total loss.

If it were a snake with 10 peeps inside of it...it would be there the next day. Infact, the way they used to catch Anacondas for the zoo trade, was build a box and put a pig in it. Then cut a hole in the side of the box just small enough so the pig couldn't get out. Anaconda eats the pig, and now cannot get out of the box. Nope if a snake ate 10 little peeps, it would still be there the next day...unless there is another way out, big enough for your peeps to squeeze through that you have not discovered yet....or it's still in the coop with the chicks. That's a scary thought.

So... 10 peeps gone...no blood...no feathers...just vanished. That sounds like theft to me...

You have a trail cam you could put on them for a bit, just to see who it is?

 

[Weehopper]

Wow, would have never guessed that, but yes, that would make sense.

 

[Birdydeb]

That does make more sense. I can't get over the amount of chicken theft I keep hearing about. Just locally I have had two different friends tell me about their chickens being stolen and there are several posts on here about it. I just had a horrifying thought as to why it was the younger chicks. Yeah, I believe I would get a trail cam up and running. How close are your neighbors and how well do you know them?