Terror at night

[Jmwah_12]

I need some help! Lately my chickens have been terrorized at night lates into the night. My coop is hand made but still pretty hard to break into without being able to open a door. But lately I’ve been losing chickens left and right to some sort of predator and they keep coming back and terrorizing my chickens. A few weeks ago they broke into my brooder where I had 3 chicks and they killed 2 and the last one survived because I barely got there in time. Then they came back and tried to carry another one away before I got there and they dropped it. Today again I heard terrible screaming from one of my Wyandotte’s and I ran outside with nothing but a shovel and a flashlight and I just saw 2 pairs of eyes staring at me as my poor Wyandotte was freaking her mind out. I have no idea what is causing this sort of problem in my flock. We had thought it was a opossum family maybe so we set a trap and caught a few. But I had suspected it was a pair of something else, and today I confirmed it when I saw them staring at me. But I have no idea what it could be, please help!

 

[Matejka]

1) general area where you are located-you can add location to profile
2) what predators are in your general location
3) a picture of coop, run and if possible dead chickens
4) age of chickens and general breed-large broiler/bantam/etc...

Without knowing these things, and a little more about the condition of dead birds, its hardtop make a guess.
Were the birds eaten, or just gone?
Heads missing? Puncture wounds? eviscerated?

 

[Matejka]

my first thought is raccoons. They can open doors, climb, dig. How is predator accessing coop/run?

 

[Jmwah_12]

1) general area where you are located-you can add location to profile
2) what predators are in your general location
3) a picture of coop, run and if possible dead chickens
4) age of chickens and general breed-large broiler/bantam/etc...

Without knowing these things, and a little more about the condition of dead birds, its hardtop make a guess.
Were the birds eaten, or just gone?
Heads missing? Puncture wounds? eviscerated?

I’m located in a more suburban/city area. The ones that died, I didn’t get any pics but one was missing a good portion of its body and the other it’s head was missing. The ones that died were only a few weeks old, while my other ones are a few months like 2 or 3. I have older ones around 5 or 6 months but they stay in a separate coop at night and they’ve been fine so far.

 

[Jmwah_12]

my first thought is raccoons. They can open doors, climb, dig. How is predator accessing coop/run?

And I thought so too, but I’m not sure how they’re accessing into my coop. I make sure to close and securely latch the door. I also put like a shovel or a heavy object to prevent the door from opening. Last night however I don’t know how but one of my Wyandotte’s was running around being chased and I’m still clueless on how it got out.

 

[KingD]

Not sure whether you have foxes over there but they're masters of getting into chicken runs. They will often kill chickens and just leave them lying around.

 

[Jmwah_12]

Not sure whether you have foxes over there but they're masters of getting into chicken runs. They will often kill chickens and just leave them lying around.

I don’t know if we have foxes where I live. I know there’s been coyotes in my neighborhood before though

 

[nuthatched]

Can we see pictures of your doors into the coop to troubleshoot how to secure it?

 

[Jmwah_12]

Can we see pictures of your doors into the coop to troubleshoot how to secure it?

I know my coop door isn’t the best but It’s what I have for right now until I can upgrade them to a better door and stuff. But I always have like something blocking the door so it can’t open unless you move the thing off the door. But I also discovered another corpse/remains of one of my chickens again this morning. My chickens were fighting over the left overs which makes me even more upset Because I didn’t notice last night

 

[nuthatched]

Hmm, can you screw it shut at night?
I'd add extra boards to the sides of the door for reinforcement , also you might want to make sure the run door is secure, coon's can go right through chicken wire.
I'm sorry you found one dead, that's hard.