I need some help from my chicken friends. I have been absent from the boards as I have been dealing with some human/chicken issues.
I have neighbors that don't want me to have roosters, although I am zoned for it. One of my neighbors has taken it upon themselves to downsize my chickens. I haven't figured out which one, but I am getting some game cams today. Unfortunately they are only seen as "just chickens" by the local authorities. My most recent loss yesterday was a blue isbar cockeral. I found him near the pen door with his legs straight out as if someone had just grabbed him by the legs and smacked him off the ground. No rips or tears in the netting above and the pen door was shut. He has no injuries at all.
The first "loss" was my jubilee orpington pair. Their coop was 4x4 so someone had opened the 2 different latches and reached in and grabbed them and killed them the same way as my isbar cockeral. I was thinking it may have been a raccoon at first but all the other chickens in the coop were fine and the critter could have easily climbed in and wiped the whole bunch out by climbing the wire inside. My husband set these latches up so a raccoon wouldn't be able to do both. They are different, require a different skill to open each and we never even have one opened(evidence of a raccoon even trying).
I have lost many other birds over the past few months and realize now that the animals I "thought" were responsible for the killing were just scavenging on what a human has done.
I would LOVE to set a few traps/snares but dh is afraid it may catch a child by accident. I get it but it doesn't take the anger away. The sad thing is that I know when we catch this person nothing will be done because "they are just chickens".
any suggestions?
Definitely use a game cam that is attached to your computer. Then sue them in court. You should be able to easily prove via Greenfire, Marc Sayer etc the value of your imported birds. Contact the breeders you acquired your stock from and get a statement of their value.dh thinks someone may have started out using a bb gun because the first losses were unexplained but I was losing hens as well, which wouldn't make sense.
a partial list of losses
cream legbar hen, english black orp pullet, american bantam black orp pullet, cream legbar juvenile trio, gorgeous crested swedish flower hen (pullet, but would look like a roo due to the size of her comb). I also have a chocolate bantam orp in my basement that seems to have sustained an injury to her leg? These were all big, fat, healthy birds. What I find interesting is that most of the losses are where my swedish flower hen cockeral is(the only rooster I have that crows just to hear himself). I only have 5 roosters here and it really is not loud at all. We did have a LOT of roosters before we downsized.
I don't think we are bad neighbors, really. We don't let them out till 8:30 and they are away by 5. They only crow a few times a day but apparently that is too much for them
We had a similar incident happen recently and the sheriff said it could be an "unknown third party" that failed to feed and water my flock. Long story short, I lost my only transportation for a week. Could not get to the farm. Does not take a brain surgeon to figure out who did it. PM for details. In any case, your pets have rights, as do you. Check your animal rights laws. There may be stiff penalties for animal cruelty. Good luck with the game cameras!
