Two hens dead, torn up, no sign of invader

[horstuff]

This morning I found two of my 5 hens mangled, the other three seem fine. There were feathers all over from them ( they were black sexlinks, large) along with feathers from the sole barred rock (also a large chicken). There are NO indications of a breah in the run... It's a 10 x 10 chain link kennel with 24" hardware cloth securely fastened along all of the bottom perimeter. Thier bodies wer not near the door. The pen also has a full nylon shade cover securely attached.

Could the two sex links and the barred rock have fought and the barred rock won? There were no other color feathers from the remaining two chickens ( a buff Orpington and a calico, not sure of breed. My girlfriend picked them out, they're her babies, and I cleaned it all up as best I could while she's still asleep. She's going to be very sad).

Bobby

 

[horstuff]

It should read no indications of a BREACH in the run, typo.

 

[aart]

Weasel can get thru chainlink itself.....there are usually gaps between panels big enough in a chainlink kennel that a coon could get thru too.

 

[chickengeorgeto]

It sounds like something squeezed in or through the wire, or maybe at the doorway between the door and the gate frame, or even at the top between the chain link and the shade netting.

netting will only keeps things like hawks out and only then if the hawk doesn't care a whole heck of a lot about getting in.

the one thing that I am sure of is that the 3 chickens that you mentioned didn't do this to each other. A peck fight like you are suspecting will leave both birds heads scalped, bloody, and swollen.

Look up raccoon tracks on the web and see if you can identify any at the crime scene.

Was anything eaten? What part of the country?

Good luck!

 

[horstuff]

It looked like part of the intestines were eaten, but there was plenty left also. I'm in the Seattle area, but about 30 miles east, up against the mountain foothills. I've never even seen a raccoon out here, but I used to see lots of them when I lived in the city.

Bobby

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

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