Unknown predator help please

[jstinch]

I live in rural Virginia....Night before last I lost 14 chickens (approx 12 weeks old) something broke the glass out of the windows chicken coop window and ate 14 of them....no remains, few specks of blood, few feathers....after investigating found some animal hair in the coop..most hair was about 3 inches long a couple were black and the majority were half tan half black hairs....could not find any prints. Anyone know what would eat 14, 1/2 grown chickens at one time.....any help appreciated.

 

[CMV]

Family of raccoons?

They broke the glass? Wow.

 

[DiVon80]

Sounds like coons. Broke the glass out wow!

 

[jstinch]

Yes had a 4 pane window and they broke out the top left pane about 2 foot off the ground.

 

[THough1956]

Coyotes.

 

[jstinch]

I thought coyote in the beginning....another tidbit is whatever ate them did eat them close to the coop they were not carried off. You could see some feathers that were saturated with slobber.

 

[jstinch]

also, the predator was too large to fit through the chicken door approx 10x6 inches

 

[Chirpy]

I'm sorry - that would have been awful to find. I'm also thinking coons but with it only being two feet off the ground it's certainly possible that it was a dog or coyote. I also thought bear but I don't know if you have them around there.

I would encourage you to get hardware cloth and put it over all your windows and vents for future protection of your flock.

 

[ChickenDogDuck]

Quote:
Seems if they are larger than the 10x6 door and breaking windows you might want to protect your own house as well!

 

[will hunt for food]

I can't imagine a coon breaking through a window when they could have gone through the 10x6 chicken door. If that is true, well darn, man the torpedoes! What was the dimension of the pane they broke? Big enough for a coyote to go through? Coyotes are not that big, in general. I am guessing a coyote (or wild dogs) if the space was big enough, or the yote was small enough..