Unknown predator help please

[jstinch]

This just in....my mom just found a wounded but walking chicken at her house....yay at least 2 survived. My mom lives about 6 acres away.....must have ran for its life.

Window pane is approx twice the size as the chickens entrance.

 

[CMV]

6 acres?!?! Impressive. I don't think I could cover 6 acres, and definitely not at a run. That chicken deserves some good eating tonight. I hope they're OK.

 

[Crystalchic]

do you have wild dogs there

 

[undermywings]

How devastating! So sorry to hear. If you do find out what it is please update this posting. Kinda worried and interested what you have there. Lesson for all of us I am sure.

BTW, any way you could have that fur tested to see what it is?

 

[jstinch]

Well the rooster that was found ended up dying....he had a punture wound on his right side under the wing towards his back end. I spoke with someone last night who said they really thought it was a fox....I still am not sure but had fortified the window with the metal mesh. A neighbor found another dead chicken on his property but I had walked where he found it the day before and it was not there. He buried it so I am not sure if or how it was injured.

 

[L*A*G*]

wow! loseing 13 chickens is alot. i can't believe hardly anybody thougt it was a fox. that's my guess anyways. whatever it is has already happend and passed so what u need to do now is makesure is dosn't happen agian.

 

[smokeater413]

I'm so sorry for your loss.

 

[Dirt Road]

Just my own opinion based on my experiences with predators. A fox would go through a 10x6 door easily. They will as a rule just grab a bird and run, maybe come back once or twice that night but not usually. Generally will show up another night to repeat the offense. A racoon, or especially a pair or family will happily kill everything they can get ahold of but eating a dozen chickens is impossible for me to believe. They would have eaten parts of them and left a mess, maybe hauling off one or two. I also think they would have gone through the chicken door, though a big male might not fit. Coyotes maybe. I don't know how common they are near you nor how much hunting pressure they get. Around here, they might grab one or two but they wouldn't hang around long enough to kill the whole flock, and very few folks around here will bother them. I vote dogs! They are unafraid of people, and they will haul them quite a ways. They also will get so excited with the killing that they will clean the whole flock out. I've had them just keep coming back to pick up the bodies and carry them away. Whoever owns them knows they did it because the dogs would carry at least one home to chew on. However, they will never admit that they know.

Jim

 

[Bizzybirdy]

Sounds like dogs to me also. Years ago, when I used to leave my henhouse door open at night, a couple of dogs wiped out all my guineas and all my chickens but a couple that escaped and were hiding in the bushes.

They chewed some up, tossed some and chased some all the way down to my pond...about 200 ft. away. I came out at 3am to see them running down the street each carrying a chicken. A real 20 minute horror show!

Neighbor told me he felt bad confining their dogs...well I felt bad losing my birds. I shot one of the dogs when he came back for seconds. No more problem. Should have taken them to court too.