Warning graphic who done it mystery

KatDawson

Chirping
Jul 18, 2018
15
3
59
Magnolia, Texas, USA
Fully feathered dead chicken found in coup, neck and head maulled down to the bone. Repete offender kills one per night. Automatic pop door malfunction discovered after two dead. Once repaired, third chicken discovered in yard. Might have been locked out. Predator must have came over the six foot welded wire fence. Fourth bird found too late for clues. Fifth bird found in chicken yard. This time predator found damaged board on screen door and pulled out screen and hardware cloth and pulled chicken out of chicken house through the 8x10 inch gap it created in door. The Same night ate all eggs in nest leaving large sections of egg shells and some finely crushed fragments of eggshell in nest and knocked down a nest divider. What predator maulls head and neck to the skelleton pulls the chicken out of the coup but leaves body in run, eats eggs in nest, can break open a 8x10 inch gap in hardware cloth but cant move a cinder block and leaves feathers every where in a covered run with a 2 ft gap at the top of a six foot welded wire fence that does not try to dig under?
 
Not being an expert, I would ask you roughly where do you live? What are the known predators in the area?
Racoons can pull wire and wood apart but I would expect them to eat the breast and kill several if not all the birds in one night. A weasel would chew on necks and head but not thinking they could break wood and pull screening apart. A mink is quite strong and could drag a bird larger than themselves.
I have seen possums on my hunting trips to Iowa and I think this is something they could do. I’ve no experience seeing the damage a possums could do.
Sorry you are going through this.
Ps do you see signs of rats?
 
Don't ascribe too much power to the predator. Often there is quite the tussle while a predator chases and attacks your chickens multiple times. There is no evidence as such that the hen or rooster was dragged anywhere, only that it expired while not in the coop.

The same is true of things like feathers. Predators generally hate feathers and spit them out as soon as they get a mouthful. Where is your physical location? It would help greatly to know the physical location of you location to within maybe a 100 miles or 160 km either side of your coop.
 
If only one predator, then raccoon.

Show a picture of setup so we can harden it against incursions before predator returns tonight. Be prepared to leave most recent carcass where you found it to by some time where predator concentrates on that as you do your work. I have outright moved small groups of chickens for a night or two when I could not make changes needed fast enough.

A live trap or dog proof trap can be placed to catch critter. Dispatch it if captured.

Consider using electrified wire around perimeter of poultry area.

Get a game camera and set it up to work on 30 second intervals.
 
First and foremost...:welcome! I hope that you enjoy this site as much as the rest of us do! I have learned SOOO much from this site, and I hope that you do too!

Secondly, hope the your next post on here doesn't have to be so gruesome!:hugs If I was to take a guess, I would definitely put the raccoon fore big the suspect! Those nasty buggers can reach there hands through anything, and they are very strong! And yes, like centrarchid said, I would get a game camera! They have proven to be very worth in the past with raccoons!

Good Luck, hope this helps!!:thumbsup
 
Not being an expert, I would ask you roughly where do you live? What are the known predators in the area?
Racoons can pull wire and wood apart but I would expect them to eat the breast and kill several if not all the birds in one night. A weasel would chew on necks and head but not thinking they could break wood and pull screening apart. A mink is quite strong and could drag a bird larger than themselves.
I have seen possums on my hunting trips to Iowa and I think this is something they could do. I’ve no experience seeing the damage a possums could do.
Sorry you are going through this.
Ps do you see signs of rats?
I lst
Plan on steps taken to be making ready for future predator issues. Aside from feeding and watering, predators require the most mental effort with my birds because their are so many and they can learn.
lost another last night. One didnt make it into the coup. This time head was torn odd but not eatten. Breast gone and wing ripped. The head and neck were mauled. This makes six laying hens one at a time. We have racoons but they kill many and eat the heads and crops. As for climbers we have foxes, skunks, opossums, bobcats, cats, snakes that i know anout we live in the gulf coast region of Texas in a wooded area. We have owls and hawks. We have rats and mice and squi
 
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Not being an expert, I would ask you roughly where do you live? What are the known predators in the area?
Racoons can pull wire and wood apart but I would expect them to eat the breast and kill several if not all the birds in one night. A weasel would chew on necks and head but not thinking they could break wood and pull screening apart. A mink is quite strong and could drag a bird larger than themselves.
I have seen possums on my hunting trips to Iowa and I think this is something they could do. I’ve no experience seeing the damage a possums could do.
Sorry you are going through this.
Ps do you see signs of rats?
 
time head was torn odd but not eatten. Breast gone and wing ripped. The head and neck were mauled. This makes six laying hens one at a time. We have racoons but they kill many and eat the heads and crops. As for climbers we have foxes, skunks, opossums, bobcats, cats, snakes that i know anout we live in the gulf coast region of Texas in a wooded area. We have owls and hawks

Very sorry to hear this. I agree with your assessment of how the raccoons kill. I suppose it could be a raccoon with that type of kill. You mentioned you have an automatic door maybe that bird didn’t make it in.
Could a possum be doing this? Can you buy or borrow a trail cam with night time capability?
If it is LEGAL in your area can you to stand guard at dusk and dispatch what ever shows up to kill another bird?
 
Stepnout. We have racoons, opossums, skunks, moles, rats, mice, armadillo, foxes, bobcats, cats, snakes, owls, and hawks. I think its not a coon, snake, coyote, dog, mole , armadillo or hawk.
 

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