Was this weasel or what?PHOTOS BIRD AFTER ATTACK DaytimeJustBeforeDarK

[sharron]

had one killed like that one time, a friend, big chicken breeder told me a big rat will kill a young chick like that and just eat the insides
sorry you lost one

 

[Mac in Wisco]

This was during the day, and I've never seen rats take down a bird that size, day or night. I have seen rats hollow them out after they've died from other causes. They typically rip open the abdomen and clean them out. This wasn't rats, coons or the like. Those animals don't pluck a bird, eat the feathers, and just gnaw around the vent. This was other birds. The OP listed the birds she had, but you can't narrow it down to just a few perpetrators, once it starts they all join in.

I see it happen from time to time here. Sometimes when we don't want the birds to go outside we'll open a barn door and put a piece of fence in front of it. If we open an east door in the early morning or a west door in late evening, the sun shines directly into the barn and they all want to get into a little patch of sunlight at the same time. That's when problems sometimes occur. All it takes is for one to squawk like she's hurt and the rest will be all over her.

 

[chickenbottom]

actually ive had this happen to some of my chickens they were younger about 10 weeks old and my older birds did it. ate the insides and thats it.

 

[WillieBoy]

I agree totally with Thefox...i work part time on a chichen farm. I see hens do this pretty often. They see a little blood and go crazy...Just like the pic posted, vent attacked and guts eaten by fellow hens... I also agree, that weasels don't always leave a clean neat job...

 

[Tootsie]

OK the coop is and 8x8x8 and the run is being added as you can see the framework for it in the first picture here I posted and the loose white board I am now using to cover the tunnel.

and the 16 now 15 youngsters were only in there until I can sex them, which now I can, so after our show on the 23rd of this month the remaining 11 araucanas...well one that was sold as an araucana maybe not has a single comb and much bigger than the rest of the birds I am wondering if they seller put in the wrong chick??? anyway will move into an araucana group but didn't want to move them until I closed my pool (which I just did this week) since they would be living quite near it.
Note this attack only happened the day the door was not in place, in this picture I took
Here I am replacing the old pic with a more accurate one on HOW I FOUND THE DOOR:

Closer look at tunnel since "it" may have come from there:

Some of the blue coop residents, I am putting a better pic in:

And the blue coop door today with the black rubber thing in place that I forgot to put up day of attack and that is how door got loose and some extra heavy metal pieces leaning too and put a piece of hardware cloth up until I get a chance to staple one on.

Hope this helps and thanks.

 

[theFox]

Tootsie,

I think your flock is now to the size where 8 x 8 floor space is pushing the limit for a confined flock, this adds to a possible chicken eat chicken issue. As your flock matures it will come under further crowding and you'll likely see more of these take place.

A 64 square foot coop can only hold so many birds if they are confined, it can hold a lot more if it is used as roost and feeding area.

I'll now post my bet on the cause of your chicken's demise, death by flock mates due to overcrowding.

 

[Tootsie]

I think you are wrong, these birds are small, I will take a better picture tomorrow to show how much room they actually have and how the set up is and the perches and 10 hole nest boxes and as I said 11 are moving in a week and then there will only be about 10 left in there at most since I will sell some and it was evident that something got in there that day based on how I found the door pulled open. I just found some pictures of the set up, the birds I showed earlier were grouped together since they like to stand together not that they were crowded. They almost alwasy cluster together since the hatch even though they have much space to go away from each other.

They have a 3 level perch and another level above that I will photo tomorrow. OK Here ARE BETTER PICS I JUST TOOK TODAY (Sat) and as you can see these birds are not crowded.

This next one is and overlap of some of the birds perching, not extra birds :

And the top level:

Now THESE above PICTURES TAKEN TODAY 10/16/10 pretty much cover all the birds in there except for Gimp who is under the stool so she didn't come out in them.

The 16 youngsters haven't even been in there very long at all a few weeks. I am thinking rat something disturbed the door and got inside. The other side of the bird that was killed had all of it's feathers in tact. This bird had a bald spot as a chick where you think they ate feathers, it came that way. I will see if I still have those pictures. A few of the chicks had decent bald spots and this one still had the bald spot but is looks more pronounced in these photos.

These below were taken a different day.
They also have two windows covered in hardware cloth with perches in front of them:

and room to have babies too:

Baby and momma have moved to the barn group.
These chicks like to congregate, I will take a better full view photo tomorrow. Most of my birds free range during the day but did not want the youngsters out yet. You have the wrong impression, the door was pulled out that day.

 

[Lofty Dreams]

I had a run in with a weasel they eat the guts of the bird

 

[Mac in Wisco]

You had even said in your first post that you thought they may have been fighting in there...

 

[Tootsie]

I meant I heard the scream and thought maybe a someone was annoyed but they have never had any real fights though after rereading my first post I see how that may have sounded , I meant a disagreement or something. I should have respinded to the scream but since you see how the door was tied I could not go in there and intie the door until I put the distressed pea down. If I wasn't holding the peachick who was sad her momma died I would have gone right over there plus birds in another group were calling an alert from the other side of the house so I was thinking that was a place to check out so when I put Pea down I checked over there but found nothing and then the alert stopped.