we woke up to a chicken massacre. ANy ideas?

[willheveland]

I thought mink and weasles went for the neck and coon,grinners and skunk ate the head and entrails??? Will
p.s. 6"x6" is a pretty large hole for a predator.

 

[Snowmantis]

Just had my own Massacre as well...

21 chickens killed with only three remaining. Our fault by leaving the coop door unsecured. I have a dual run area with welded wire fencing, an outside run, a winter run which has an overhang extending from the barn wall, and then the coop (internal room within the barn). Never seen such senseless killing from a predator before. Looking things up on the net, it sounds like a raccoon. Pretty much confirmed, by the hair remnants found on the edges of a 4 inch area between a run overhang and the door that only had chicken wire covering the 4 inch area. Also laid out cardboard on the ground last night to find raccoon prints on it this morning. The raccoon must have climbed the welded wire up to the gap and pulled at the chicken wire and squeezed in.

Now placing more security and permanently closing that gap. Will need to trap that coon as well since I doubt that it will stay away now.

Never had this type of issue when I had Guineas hens. I had the occasional hawk take one or two, but never had a predator enter my run or coop before (that I know of).

 

[Davaroo]

Its going to be a major chore to convince my husband that an electric fence is the right thing. Hardware cloth sounds like a great idea..... I've already priced it out.

Did you keep the fence at ground level and up or should it be buried a little.

Bury it a foot to 18" below ground.

Any ideas for a stubborn husband?

Yes, but this is family oriented forum.​

 

[Davaroo]

Quote:
I don't know if anything is absolute. I was thinking out loud when I suggested something in the weasel family. I supposed that would allow skunks and coons to share some of the guilt.

Regardless, one of these sounds likliest.

 

[deerman]

yes could be in the weasle family. the size of hole and number of birds killed thinking coons. With lot of chicken coons will eat the neck and crop, then move to another.

 

[delores8]

I was so sad to hear of what happened to your chicks, you say that you put them up about midnight . Do you have them in a closed building? We had a similuar thing happen about 2-3 weeks ago, first we found our duck killed, then 2 days later, we had 2 more chicks killed one was a Rooster, after that we cleaned around the opening to the chicken house where a built up of mud and straw had been, our duck always stayed out of the house at night and just stayed in the fenced part connected to the house, (we had that duck for 10 years, ) never had much problems till this year, you can tell by the way the kill was on which animal it was I searched about that. Well to make a long story short , We finally decided to close them up at night, I think the others chicks appreciate it, we also put a light out there ( the light that we always used in the winter) Also when My husband buillt this house years ago He put 3 nest out there and there up pretty high, all of the chicks roost up there, and they can also see if any creature may be trying to squeeze through a crack, I did see the night that this happened, a Racoon and a Opossum..

We put our chicks up way before dark around 7:30...

 

[goosemama]

A note on predators! Our hens (6 older gals) and our new flock of 9 three month old Amerecanas free range in a large fenced area behind our house. Mysteriously the only 2 Welsummers I had disappeared. We were away for a few days and my adult son was closing their door at night for me. Think they were taken during daylight hours because our coop is predator proof (unless the door is not shut in time). Searched the yard and could find no feathers or evidence of a scuffle. BUT yesterday we found a huge coyote in our vineyard which is just behind the hen's area. He was wandering in circles and may have been rabid so my husband shot him. His legs were so long he could have cleared our chicken fence with no trouble at all! Think we may have solved our mystery!

 

[cluck-addict]

Well the hubby refused to have anything to do with an electric fence. However anything an inch opening or wider is now secured with hardware cloth. This coop is so old. I really thought we could make do with it but I'm starting to second guess it.

Either way the chickens should be safe for the time being... Now I need to investigate roosts....

Thanks again everyone,

 

[cluck-addict]

what a wonderful sweet amazing hubby. As I type, he is prompting more compliments, ....
He put up a great roost for the remaining chickens. I didn't even ask him too.

Could I be any luckier...... the chickens are pretty lucky too.

 

[Little Chicky]

The same thing happened to my aunt, and it was a mink. It slipped through a tiny hole she had cut to run a wire through.

The most important thing is to never underestimate them; if there's the remotest chance of anything breaking in anywhere, fix it right away!