- May 26, 2011
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We are sooo sad and our two oldest girls are devastated. Went away for two days and unfortunately left our 9 assorted breeds of 6.5 week chicks in their fully enclosed pen, but not locked up in the coop at night. We are in Maine (where it is still chilly at night), so we left on the heat lamp in one corner of the coop and left them plenty of food and water up in the coop, but left the door to the coop open so they could go down and hang out in their enclosed pen and underneath the coop during the day. Someone checked on them Saturday morning after the first night and they were fine. When we returned home at 6 pm yesterday (Sunday), we found feathers near two sides of the enclosed pen under the coop - virtually every part of Lacey, our Silver Laced Wyandotte, was gone except for what we believe was her stomach (red ball that looked to be stuffed with chicken feed) that must have been too big to pull through the fence. There was blood along the bottom of the wood enclosure on one side and the chicken wire was pulled out slightly (no breaks) on one side, but most of the feathers were on the other side when the chicken wire was also pulled (stomach on the ground on the inside of the coop on that side). Lots of feathers on the ground on that side, some right next to the coop and the rest only about two feet away. We suspect someone initially got to her on one side, she was able to break away and moved to the other side, where she met her final demise. Of what was pulled through, the only parts left were feathers.
I've been reading all I can about who might have done this, and my best guess is a hawk, since whoever is was seemed able to continue to reach in and pull at her until she came through the chicken wire, probably in pieces. Again, no breaks to the wire, just an area on either side where the wire was pulled outward. Even though we are in a residential neighborhood, we have lots of trees on our property and live across the street from a nature preserve. We've seen foxes, skunks and groundhogs in our yard many times over the years. But there are also neighborhood cats and dogs that wander through our yard. Has anyone has a similar experience so we can try to identify the issue. We will ensure that someone gets the girls into their coop at night when we're out of town going forward, but if it was a hawk, I suspect it happened during the day. The attached enclosed pen on our coop has 12 inches of plywood over the chicken wire at the bottom, but the area under the coop does not. We're going to add plywood to the area under the coop too, but wondering what did this and what recommendations anyone would have? We're first time chicken owners and have raised these sweet girls from baby chicks.
I've been reading all I can about who might have done this, and my best guess is a hawk, since whoever is was seemed able to continue to reach in and pull at her until she came through the chicken wire, probably in pieces. Again, no breaks to the wire, just an area on either side where the wire was pulled outward. Even though we are in a residential neighborhood, we have lots of trees on our property and live across the street from a nature preserve. We've seen foxes, skunks and groundhogs in our yard many times over the years. But there are also neighborhood cats and dogs that wander through our yard. Has anyone has a similar experience so we can try to identify the issue. We will ensure that someone gets the girls into their coop at night when we're out of town going forward, but if it was a hawk, I suspect it happened during the day. The attached enclosed pen on our coop has 12 inches of plywood over the chicken wire at the bottom, but the area under the coop does not. We're going to add plywood to the area under the coop too, but wondering what did this and what recommendations anyone would have? We're first time chicken owners and have raised these sweet girls from baby chicks.
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