What could it have been?!

[Peepsi]

So. One dead chicken and every other bird in the barn missing? I say human or a couple of them. Knock the birds off the rafters, put them in bags and take off. That’s my take.

Seconding this. Really sounds like the work of humans, possibly bored teenage boys with no conscience.

 

[Willowspirit]

Seconding this. Really sounds like the work of humans, possibly bored teenage boys with no conscience.

It’s true that a couple years ago some teens went into a commercial chicken operation and killed or injured every bird they could.

I was more thinking of capturing for resale or a big barbecue.

 

[Pekin747]

Something I learned in Ohio where we boarded horses. The owners of the stables brooded hundreds of chicks every year. I would help the stable owner with catching predators.

One thing I learned is a fox or coyote will dart in steal a bird and dart out leaving a feather trail. 1 bird at a time.

They will keep coming back until you challenge them

Only 1 animal in my opinion will stay long enough to kill every single living bird. A young raccoon.

Of all the episodes they had with predators there was nothing like a young raccoon who goes on a murder spree. For whatever reason they killed every single bird in the barn for no reason. When I say no reason i mean they couldnt possibly eat everything they killed.

Some of the chicks would have bites taken from their necks or heads but most were just dead with no bite wounds.

If you lost that many birds in 1 or 2 nights its my opinion your dealing with young raccoons. Probably more than one.

Minks will also kill every bird it comes by aswell but u know when they have been

 

[WthrLady]

Something I learned in Ohio where we boarded horses. The owners of the stables brooded hundreds of chicks every year. I would help the stable owner with catching predators.

One thing I learned is a fox or coyote will dart in steal a bird and dart out leaving a feather trail. 1 bird at a time.

They will keep coming back until you challenge them

Only 1 animal in my opinion will stay long enough to kill every single living bird. A young raccoon.

Of all the episodes they had with predators there was nothing like a young raccoon who goes on a murder spree. For whatever reason they killed every single bird in the barn for no reason. When I say no reason i mean they couldnt possibly eat everything they killed.

Some of the chicks would have bites taken from their necks or heads but most were just dead with no bite wounds.

If you lost that many birds in 1 or 2 nights its my opinion your dealing with young raccoons. Probably more than one.

A mink or fisher cat will stay to kill every single bird too, but its total carnage when they do.

This case sounds like a fox.

 

[centrarchid]

Looks like the birds are all gone. If you intend to reboot, then what is plan to prevent a repeat? Can you show pictures of where birds roost and possible routs the thief entered by? Going after predator(s) now not going to be all that impacting in terms of time use as visits will likely be less frequent and certainly less impact if birds all gone. Once you have the bird flock restoration going then you will have the bait all outdoor poultry keepers have that will need to be protected.

 

[cmom]

The only animals is Illinois that can remove that many birds like that is a canine. Whether it’s a pack of coyotes or a fox with young I don’t know. Cage traps aren’t going to get it done though.

If you have a game camera put it up. Whatever the predator is it will probably be back and then you will know what you're dealing with. I used to use leg traps but because we have had many people buying land around us and new houses being built, I now use live traps. I bait the traps for a few nights, that's when most of the predators come out here, and let them take the bait, then I set the trap and they are caught. I have had some incidental catches that I just release such as cats and I have seen dogs around the traps. This fox had a habit of coming out during the day and I'm sure it killed my favorite bird that was killed during the middle of the day. I caught it.