What could kill and eat 30 chickens in 1 night and not leave a single body.

[Sunshine Flock]

I only cleared about 5-6 acres around the house. This property used to be a huge trailer park that was made for soldiers going thru flight school and tank school and additional personnel at FtRucker back in WWII. I've had over 40 cement pads and gas, water, and electric hook ups just on this cleared area. My neighbor had 120 acres. The whole trailer park. And he sold me 20 where the Big House, Office, and an Olympic sized pool were. The pool had 60 ft tall pines growing in it, so I plan to make a storm shelter/root cellar and green house in it. After I had cleared this part and started redoing the house , the house and office burned to the ground. I had kicked out a Meth head bum that was squatting in the house about 2 weeks before the fire. I think he may have burned it. But any way, the driveway is several hundred yards long and shaped like a "J". Where it comes on to the property over by the creek, it goes about100 yards then makes a 90° curve then heads to the the pool where the office was. The chicken pen and coop are just around the roadside of the curve. Some one could pull down the drive without going around the curve, back up to the chickens and we'd never see our hear them from inside. I told the Lil Lady we needed to build the chicken quarters closer to the house but she didn't want the smell or to be awoken by roosters all the time. Sorry if I got a little off topic, it's past my bedtime and time for this big chicken to go to roost.

Okay, big chicken. You go roost, but meanwhile I wanted to say it sounds like you've got yourself quite a fascinating chunk of land way over there in Alabama. So how far was the runway and hangars from your property?

I've long heard about chicken thieves, but I've never understood why they do that. Chickens?? We have a lovely local meth addict on our road. My compassion for him is there, but my patience and tolerance is short. They cannot be trusted. He threatened me several months ago, and I put my young flock under lockdown inside the house. Now I have two dead bolts on the chicken coop door, top and bottom. Good for predators (one latch isn't sufficient), and I added a keyed lock. I'll never feel like they're secure, though.

Your wife's idea of hot wire is a good one. I'm also liking the idea of a shotgun!!

 

[EggWalrus]

That is coon scat... and I bet you have a mama with mostly grown juveniles... had 1 come through my place with 3 juvies... they can devastate a huge amount of birds with little to no trace...

Get DP traps, forget the havahart or cage type traps... they either won't go in them or they will destroy the trap and escape before you can check it...

I'm beginning to tend to agree. I looked online at pics of coyote and coon scat and it looks a little more like the con poo. Besides, half the birds were in the second story of the Chick Condo. there's no way for a canine to climb chicken wire up nearly 6 ft off the ground to get up there. But a Coon could do it easy. It was either a 4 legged coon or something with 2 legs, or a culmination of both.

 

[Fields Mountain Farm]

@Welshies coyotes live in packs of 3 to 10. Typically family groups. They will hunt for small prey, eg..mice, rabbits etc, alone or in pairs. They also hunt in packs for larger prey, eg...deer, or if going after a large group of prey, eg, flock of chickens.
I have not read through the entire thread so I am not making any assumptions on what happened. Just explaining coyote packs.
I have a pack of them that run through here every 3 to 4 wks, just part of their territory.

 

[chickendreams24]

Okay wow I am going to respond to this post tomorrow.

Such a long long read but worth it. I'm no expert but I would like to share my knowledge and experiences. I'm in Wisconsin so things may not all apply.

It's amazing how things can be so different from place to place in our great country. Animals as we all know learn and adapt and teach the next generation and on and on.

Personally I don't think there's a chance that it was people. Unless they were stupid people, as in just totally clueless.

I am also of the idea of it being coons.

But I'll elaborate more tomorrow.

 

[EggWalrus]

Okay, big chicken. You go roost, but meanwhile I wanted to say it sounds like you've got yourself quite a fascinating chunk of land way over there in Alabama. So how far was the runway and hangars from your property?

I've long heard about chicken thieves, but I've never understood why they do that. Chickens?? We have a lovely local meth addict on our road. My compassion for him is there, but my patience and tolerance is short. They cannot be trusted. He threatened me several months ago, and I put my young flock under lockdown inside the house. Now I have two dead bolts on the chicken coop door, top and bottom. Good for predators (one latch isn't sufficient), and I added a keyed lock. I'll never feel like they're secure, though.

Your wife's idea of hot wire is a good one. I'm also liking the idea of a shotgun!!

One heliport is less than 1/4 mile away across the swamp as the crow flies. Everyday, hundreds of times every day, Apache Gunships fly over head. I'm glad that only 1 week every 2 months do they do any flight training at night for their IFR rating. The Apache isn't nearly as noisy as they used to be now that they have stealth rotors, but there is a Chinook heliport just 2 miles away and when those big bastards fly over, they shake the whole damn house! I used to work out there as a Firearms Instructor and Range Safety Officer and when I used to get off work, I'd drive over and watch the Apaches blow up stuff on the big range. Now I get to see Apaches just 200 ft above my head, but I don't get to see them blowing up tanks, trucks and targets any more.

 

[Mimiruu]

I just want to say I am sorry this happened. One was hard for me, so I can only imagine.

 

[EggWalrus]

@Welshies coyotes live in packs of 3 to 10. Typically family groups. They will hunt for small prey, eg..mice, rabbits etc, alone or in pairs. They also hunt in packs for larger prey, eg...deer, or if going after a large group of prey, eg, flock of chickens.
I have not read through the entire thread so I am not making any assumptions on what happened. Just explaining coyote packs.
I have a pack of them that run through here every 3 to 4 wks, just part of their territory.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Ravynscroft]

I'm beginning to tend to agree. I looked online at pics of coyote and coon scat and it looks a little more like the con poo. Besides, half the birds were in the second story of the Chick Condo. there's no way for a canine to climb chicken wire up nearly 6 ft off the ground to get up there. But a Coon could do it easy. It was either a 4 legged coon or something with 2 legs, or a culmination of both.

If it was a 2 legger, there wouldn't have been any blood or escapees... they would have closed the coop up and just plucked them right off the roost...

Look up the DP traps... it/they will come back, once they found a meal place, they always do... and if it's locked up next time they'll find a way in... sorry for your losses, I feel for you... good luck...

 

[EggWalrus]

Okay wow I am going to respond to this post tomorrow.

Such a long long read but worth it. I'm no expert but I would like to share my knowledge and experiences. I'm in Wisconsin so things may not all apply.

It's amazing how things can be so different from place to place in our great country. Animals as we all know learn and adapt and teach the next generation and on and on.

Personally I don't think there's a chance that it was people. Unless they were stupid people, as in just totally clueless.

I am also of the idea of it being coons.

But I'll elaborate more tomorrow.

I'd love to hear your from your experience, we all have knowledge to contribute. Sometimes the same kind of predator behaves differently in different locations. They adapt and make use of what works and keeps them alive in that local. Like here, I've seen chickens running around to see who gets to eat a toad frog, but until I captured some of these Swamp chickens I never dreamed a chicken would wade into a creek and catch minnows, crawfish, and frogs! I've even seen them bring minnows back to babies at the edge of the water. It's amazing how chickens can learn and adapt.

 

[chonsey]

I'm thinking of getting a new security camara myself after I lost a bunch of my favorite chickens a few of months ago. Thanks for reminding me! I also, kept thinking two legged human? No trace! They were in a big barn, so now they are in a more secured coop! Looking at Lorex or Blink. You may want to check out other chicken lovers here at BYC that have set up their chickens security camaras inside the coop and outside the coop. That way you know who is snooping, or who raiding the coop!