Last night we had a really bad storm here in ne Tennessee. The storm was so bad that several houses and barns have no roofs today. The rain was torrential and it rained ALL night. No breaks.
This morning my husband went out and found that our White Jersey Giant flock was gone. All except for 2. One we had to put down because of his injuries. Eight are gone. These were full sized birds. HUGE! We had welded wire fencing and their pen was only supposed to be temporary. It was secure, or so we thought.
The chickens were pulled THROUGH the welded wire fencing! The fencing is bent and bent badly. It was 2x3 in squares. There is nothing left of 8 Jersey Giant chickens except for feathers. No body parts anywhere. I have been over the whole area looking for footprints, scat, some sign of something. The only clue is that at one section of the fence, it looks like whatever animal pulled them through the fence, braced themselves against one of the posts, and the fencing and PULLED. You can see where the earth is soft from the rain and its all disturbed where they dug in with their feet. They must have been slipping due to the rain because you can see it.
We know we have bobcats here, we had a dead one behind our barn two weeks ago. Our neighbors have problems with coyotes, we never have because we have a GP but we brought her inside because of the storm. We have possums. We see them all the time. We've never seen a coon here but have seen them dead a mile down the road. Oh, we know we have fox because we lost a rooster to one 2 years ago.
We live inside the woods, 35 acres of it is ours.
What kind of predator could take 8 JG's and do that kind of damage to the fencing?
Tonight I'll be outside in my car on the hillside with a loaded shotgun and my GP by my side.
Laurie
This morning my husband went out and found that our White Jersey Giant flock was gone. All except for 2. One we had to put down because of his injuries. Eight are gone. These were full sized birds. HUGE! We had welded wire fencing and their pen was only supposed to be temporary. It was secure, or so we thought.
The chickens were pulled THROUGH the welded wire fencing! The fencing is bent and bent badly. It was 2x3 in squares. There is nothing left of 8 Jersey Giant chickens except for feathers. No body parts anywhere. I have been over the whole area looking for footprints, scat, some sign of something. The only clue is that at one section of the fence, it looks like whatever animal pulled them through the fence, braced themselves against one of the posts, and the fencing and PULLED. You can see where the earth is soft from the rain and its all disturbed where they dug in with their feet. They must have been slipping due to the rain because you can see it.
We know we have bobcats here, we had a dead one behind our barn two weeks ago. Our neighbors have problems with coyotes, we never have because we have a GP but we brought her inside because of the storm. We have possums. We see them all the time. We've never seen a coon here but have seen them dead a mile down the road. Oh, we know we have fox because we lost a rooster to one 2 years ago.
We live inside the woods, 35 acres of it is ours.
What kind of predator could take 8 JG's and do that kind of damage to the fencing?
Tonight I'll be outside in my car on the hillside with a loaded shotgun and my GP by my side.
Laurie
