What is it??

[DanaLovesChickens]

Hello everyone! I had a predator strike either Friday night or early Saturday morning. Seven of my 16 are gone. I found only 2 intact bodies, 2 almost completely eaten bodies and only a leg or wing of my other 3. I am trying to figure this out, fox or what. I have a coop inside my fenced backyard. I have a couple of acres but it all happened in my fenced in area in the back, it's all hog wire, completely enclosed. The chickens have been free ranging and I didn't close their coop, my fault. What could this be? It killed my biggest, Red Freedom ranger rooster, he was heavy!

Please help-

Thank you!

 

[DanaLovesChickens]

Also-one of my girls lost all of her tail feathers, she got away

 

[Howard E]

Sorry to hear about that. That kind of loss is hard to recover from. As to who did it, my money is on a large pack of coons. Sounds like everybody got one.

If by hog wire, you mean a woven wire livestock fence, I have seen coons go though mine like it isn't even there. It hardly slows them down, let alone keep them out.

Don't mean to sound harsh, but free ranging, open coops, etc. is no protection at all. With such a free and easy meal, whatever got your birds will be back. Unless you can do something to tighten things up, I would give the rest of your birds less than 48 hours to live.

 

[Howard E]

As for "the tighten up", at the minimum, when the birds to to roost at night, they go to roost in a locked up coop that no coon, fox or other can get in no matter how hard it tries. That pretty much protects them from dusk to dawn. After that, I would suggest you invest in an electric fence system to hang on the outside of your existing hog wire fence. Or do as I did and put it a foot or so on the inside of the livestock fence, where it can be maintained and where it traps the would be predator between the livestock fence and electric fence giving him several booster shots of get out and stay out.

 

[coach723]

Hog wire will keep your chickens in, mostly, but will keep not much of anything out. Many predators can go up and over a fence in a fraction of a second. Any kind of fence. Many can fit through holes in the fence. The safest enclosure material is 1/2" or smaller hardware cloth. And the area needs to be covered completely and securely, and if you have digging predators you need to bury hardware cloth around the perimeter to 12" deep. My birds free range during the day, you cannot protect from everything then, but they are most vulnerable at night, just after dark and just before light are very active predator times. My coop has an attached run that is completely enclosed as I described above with hardware cloth and a metal roof, and the door shuts just before dusk and does not open in the AM until it's very light out.
Also a successful predator will very likely return, so you need to secure your remaining birds well while you try to re-mediate your security. If you have or can borrow a game camera it would help in identifying whatever predator you are dealing with currently. I don't know where you are, so don't know what your common predators are. Some of them will go into a killing frenzy and wipe out the whole flock but only take a few, or even a single bird. Sorry this happened, I know it's disheartening to go through. Predator proofing can be some work, but it's worth it in the long run.

 

[DanaLovesChickens]

Sorry to hear about that. That kind of loss is hard to recover from. As to who did it, my money is on a large pack of coons. Sounds like everybody got one.

If by hog wire, you mean a woven wire livestock fence, I have seen coons go though mine like it isn't even there. It hardly slows them down, let alone keep them out.

Don't mean to sound harsh, but free ranging, open coops, etc. is no protection at all. With such a free and easy meal, whatever got your birds will be back. Unless you can do something to tighten things up, I would give the rest of your birds less than 48 hours to live.

Thanks-they are locked up in a pretty secure, hopefully, coop-completely wired, top to bottom with three 2x6's stacked for extra protection around all four sides on the bottom outside. Tin roof on top of the wire. Attached to my cow pen.
I've had predators before just never this big of a loss at once. Pack of coons? I'll be waiting with my 12 gauge

 

[DanaLovesChickens]

It's double layered chicken wire and the 2x6's are nailed securely-it's about 8'x16'

 

[DanaLovesChickens]

Hog wire will keep your chickens in, mostly, but will keep not much of anything out. Many predators can go up and over a fence in a fraction of a second. Any kind of fence. Many can fit through holes in the fence. The safest enclosure material is 1/2" or smaller hardware cloth. And the area needs to be covered completely and securely, and if you have digging predators you need to bury hardware cloth around the perimeter to 12" deep. My birds free range during the day, you cannot protect from everything then, but they are most vulnerable at night, just after dark and just before light are very active predator times. My coop has an attached run that is completely enclosed as I described above with hardware cloth and a metal roof, and the door shuts just before dusk and does not open in the AM until it's very light out.
Also a successful predator will very likely return, so you need to secure your remaining birds well while you try to re-mediate your security. If you have or can borrow a game camera it would help in identifying whatever predator you are dealing with currently. I don't know where you are, so don't know what your common predators are. Some of them will go into a killing frenzy and wipe out the whole flock but only take a few, or even a single bird. Sorry this happened, I know it's disheartening to go through. Predator proofing can be some work, but it's worth it in the long run.

I'm in NE Florida-we've always had predators but nothing this sever at once.

 

[DanaLovesChickens]

Hog wire will keep your chickens in, mostly, but will keep not much of anything out. Many predators can go up and over a fence in a fraction of a second. Any kind of fence. Many can fit through holes in the fence. The safest enclosure material is 1/2" or smaller hardware cloth. And the area needs to be covered completely and securely, and if you have digging predators you need to bury hardware cloth around the perimeter to 12" deep. My birds free range during the day, you cannot protect from everything then, but they are most vulnerable at night, just after dark and just before light are very active predator times. My coop has an attached run that is completely enclosed as I described above with hardware cloth and a metal roof, and the door shuts just before dusk and does not open in the AM until it's very light out.
Also a successful predator will very likely return, so you need to secure your remaining birds well while you try to re-mediate your security. If you have or can borrow a game camera it would help in identifying whatever predator you are dealing with currently. I don't know where you are, so don't know what your common predators are. Some of them will go into a killing frenzy and wipe out the whole flock but only take a few, or even a single bird. Sorry this happened, I know it's disheartening to go through. Predator proofing can be some work, but it's worth it in the long run.

I know big dogs can't get in. I guess coons and foxes can fit through I'll keep them locked up completely for a long while.