What killing my chickens.

[colejohnson73]

So we have 6 chickens. When we went out there this morning there was some blood and feathers and 3 chickens gone. The other 3 were scared and very timid. Outside of the coop there was feathers and some blood and near it there was some neck bones from the chicken. There was no tears in the coop or any holes dug. There was no injuries or any way they got it. The only thing was they in the coop run area there was a spot where it looked like the chicken had pushed hard against the wire and made a slight indent. Our neighbor had chickens that were killed by a fox and our other neighbor has 3 outside cats. The whole run is wired even underneath and the coop is safely attached so nothing can get in. We found them this morning. They were all pullets that died. The 3 that lived are also pullets. What happened. Please help.

 

[junebuggena]

Did you use chicken wire, or hardware cloth? If you can get a few fingers in a space, a raccoon can get it's whole arm in. Anything it reaches will be pulled apart and eaten.

 

[colejohnson73]

It was chicken wire.

 

[CrazyTalk]

Did you use chicken wire, or hardware cloth? If you can get a few fingers in a space, a raccoon can get it's whole arm in. Anything it reaches will be pulled apart and eaten.

There were 3 whole birds gone - there has to be a gap big enough to pull a whole chicken through.

They'll eat birds through fencing, but there's always most of the bird left over in that case.


Post pictures of the coop - maybe we can find the gap.

 

[colejohnson73]

We can see where he pulled them out through the chicken wire in 3 distinct places. There is no parts left of the chickens and no holes or gaps. We checked for almost half an hour.

 

[CrazyTalk]

I'm confused by "We can see where he pulled them out through the chicken wire in 3 distinct places... no holes or gaps". Are there no holes, or are there holes that he pulled the chickens through?



If you can see where he pulled them out, there's no real need for explanation here - chicken wire isn't adequate. It's not strong enough to prevent predators. If they're sleeping close enough to chicken wire to be reachable, they're as good as gone.

 

[Chickengirl64]

I lost two of my girls this month and I've been battling raccoons. So far I've trapped 3 raccoons using cat food with a live trap. Look over your coop inch by inch. If there is any type of weakness, they will get in. Hardware cloth is the best although it is expensive. In a pinch, I've been double and triple layering chicken wire.