What kind of predator am I looking for?

[lablover71]

Looking for some help to find out what is killing my poultry. I have had foxes and raccoons kill my chickens in the past so I know what their signs usually are. Lately my quail were killed off one or two at a time and there were no signs of forced entry into their pen and no large holes dug. Only slight openings about 4 inches wide along the top of of that coop to help air circulate. Now something has gotten into my coop and killed one hen and ate some of her eggs she was setting on. She had a little trauma to her neck (head was not removed or damaged), clumps of feathers torn off and then it ate ate her butt end into her body cavity to eat some of her insides and left the rest. Again I see no holes or tears in the pen and no holes dug. I am thinking raccoon but my rooster (the only other chicken in that coop) survived and the last time I had a raccoon it killed just about everything in the coop which was about 14 hens. Also, I would think a raccoon would have to leave a rather obvious place to enter and exit but I don't see anything like that. I need to find this and kill it before it gets to my other hen and her chicks who were thankfully locked in a smaller coop in the pen for separation purposes and so the chicks don't have to climb into the big coop. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[scratch'n'peck]

Sorry that a predator got your birds. I know that I have read that raccoons kill many at a time, but when I had a raccoon problem, they took one or two at a time and they squeezed in through a gap in the wiring. Do you have mink in your area?

Here is a link that might give you some other leads: http://professorchickenspredators.webs.com/

 

[littleoak]

Sounds to me that you have a young possum. They eat the insides from the rear. They take the easiest catch, probably why your rooster wasn't hurt. It will be back. Set a live trap with the remains of the chicken or some other meat. If it's half rotten, so much the better. I say young possum because of the size of the gap you describe.

 

[Heidisgran]

raccoons usually carry everything off! don't leave much evidence....I've heard possums and skunks but haven't had that happen here!

 

[littleoak]

Sounds to me that you have a young possum. They eat the insides from the rear. They take the easiest catch, probably why your rooster wasn't hurt. It will be back. Set a live trap with the remains of the chicken or some other meat. If it's half rotten, so much the better. I say young possum because of the size of the gap you describe.

I said chicken. I meant to say Quail.

 

[Heidisgran]

we wrapped our nursery in chicken wire....any opening to the coop except the door is covered in chicken wire...because raccoons are so smart we also put several different types of locks on the doors...so if the figure one out they still have to find a figure out the others...the nursery has 2 different locks...plus there is always a trap set !! we catch critters but thank the Lord we haven't lost but chicken in 6 mos!!

 

[Heidisgran]

we haven't lost but 1 chicken in 6 mos. oops! lol

 

[lablover71]

Thanks for all the ideas and advice. Anything is worth considering. I have set live traps around the coop tonight with pieces of poor Molly Brown in them to try and catch her killer. My wife named her Molly Brown after she was the sole survivor of the last slaughter in the coop which was about a year ago. I've learned that when living in the woods it's only a matter of time before something gets your chickens.

 

[Heidisgran]

im so sorry....it hurts so bad!

 

[lablover71]

I think I caught the perpetrator last night. Does this look like the face of a killer? Unfortunately I think it is. It's a little guy compared to what usually gets caught. Didn't have the heart to kill him. After all, he's only doing what he needs to do to survive. So I drove him a few miles down the road and let him go next to the stream in the State Park. Hope he stays there!