Roosterfeather
Songster
Sounds like a weasel to me.
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"I have had multiple mass slaughters of my flock due to racoons"Neither one of them was during the time they have young so that wasn't it. I had seen that particular racoon around before. Yes, our coop is well protected. They were free ranging and I forgot to close the run door two nights in a row. I've got an automatic coop door now so no issues.
Yup......Domestic dog.
Affection isn't unique to humans. Grief, joy, compassion , and "fun" are also observed in animals. Whales and primates are the most obvious examples. Heck, even bees will play with balls for no other reason than "fun". Chickens might fee affection, while not understanding it.And they do not kill for sport. Or fun. Or trophies. They stockpile for food. When it comes to kill or be killed, only humans can risk killing for sport. Those animals that are lucky enough to expend energy on activities not critical to survival get to enjoy some fun.
Don't know if it strikes anyone else as interesting that so many humans have no problem assigning the motivation of "sport" or "spite" to non-human animals but the thread on chickens feeling love or affection is chalked up to anthropomorphism.
So sorry you lost a hunch of birds... That is tough to deal with...I have been raising birds for years, so I am familiar with predator issues, but I have a new one. I have a small flock of a dozen 2-month-old Jersey Giants and 4 full-grown ducks. The other morning I went to the barn to find only two chicks in the barn. 4 ducks and 7 small chickens are totally missing. Here is the interesting part. There were three chicken carcasses in a neat little pile in the middle of the horse paddock outside the barn. Two intact and one with a missing head. Missing head makes me think raccoon or owl, but an owl would only kill one or two, and I do not think a raccoon would carry off 4 ducks and 7 chicks. I have never heard of anything piling them up, like they were making a neat little cache and were planning to come back for them. That sounds more like a fox, but I don't see a fox carrying off that many. It could be coyotes, but I don't think they would pile anything up. Happened at night or before 10 AM. Has anyone had a predator make a pile out of their kills?