What predator ?

[ourtown]

What do you think I am dealing with ?

I have a large dog cage where I keep 4 hens - the rooster sleeps in the tree on 5 acres in Hernando County Florida

I foolishly left the non electric fence on the ground - it was dark and I went out another way

Something pulled the 60 pound dog cage plus the hens 10 feet around another chicken coop - not easy for me to carry

It killed 3 hens and the rooster - which was probably trying to protect them - one hen was unhurt still in the cage

One hen and the rooster were intact but dead outside the cage - only feathers and torn off pieces left of the other 2 hens - I couldnt find the bodies

I had 28 chickens - nothing has disturbed them for 6 months

Never seen stray dogs or raccoons - I have heard rumors of coyotes and I have trapped cats and opossums

My guess is a dog - would one do that ?

 

[azygous]

Dog or raccoon. Either one. But you can only guess. Tearing their food apart is typical of raccoons, as is dragging the crate around. I vote for raccoons.

The sinister thing is, they will return. They have discovered your meat market. You can't expect this to be just a one off.

 

[Lala the duck]

Here's a helpful link:
https://www.welphatchery.com/predator_diagnosis
You can try searching up poultry predator diagnosis to find some other websites that have information about different types of animals. From your description, I agree with azygous about either dog or raccoon. Since the bodies of the other two hens weren't found, we don't know if they were eaten or just killed and dragged away, so that's that.

Dog or raccoon. Either one. But you can only guess. Tearing their food apart is typical of raccoons, as is dragging the crate around. I vote for raccoons.

The sinister thing is, they will return. They have discovered your meat market. You can't expect this to be just a one off.

This is really important. You should make sure to protect your remaining chicken and maybe get a new cage. For the time being, you can probably put the hen in a garage if you have one, just in case. The predator will most likely come back for the easy food. Good luck!

 

[annaBsChick]

It sorta sounds canine like to me, but you could always try the poultry predator identifier tool to double check - http://www.poultrydvm.com/predator-identifier.php

 

[nuthatched]

Floridian raccoons aren't that big. *in my limited experiance on an airboat tour, about 8-15 lbs*
It's possible a bunch of them could move a 60 lb cage, but I think you might be looking for something bigger, like canines.
Considering that the carcasses were gone, which isn't typical of coons in my experiance, I would bank on dogs/coyotes. Maybe you were visited by a panther, a long shot, but not impossible.

 

[ourtown]

Thanks all - I am going with dog - lots of pit bull equivalents around - all behind fences - I don't think that I have ever seen one loose

Premier1 Supplies Electric Fences are pretty flimsy but useful - occasionally a rooster fight almost knocks a pole over

They have been good for 6 months - just my stupidity yesterday - and no re occurrence today - I'll be worried for a week - hate losing my best rooster - he was so beautiful - Black Australorps

 

[HomesteaderWife]

So sorry for your loss. Highly suggest investing in a game camera set up on your birds to help you properly identify the problem. Remember that just because there are pit-bull type dogs doesn't mean it was them. Any breed could've gotten them, I can testify to that.

 

[ourtown]

And it came back - 11 days later

This time it tore down all the electric fences in the fight - killed 3 roosters - apparently by biting their necks and then partially ate 2

We think that it is at least one coyote rather than a dog

Now I don't have a solution for keeping the chickens safe - they fly up into the trees rather than use the hen houses - and they fought - drawing blood when they were in the hen houses at first - which is why they ended up in the trees

 

[azygous]

Did you bait the hot wire? Are you sure the hot wire was activated and hot?

Any fur-pelt predator will be able to ignore the high voltage unless they are tempted to touch it with tongue or nose. That's why we bait the hot wire with something they can't resist.

I'm so sorry about this. I know how frustrating, demoralizing, and stressful this is.

 

[sorce]

Are you out in The sticks?

Could be bear or boar.

Sorce