First off, we don't have stray dogs, so it can't be that. I doubt that it's coyotes, because we have several dogs, 2 of which run loose (our dogs are not getting the birds). The birds hang out in the woods all day behind the house, so I doubt that it's a hawk. The woods are pretty thick and have lots of undergrowth and briars, I don't see how a hawk would be able to get them. I've lost all types of birds from bantams to LF, all of them during the day. I have no idea what types of predators hunt during the day, I'm thinking it's a fox or bobcat? Any ideas? I have not found any bodies, so whatever it is is taking them off somewhere.
Well cant you hang around during the daytime and do some observations? That's the first step, hawks DO go into thickets to nab prey, so keep that in mind. Dont know what part of the country you are in but theres probably at least a dozen different kinds of wild animals that will take off with a chicken.
from the www.whatbird.com entry for cooper's hawks: They capture prey from cover or while flying quickly through dense vegetation. This can be dangerous, a recent study found that 23 percent had healed fractures in the bones of the chest, especially of the furcula or wishbone.
If you have woods you have a pretty long list of potential predators. And now they have discovered how easy it is to get a meal at your place and they'll keep coming until the chickens are gone.
I'd guess fox as their schedule is very flexible, but they usually take more than one bird at a time. Securing the flocks would be my only initial goal. I'd only worry about ID'ing and eliminating the diners after I'd quit serving up the buffet. '
most of the time when a bobcat kills something it eats about half of what it killed goes a short distance from where it killed it and buries it for later it does not bury it very well if you walk in whatever woods you have it is usually pretty easy to find what it did not eat . I caught 3 bobcats last year for a fellow this is how I caught them when I caught fox that had killed what the fox had killed they ate almost the whole chicken hardley anything left most preds hunt when they are hungry and people are not around day /night does not matter you can try all sort of scarecrows radios and so forth but most of the time they will test these things until they are not scared of them
Quote:I agree, I had problems with bob the cat and traped her with her own kill, she does not come here anymore thanks to my dogs.
Any animal will attack during the day, never think they read all the scientific papers on animal behavior written by "experts" they operate in survival mode and instinct.
Depending on where you are, could be a Fisher Cat - I've seen them in my neighborhood in Eastern MA. They hunt day and night...
