What type of predator could have caused this? :(

[shbouton]

Good afternoon all,

It is with great, great sadness that I write this post. I lost 8 of my 13 pet banties to a predator a couple of days/nights ago and I am still boohooing. Something got into what we thought were coops that were basically impenetrable. We had lost chickens to hawks before because we were free ranging and to the heat (we live in Florida) but have never lost a chicken to anything other than that.

We started chicken keeping about 5 years ago and other than the hawk attacks and one raccoon encounter (we had forgotten to take the food out of the pen at night so it wasn't actually after the chickens) we have had absolutely no attempts on either of our coops even though we are surrounded by woods. When we stopped free ranging so that we could protect our flocks from hawk attacks during the day, we researched coops and from the very beginning didn't make the mistakes that folks usually make starting out and have therefore been able to keep our girls safe at night from day one. Frankly, we built the bigger coop with better siding than what is currently on our house! Until now...

Attached are some pictures of what happened... It appears to have happened somewhere between 2 and 5 am. There were a couple of dead chickens in the coop, several outside of the coop but in the pen and several scattered outside of the pen. And one that had been attacked walking around stunned and with a severe bite mark on her back. I'm trying to save her. The funny thing is, none of them had any signs of obvious trauma, although I was so distraught I never looked under their feathers before I buried them, except for the one that survived and one that was half eaten, abdomen/breast area only, the furthest one away from the coop in the yard.

Now here is the caveat, when my dog alerted from inside the house, I opened the door to let him out and there was a husky standing in the yard accompanied by about a 40 - 50 pound black and white lab mix (my yard is surrounded by picket and farm fence but they were somehow able to open the gate to come into my yard). They were not in either pen when I escorted them out of my yard and walked back around with a flashlight, everything looked in order so here is my hypothesis. It was a fox or a coyote and the commotion drew the dogs to our yard so at this point I am holding them harmless as I just cannot believe that a dog would go in and out of that hole, the big one certainly would not have fit and the smaller one would have had to perform some kind of circus act to balance on the fence and literally chew through what was hardware cloth bolted to the coop and go in and out with chickens.

Oh and I forgot to mention that whatever it was did get into by big coop run area, he just lifted the chicken wire and walked in and proceeded to start biting apart the hardware cloth on the door along with the wood slat across the middle of the door. I don't have pictures of the damage to the big coop but I did attach picture of the coop itself. Thankfully it did not get to the big girls in that coop.

Also, until today, we have had a severe drought for a couple of months and it looks like whatever it was must have been starving.

So my guess is fox/coyote... Certainly it wasn't a dog right? Oh and we found a clump of semi coarse white hair (pic attached) on the chicken wire but no scat or tracks...

I am just so devastated and don't know what else we could have done. I've lost 15 chickens, including the 8 a couple a days ago, over the 5 years, all to predators and each time has been heartbreaking since I make them pets but this is especially so since we thought we had them fully protected.

All thoughts/comments are appreciated!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I believe it was the dogs. A raccoon wouldn't need a hole that big to get inside.
When the dogs broke in, the chickens flew the coop. The dogs didn't have to go in and out with a chicken each time. Dogs love to chase those flappy feathered toys.
After raccoons and mink, dogs have been my worst predator. A neighbor's huskies have attacked multiple times and killed lots of my birds. That looks like husky fur.
I went out one day and a husky was lunging at the hardware cloth covered window but it was 1/2" hardware cloth well secured he couldn't break through. If I hadn't secured it like I did, he would have done the same kind of damage you had and he would have been inside killing.
What makes you want to blame a fox or coyote rather than a dog?
That doesn't look like any hardware cloth I've used. It looks more like chicken wire.
If it happened here, those dogs would be at animal control right now or shot. If animal control doesn't get involved, there is no paper trail and if it happens again, they'll get another 'get out of jail free' card. I've sent 7 dogs to animal control causing the owner to bail them out of jail and get a 'dog at large' ticket.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

It is devastating. After dog attacks I'm shaking all day. In a lifetime of keeping chickens and ancestors keeping chickens here since the 1870s, we never had an issue with mink.
A few years ago, mink killed over $3000 of my chickens in less than a week. That was when i learned they could get into a 1" opening.
Understand that we feel your pain.
I once penned up a couple dogs that attacked. Even though they weren't able to kill any chickens then, I called animal control to pick them up. A little while later the AC lady said she found the owner and they would be over to pick them up. I said, "no they won't. You'll come pick them up because I want a record of the event because if they return, they will be shot" She was in shock. I had to educate her that by Missouri statute, dogs worrying livestock can be killed wherever they are found except in a pen on their owner's property. I talked to her supervisor who was familiar with the law and he told her it was true. So the owner got a ticket and had to bail them out. Her dogs haven't been back.
I love dogs too but I get hot under the collar every time I hear about dogs roaming free to do damage at will. That's why most areas have leash laws. Most breeds of dogs, while usually calm, have a high prey drive they can't control. That's just what they do. Even our Pomeranian used to chase the chickens, he just wasn't big or fast enough to catch and do damage. I was just waiting for a rooster to flog him.
Owners just can't believe their beloved, loyal, friendly, canine friends can do so much damage till they see it.

 

[shbouton]

I want to reach out and thank everyone for their input because it did end up being the two dogs next door and I would not have investigated it any further had I not come here seeking advice. I was going to call animal control but decided that wasn't fair before I actually talked to the neighbor so I did just that. He identified the fur and said that they had escaped before the time that he usually kennels them at night. He said he and his son looked everywhere for them, searching all night and could not find any trace of them. He basically took ownership of all of it and offered to reimburse us for any damages incurred, offering to buy more chickens, even going so far as to say that he would take both of his dogs to the pound if that's what I wanted. Of course that is not what I want. He was VERY distraught, he is an animal lover himself. In this day and age of suing everybody for everything, the fact that he owned up to it was huge to me. My only request was that he try to make sure they don't get loose again and he assured me that he was already making changes to the way that he was containing them. He is in the process of reintroducing them into the house as the only reason they were outside was because his daughter has a newborn and they live with him.

I extended grace yesterday, as we are commanded to do as Christians, in the hopes that we can make this world a little bit of a gentler, kinder, more compassionate place. God bless ya'll and thanks again!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

When I've had big dog kills, they just killed most and maybe a nibble out of one or two. They were pet dogs so were well fed. If they were feral dogs, they would have eaten more.
Rest assured, if you keep chickens long enough, you will encounter every type of predator in your area.
You also do have American Mink and 3 species of weasels.
https://www.nsis.org/wildlife/mamm/weasel.html
https://public.myfwc.com/hsc/mink/Default.aspx

 

[Xerocles]

Save that hair. If your animal control Office is worth beans, they can tell you what your Predator was, beyond doubt. If not state dept of natural resources or state ag dept can.

 

[FathertoFeathers]

I hate to say it but it looks like the dogs are the culprit. I have seen dogs pull off the hardwire cloth to get to the chickens. Im very sorry for your loss.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I still don't think that is hardware cloth. It looks like chicken wire or poultry netting.
Like I said, a raccoon only needs a little gap to get in. A dog would need a big opening like that. The only things that kill and don't eat are dogs and mink/weasels. Mink and weasels wouldn't/couldn't do that damage.
This is hardware cloth.
https://redbrandstore.com/collections/welded-hardware-cloth
Real hardware cloth can't get destroyed like that.

 

[centrarchid]

Dog, move remaining chickens to secure location until repairs / upgrades made.

 

[Conan]

Thank you, sadly the consensus seems to be dog... Will a dog eat a chicken? Or is that a dumb question...

They will, indeed. Most dogs that I've had to deal with are just doing it for fun, though.