What type of predator could have caused this? :(

[shbouton]

Sorry for your loss, unfortunately as the posts have shown, we all have encountered this kind of thing--some cases more than once.

In the locking-the-barn-door-after=the-horse-was-stolen department: Next time you fasten in the hardware cloth, cover the edges and the fasteners with a framework of wood. I use a 1 X 2 " frame on top of mine. It makes it harder for an animal to get the edge of the cloth to rip it off. Also it doesn't look like you used 1/2" hardware cloth--the smaller squares also make it harder for animals to get a grip. Hopefully this will be the last time this will happen.

Thank you for your comments!

 

[cmom]

I'm glad you discovered the predator. I have several game cameras on my property. Most nights I see predators roaming on at least one of the game cameras, I have 7 cameras. It was curiosity for putting the first one up. We have several acres and live in Florida too.
I did get a picture of a coyote trotting up our road which is a dead end but the predators use it like a highway. This was last night.

 

[Chercher72]

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!
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Hi. Looks like in your picture that the top side area of your coop was destroyed by the predictor? If I'm right I would think it would have to be a climber. Which I would think would be a coon. A fox will come at all times of the day. Could be a coyote. Do you have a light above your coop? Coyote don't like lights on them at night. At least that is what I have found to be true. But a coon usually won't kill a bunch at a time. That's something "playing". I would put out a trail cam and watch because it will be back. I would put money on either the coyote or dogs if there were another way they got in. Sorry for your loss. It's sad when things like this happens.

 

[Old Philosopher]

I'm going to venture a guess that it was a Striped Skunk (evidence the coarse white hairs). A neighbor lost 14 chickens to a huge boar skunk over a 3 night period. When I finally trapped it, it weighed 12 lbs (8 is normal for a male). It tried to get their duck, and actually bent a corner of the gate to a chain link dog kennel in the attempt! Their strength is amazing. I've taken 12 skunks off my property, and thankfully my chickens have not suffered.

 

[MarcyG]

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.

@shbouton: I'm so sorry for your loss. Totally heartbreaking, all around! :-(

That said, I agree with the comments from @ChickenCanoe, in that what you are describing as 'hardware cloth' is not the same 'hardware cloth' that I use in our coop. Your wire in your photo looks like 'chicken wire' of some sort.

Hardware cloth has smaller openings and is a much stronger wire. We use it in our coop, and it has resulted in no more small rodents getting in, among other things. You can see an example here on Amazon (and it's also available at most hardware stores):
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EXWMOY0/?tag=backy-20

If you plan on rebuilding and fortifying your coop, I would strongly suggest removing the existing chicken wire and replacing it with hardware cloth.
Again, I'm so very sorry for your losses, and for the trauma your chickens went through.

 

[equustears]

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!
View attachment 1938782 View attachment 1938783 View attachment 1938784 View attachment 1938785 View attachment 1938786

Looks like husky hair to me or skunk but I’m leaning to husky . Chickens get scared they flap around try to fly , probably allowed it to grab them like bobbing for apples. I’m in New York , your coop is nice but your hens wouldn’t last one night here

 

[LottieLynn]

The fur came from something. To rip that hardware cloth would have caused some damage, yet no blood? Do your neighbors have problems with your chickens?

 

[LottieLynn]

Wait a minute .. try to find out first what animal that hair came from. Some dogs are bought to protect livestock and poultry. Paul Allen Smith did.

 

[Kayla's Lunch]

Sorry for your loss. That is really sad. I'm glad that the dogs' owner is accepting responsibility and will indeed keep them contained in the future. I wonder why they can't be in the house with the baby? That seems a little strange to me. I have never heard of anyone doing that.

 

[JoCoKS]

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!
View attachment 1938782 View attachment 1938783 View attachment 1938784 View attachment 1938785 View attachment 1938786

When you lost your chickens to a hawk did the hawk carry off your girls without even leaving a feather behind. I have had chickens for 3.5 years and never had a problem leaving the coops open until these 3 girls disappeared. Was a hawk the thief or a human stealing them?
I am sorry for your lose and now I know what it is like to lose chickens since I lost mine since I lost my pets.