What Went Wrong :(

[Mrs. Feathers]

A racoon would do this...they will kill chickens without taking them to eat. Chicken folk up where I live are becoming concerned about racoons as we are starting to see them out during the day...alot. Keeping a close eye for all of my little critters as the racoons are nasty and move faster than it looks like they can. Someone also told me that at this time of year they are teaching their young how to hunt and will go after pretty much anything but I don`t know how much reality there is to that.
Sorry you lost birds to whatever it was.

 

[shesaredroan]

Two years ago I lost all my chickens to coyotes : ( , then the coyotes started taking my cats : (( , THEN they got my wire fox terrier : ((( . I gave up for a while and started talking to folks about a solution. Before I found BYC I relied on my feed store for advice. Last year I got my first pyreneese and now I have 3. This spring I started up again with chicks from the feed store. Haven't had a coyote on the place since the dogs patrol and protect. I have had dogs all my life but never a breed that was so good at keeping the coyots away. So I was very pleased with the dog solution.......THEN the hawks started giving me grief. Lost 5 young girls who were out in the hen yard. The other girls were so afraid they didn't come out of the hen house for about 10 days. Plastic netting over the yard has solved the hawk problem, so far. In the ten years I've been raised chickens I've learned a lot, but I'm sure there's still a lot more to learn. Good luck and remember you're smarter than the varmints, sometimes it just takes a while to figure out how to out smart them. : )

 

[baileychic]

This morning when I went out to take a look and let out the chickens, 2 hens were home, so now only a Rooster and Hen are still missing, plus the one that was killed....The remaining roosters have not crowed today, it seems so strange to me. I was hoping there would be some crowing going on to try to lure the missing ones home, if they are still alive

I'll be waiting tonight for whatever it was and I'll be ready this time!

 

[lovinlife]

Quote:
I have a lot of barn cats and didn't want them to end up in the racoon trap. I knew if i put canned cat food out there, the cats would go after it. So, I used chicken scratch and pellets. Put some in a bowl and whammo! caught a racoon. The only time it backfired on me was when the trap was empty in the morning and I didn't release it before letting out the chickens. Caught a few chickens that way before I rememered to release the trap every morning it was empty. I never caught a cat.

 

[Joey8765]

I'm glad we don't have bobcats. coyotes, hawks or raccoons. We only have foxes here, and the run is secure. Our cats and dogs wouldnt dare kill them . (They are afraid of them)