Ugh, I'm so sad. I lost a pullet today. So here's the story. We let the chicks out today into their run for the first time. They are 7 weeks old. I was right beside them in the garden all morning. I was in the house in the afternoon for several hours and went back out this evening (6pm) and one was dead. Its head was eaten off but the neck bone was still in tact. What would eat just one and not eat the entire thing? I'm totally new to this and so sad!!
Options that I can think of are... Our cat? We have hawks around but I figured they would pick it up and haul it off. We have coyotes but there was no hole under the fence and would it just eat one? Surely not snake? We have these little things called dessert sage rats that rage from the size of a house mouse to 2 or 3x that size but still pretty small. Also my DH said he has seen weasels in our pasture so that's my guess?
Our run is enclosed with hardware cloth that is about 5' tall with no top.
Options that I can think of are... Our cat? We have hawks around but I figured they would pick it up and haul it off. We have coyotes but there was no hole under the fence and would it just eat one? Surely not snake? We have these little things called dessert sage rats that rage from the size of a house mouse to 2 or 3x that size but still pretty small. Also my DH said he has seen weasels in our pasture so that's my guess?
Our run is enclosed with hardware cloth that is about 5' tall with no top.