What's our predator?

[Zahboo]

9 chicks dead, only 2 bodies. One left behind untouched. He got into the grown silkie pen and ripped ones crest off, a little bloody, but alive. The breederpens all have the wire stretched, the rabbits food is turned and he broke the storage shelf. The 2 bodies left behind were broken necks, wet heads. He ripped the door latch, on of the childproof spring loaded ones to get it.

 

[bturbo87]

with the way your saying everything was ripped apart, i would say a small bear.... but ive never heard of a bear leaving anything behind except the destruction...

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
a bear or a 30-40 pound coon a really large boar coon will tear up a lot, something else may have chased it off I have seen one coon the size of a small bear cub (40-50 lbs)

 

[Zahboo]

I don't think it was anything that big. We have 4x2 breeder pens.

This is the coop

The wire on the pens is a very thin guage but we've had dogs try to get in and not. My chicken dog was inside last night because of a storm

 

[aprophet]

a well fed dog is no match for a hungry coon most who build their own live traps use 12 gauge wire this is aprox .125 thick the home and farm centers mostly sell 19 gauge is .042 an average coon around here will go through a hole 4-6" if there is any give at all if there is no give on what it is going through it only needs a 6" hole

 

[mmwb]

Don't underestimate a coon. They are one of the meanest, toughest, strongest (pound for pound) critters about. I had a medium sized female in a cage trap a couple of years ago. She ripped the 1/4" pan rod off and tied it in a knot.

 

[Zahboo]

Well we have started redoing the coop in better built hardware cloth, also turning the breeder pens so they are side by side, leaving only one side exposed. We were doing to leave the chicken dog out but it's raining again, and she's terrified of storms, so it's not fair to her. The one chick that survived is one we marked as a roo, my luck. He is now in with the month old chicks and doing okay, still scared though.