Wife--Madder than a WET HEN

[snowduck]

Ok a year has gone by and we have only lost 4 chickens to predators-- that was until a week ago and We lost 6 in just 2 hours and then 6 more during the night. The First 6 were let out of their pen at 5:30 and at 7:30 only a hand of feathers were found thruout the yard. This was in the daylight hours with everyone at home. That night 6 more were missing from the pen. Only found 1 wing in the yard that time. Now these are about 4 to 5 month old so they werent small.
We have completely removed them from the pen and now locking them in the hen house. I have set two steel traps Canned dog food as bait and the first night they licked the traps clean with out tripping them. The second night I loosend the trigger up and this time both traps were licked clean but one was tripped. I think it is a coon and if it is will enjoy him for supper if i catch it. Any ideas of what it might be other than that. One thing i do know is what ever it is is WELL fed with 12 half grown chickens and 3 cans of dog food in its belly (how many chickens can they eat in a night)
Tonight we are setting 2 live traps and 2 steel traps and will be watching out the window most of the night.

Another long post by me but just curious what was eating our chickens.

 

[Opa]

I posted this information on another thread but I think it may be your best solution. An extremely effective method to get rid of raccoons is by mixing a fly poison called "Golden Malrin" with a little Pepsi or Coke. Place it in a small dish close to the coop. It is non-discriminatory so make sure that your animals are not able to get to it. An friend of mine thought he might have one or two coons coming around so he tried the fly poison method. Imagine his shock the next morning to discover over twenty coons and two skunks lying within 50 feet of his coop.

 

[panner123]

If you have a pond or stream on your property, wire a shinny piece of metal on the trap peddle and place the trap in the water. The light will reflect off the shinny maetal and the coon will trip the trap. If done properly the coon will drown.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Sounds like you have a fox to me. If you are "missing" that many birds, it's most likely a fox, catching, killing, and storing them in the woods somewhere to eat later.

-Kim

 

[TreeHugger]

Wolf-Kim is right, it's probably a fox. Raccons don't normally pack off their kill - they eat what they want & waste the rest.