View Full Version : Chickens taken, but by what?
I went out to feed our rabbit, who lives in the house in the winter, but out with the chickens in the summer, and the back yard was eerily empty. All of our chickens, except one who was brooding in the shed, were gone. That's five full-grown chickens. There were a few feathers, and also a few clumps with skin still attached, but not as much as you would think with so many hens gone.
There was a trail of feathers leading down the alley behind our house, and another pile of them under the apple tree at the end of the alley.
There were no chicken carcasses. However, our poor little bunny was lying in the alleyway, bloated from being there all day, but otherwise intact. Her neck must have been broken.
What could have gotten over our five foot cinder block wall?
We see coyotes running down our street at times, and a friend of ours who lives a couple of miles up toward the mountain saw a mountain lion on top of her chicken coop one night. We've also had a bobcat on a utility pole on our street. (And a a bear on the other side of the arroyo, but I'm more worried about the bee hives with bears).
However, we've had our chickens for six years or so without anything getting into our back yard.
I can't imagine what could have done it, and what would have done such a clean job, and why it would have taken all of the chickens but would have left the carcass of our pet bunny behind.
Now my wife is worried about my 4:00 a.m. run along the bike path. She thinks the mountain lion is going after me next.
Mysterious. Some friends of ours had coyotes take most of their 30 chickens one night, but I think there was more evidence left behind. Raccoons could easily climb a fence, but I can't see one leaving and climbing the fence with a full-grown chicken.
I'm really sorry!!
Any track marks on the ground you could see? It sounds like several animals. I really don't think just one would do all that......several coyotes/mountain lions/bobcats/bears/and even a group of raccoons. 5' is no problem for these kinds of animals. I would probably tell the local sheriff.
At first, I was thinking a person stole them, but all the feathers/clump of skin tells a different story.......unless someone was swinging them around by the feathers.
I think you need a strong fence if you get more chickens.
I'm so sorry for what you lost.
I'm going to say it was several coyotes.
Raccoons make a mess and eat what they want right there.
Coyotes will 'grab and dash'. We use to have a serious problem with coyotes running up onto the back deck at my parents house and each one grabbing a duck. It was kind of like their drive thru line.
One may have grabbed the bunny and then been startled by something in the road/alley and dropped it and kept running. The kill sounds right for coyote - carried, broken neck, but not torn up.
I'm so sorry for your loss of chickens and bunny.
Sorry for your loss. Sounds as though you will need a permanent enclosure that gets your birds locked up securely at night. A friend who raises guinea fowl and peacocks locks his birds up every night in a carefully fenced and secure enclosure but the ripped doors and torn flooring tell the story of raccoons trying to get in.
Oh what an awful thing to find. So sorry, pcooley.
I would guess coyotes or dogs, by the number of chickens missing and I would lean towards coyotes, as dogs generally kill them, but don't seem to eat them.
iris lily
5-31-12, 10:46am
This is awful, so sorry, and I'm sorry for your children. It must be hard for them.
How terrible...so sorry. I don't have any answers, but feel awful for your family just the same.
goldensmom
5-31-12, 12:33pm
The cinder block wall would be no problem for a hawk or vulture but from the number, the trail and pile of feathers it most likely was a pack of animals. We’ve lost a single chicken to opossums, raccoons and foxes but by the number it would seem to have been coyotes or dogs. I don't know how they got over the wall, under would be no problem for them but over is a mystery. We a six foot high fence around our chicken run but put the chickens in the chicken house at night because of the night predators. I hate it because our chickens have been victims as well but the animals are doing what they do. Sorry that you lost so many chickens plus the rabbit.
We have recently had the same thing happen. We started with 12 hens and a beautiful rooster. The rooster just died, don't know about that. But in the last 2-3 weeks we have lost at least 1 chicken per nite and now we have one miserably lonesome hen left. They just would not stay in their pen and we couldn't find where they were getting out. Must have flown, I guess. Anyway I heard the most hideous screeching a few nites ago and when we got outside we could hear several feet running (they had to leave the poor dying chicken for us to kill!) Whatever it was left partial carcasses sometimes. We feel like it was a family of foxes. I don't think I want to try chickens anymore :(
Don't give up on chickens Sissy, but you do have to really build them a good fence....bottom, sides, and top. Some people feel that they should be free-range.....which is fine, but you just have to be prepared for alot of loss. And once a predator finds a food source somewhere......it will continue to come back.
I have 2 types of strong wire on the sides of my run, and had 2 layers of nylon mesh on top.........and a coon still got in and killed 2 of my hens. Then I put welded utility wire on top, and so far, so good. (Knock on woods!)
Its really hard losing animals/pets. But the predators are out there, just waiting for the right moment.........and the weak spot in the run/coop.
I'm going to say it was several coyotes.
Raccoons make a mess and eat what they want right there.
Coyotes will 'grab and dash'. We use to have a serious problem with coyotes running up onto the back deck at my parents house and each one grabbing a duck. It was kind of like their drive thru line.
One may have grabbed the bunny and then been startled by something in the road/alley and dropped it and kept running. The kill sounds right for coyote - carried, broken neck, but not torn up.
I'm so sorry for your loss of chickens and bunny.
So sorry to hear about your loss. What Float On said was the same thought I had. The bunny is kind of the strange part just because I'm not sure what would startle a coyote enough that it would drop a carcass like that, but it is possible. The chickens sound exactly like a coyote caper.
Sissy - I'm sorry for your chicken losses as well. I had a fox making visits to my meat chickens in the early spring. One afternoon he came up not 8 feet from me to grab a chicken while I was "guarding" them while they free-ranged.
Thanks, Cathy. I had envisioned a nice run with really good fencing ( we had them a really nice coop), but since DH had to do the work, it didn't really happen. He is one of those that has no vision and just figured what he fixed would be great. Most of the time we let them run loose until we started dragging in way too much fertilzer! The Gbabies are now starting to walk and play in the dirt, too. This was all so gruesome that I just don't want to go thru it again. I don't feel like tending them, (to my liking) so I just need to let it go.
Sissy, if I remember right you are not all that far from me. The first spring I had chickens I heard something trying to get into our Aframe chicken tractor. DH and I ran outside with one little flashlight and what we could grab at the back doors (brooms) and heard 'whatever it was' charge off thru the woods and then strange crys. I had to listen to every wild animal on the Missouri Dept of Conservation website until I figured out what we heard crying was "baby bear in distress" as he was trying to follow mama bear.
I was glad we didn't try to hit mama bear in the dark with brooms.
Oh, my, Float On!!!! There have been actual sitings of panthers and mountain lions around here, but the powers that be swear and be d**** that there are none around here. Bears! oh, my!
I did not mean to hijack this thread, but I guess we are all needing answers.
I went out to feed our rabbit, who lives in the house in the winter, but out with the chickens in the summer, and the back yard was eerily empty. All of our chickens, except one who was brooding in the shed, were gone. That's five full-grown chickens. There were a few feathers, and also a few clumps with skin still attached, but not as much as you would think with so many hens gone.
There was a trail of feathers leading down the alley behind our house, and another pile of them under the apple tree at the end of the alley.
There were no chicken carcasses. However, our poor little bunny was lying in the alleyway, bloated from being there all day, but otherwise intact. Her neck must have been broken.
What could have gotten over our five foot cinder block wall?
We see coyotes running down our street at times, and a friend of ours who lives a couple of miles up toward the mountain saw a mountain lion on top of her chicken coop one night. We've also had a bobcat on a utility pole on our street. (And a a bear on the other side of the arroyo, but I'm more worried about the bee hives with bears).
However, we've had our chickens for six years or so without anything getting into our back yard.
I can't imagine what could have done it, and what would have done such a clean job, and why it would have taken all of the chickens but would have left the carcass of our pet bunny behind.
Now my wife is worried about my 4:00 a.m. run along the bike path. She thinks the mountain lion is going after me next.
Sounds exactly like what happened to "our" turkey. We had a Heritage turkey that roamed around the yard. She had just had a second lay, and her babies had just hatched a couple days ago, and then my father-in-law woke up in the morning to find piles of her feathers scattered all over the yard. No sign of anything. No blood, no nothing. At first we thought it was a fox. But a nasty mama Turkey and 14 hatchlings? So we think it was coyotes now, because we've heard them call at night, and she didn't roost in a particularly safe spot the last night we saw her.
Weird thing is, they returned her carcass.
So it sounds like a group attack. Which more than likely would mean coyotes. Most predators that hunt by themselves make the kill and run away with it. But a group of predators chase the kill, make the kill, argue over ....who gets what... and take it back to their home.
You might want to look up reviews of how certain predators kill. Might help you figure it out.
Here's a quote from a site I just found: "One of the most adaptable animals in the world, the coyote can change its breeding habits, diet and social dynamics to survive in a wide variety of habitats.
Alone, in pairs or in packs, coyotes maintain their territories by marking them with urine. They also use calls to defend this territory, as well as for strengthening social bonds and general communication. Coyotes can easily leap an 8 foot fence or wall. They have been spotted climbing over a 14 foot cyclone fence."
from here : http://www.desertusa.com/june96/du_cycot.html
I think your wife is fairly worried about your 4 am run. Coyotes are NOT the cowards they've been mistaken to be. And those are the ones I'd be more worried about than a mountain lion or a Bobcat. What kind of bike path is it, though? Amongst heavily wooded area? Or kinda out in the open? I know when I'm out at night collecting grass for my rabbit, if I hear their calls, I don't keep my back to the woods or any open space for any more than a few seconds. If you are too in love with your 4 am run, carry protection.
I've never heard of coyote attacks on people, but I have heard of mountain lion attacks on joggers and mountain bikers. That's why I worry more about mountain lions. I'll have to look further into it though. After reading all the accounts here, I think I'd agree it was coyotes. I see them in the neighborhood occasionally, though I don't hear their yelping cries and howls on this side of town as much as when I lived closer to the mountains.
I'm keeping our one remaining hen, (who missed the massacre because she was brooding in a different spot), locked into the hen house at night. I feel bad for her though. She's one of the oldest. She must be going on seven now, and all her flock is gone.
I've never heard of coyote attacks on people, but I have heard of mountain lion attacks on joggers and mountain bikers. That's why I worry more about mountain lions. I'll have to look further into it though. After reading all the accounts here, I think I'd agree it was coyotes. I see them in the neighborhood occasionally, though I don't hear their yelping cries and howls on this side of town as much as when I lived closer to the mountains.
I'm keeping our one remaining hen, (who missed the massacre because she was brooding in a different spot), locked into the hen house at night. I feel bad for her though. She's one of the oldest. She must be going on seven now, and all her flock is gone.
I read a few stories a little while ago of 2 coyotes cornering a little girl and chasing her all the way to the house. =\
Poor girl. I wouldn't worry about her too much though.. they're resilient creatures, I'm sure she'll bounce back in no time :) Just give her lots of love.
The Storyteller
6-1-12, 11:57pm
Yotes, almost definitely. A couple of good LGDs will put a stop to that nonsense. We have yotes and other predators, but I day range 200+ birds and have only lost one... to an owl.
Lots of great answers here (thus far), but none are right as of yet. I know exactly what took your chickens, Pcooley.
http://therealityshow.net/talk/images/smilies/chickenrun.gif
It's Sunday, and I just don't feel like being serious today...
Sorry to hear about your chickens.
Paul, we have only one hen left,also. She is soooo lonely and follows DH around.. It is so sad.
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