Something is eating my chickens...

Back40

Well-known member
#1
We've gone from 23 hens to 16 in about a week. Lost four in one day. This is happening in broad daylight, not at night, and sometimes in our yard! Once we found feathers everywhere and a mostly eaten chicken, on the day we lost four. They are free range.

I'm thinking bobcat. Any ideas as to what would be doing this and how to protect the chickens?
 

harbinger

Galt since 2019
Silver Subscriber
#2
It's probably either a dog or the suspected bobcat. Everytime a chicken got into the dog kennel there would be a pile of feathers. I could see feathers everywhere if it's the bobcat. But to lose 4 in a day is alot for one bobcat.

If it's a bird of prey put up some 20' poles (2-3 scattered) with a couple of old CDs or mirrors on strings attached to the top. You want them to spin/move in the breeze.

Coon and opossum would be at night. We put scraps at the far end of the property and NEVER had problems with either.

Owl will be a night time problem too. Had one was a early morning hunter, he wasn't greedy so I let him alone. Sometimes a fake owl will help keep real owls away. May help with the weasel too.

Weasel will usually just take the head and bleed the bird out. Traps about all you can do about them and you're free range so you have to worry about the chicken getting trapped. Takes a little longer to find their path but they'll use the same one Everytime. Also more nocturnal.


That's all I have delt with.


Do you have a dog? That should work to keep most of the likely suspects away.
 
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O:gweh

Domari Nolo
Forum Merchant
#4
I lost the last 4 chickens about a month ago. I watched (from my bed....too much booze) as a pair of red fox carted them off. It was about 9-930 in the AM. So don't discount a fox.
 

partndn

Seeking serenity
Silver Subscriber
#6
Hawks have been the culprit for me during the day. But I have my doubts when there's 4 in one day.
I have seen a hawk return for more a day later, but not seen one kill 2 in one day. I'm sure it's possible though.

Anyway, I sure hope you get to the problem and reduce it. I say "reduce" because with free ranging, there's never gonna be 100% eliminated.
I had a dream earlier this week that I walked in the coop at night to find a couple adult raccoons and even a couple baby ones in the coop. It appeared there had been a ruckus, and one of the baby ones had been damaged by my rooster or something in the fray of terror, along with a couple of my chickens dead.
It was strange that as I walked in, everything sort of stopped and was still while I gawked at the situation. Of course dreams are always strange :confused:

Good luck and kill em! whatever it is.
 

partndn

Seeking serenity
Silver Subscriber
#9
Can you take a day and get up on a roof with a scoped rifle and over watch?
This is exactly what would be my preference, given the time and ability to do so.
Maybe there's a deer stand or something nearby Back40.. along with game cams, any way to get an informational view of what's going on would be awesome.
 

Back40

Well-known member
#11
The problem with overwatch is time... This is happening at various times during the day. I probably need to get a game camera and try to figure out what it is and when it's coming before staking the place out. If I have chickens left by then.
 

Josh

We could edit this?!
#12
That many in one go sounds like a dog. We had that problem when my parents first got chickens. Same situation, free-range chickens, killed during the day lots of feathers, no bodies, and 3-5 dying at a time. Turns out it was the neighbors' dog, he was dragging the bodies up near his dog house to play with/eat them and was more or less doing it for fun.

Put up a game camera ASAP. That will tell you what you are dealing with and then can act accordingly.
This is probably your best bet, you can actually get some really nice ones for reasonable prices even at your local Walmart.

You are directly in the path of the brown horde, have you considered filthy invaders are sneaking up on them?
And now I have to clean coffee out of my nose. :ROFLMAO:
 

harbinger

Galt since 2019
Silver Subscriber
#13
Never had a fox problem when we had chickens. But I also had so many I could easily have lost 20 and not known it if it wasn't the roosters missing.
I also had 4 hounds scattered around the place.