Another - calling all chicken experts please!!

[happyhacker101]

Help/ideas required please. We have (rather had) 11 hens free range in our paddock - have lived there for a while with the goats, have a fenced off area with their houses, fed and water etc. Noticed the other day that their eggs were going missing, five were in the nesting box but when I went to get them later - they'd gone. Tuesday morning, I found one of the girls dead, halfway under the fencing - thought she'd got stuck and that it was a freak accident, Wednesday morning, another hen dead in the same spot but with her head missing:mad: So I've been making sure that they are closed in at night in their houses rather than just in the fenced off area. This morning, opened up a hen house and one of the girls is dead at the back with her neck opened up - whats going on?? could this be rats?? i'm sorting stuff out to move the remaining girls up to the house where i can keep an eye on them. i can't bait in the paddock as the goats are so nosey i'd worry that they'd eat it.

Any thoughts??

[notpoodle]

i dont think rats would kill chickens :confused:

sounds like a weasel maybe? or a fox?

[happyhacker101]

Hi Notpoodle, I thought fox to start off with, but the fox wouldn;t try an pull the hen uner the fence, I thought they'd try and jump it??. Fox also cant get into the hen house - has to be something small.... OH is not going to be happy about them coming to live in the garden again, but I cant leave them to get picked off one by one....

[notpoodle]

could it be a weasel or ferret?not sure you actually get those in scotland...but in germany it tended to be weasels who did this (they can dig under stuff and get into very small spaces!) . i hope you find the culprit.

[blackhorses]

Could be rats, they will drag stuff under fences and ooze into into chicken houses, but stoats/weasels etc could also do the same thing and they tend to go for the throat too. We had an almost adult peacock - bigger than a chicken - that was killed by rats after it was injured by a car and we had it in shed for a week, they stripped the carcass clean too - I didn't think rats were capable of killing such a large strong bird either!!!:eek: You should always shut your chooks away at night even if they are fenced as foxes will climb a fence no problem - we have 6 ft high fencing round our orchard for the chooks and I've seen the fox climb over no problem!!!:eek:

[happyhacker101]

Our local farmer keeps the foxes down for us - in 7 years I am yet to spot one- he's very good at it!! Infact, he and his gun are out most nights!! Which is why I guess that I have become complacent (sp) Just been talking to my mates OH who is a gamekeeper and he thinks it could be a stoat or weasle. Going to try and cover the air holes with chicken wire as this is the only way something could be getting in. Would prefer to bring them to the back garden but, as I though - DH is not happy about that idea:mad:

[noodle]

Hi Notpoodle, I thought fox to start off with, but the fox wouldn;t try an pull the hen uner the fence, I thought they'd try and jump it??. Fox also cant get into the hen house - has to be something small.... OH is not going to be happy about them coming to live in the garden again, but I cant leave them to get picked off one by one....

A fox will happily drag birds under fencing, especially if thats the way it got in, I had a fox drag a turkey hen under my fence.

[noodle]

Stoat or weasel, possibly a ferrel ferret xx

[Jobi-Wan Kenobi]

Definately sounds like a stoat, they tend to go for the neck region.

[Jenni Addams]

Stoat probably, or fox. Something like that got my employers hens...killed them all.

[ShariN]

Do you have Racoons over there? I ask because that is what Raccoons like to do.

If you lay 1/2" by 1/2" hardware cloth on the ground about 2' in depth all away around the base of your coop and run, the predators can't dig under to get to your hens.
You can secure it to the ground with those ground staples they sell for row covers for your garden.

[happyhacker101]

thanks for everyones help and ideas. I made some changes to the hen house last night, it now only has breathing holes (lots) and no gaps as such, all hens present and correct when let out this morning. We've got quite a bit of snow here at the moment and once it clears - my gamekeeper friend is going to try and trap whatever it is. hens will be shut up in bed in this hen house from now on......