This morning when my fiancé went to feed our hens he found one of the white hens with its head completely detached and missing😱(there's no pictures of the dead hen)! We'd also noticed our eggs had been fewer and fewer lately😤! We have our chicken coop built and barricaded very well, but apparently not well enough! It seemed like whatever the animal was it looked like it was trying to pull the hen out through the corner of the door. We're setting a trap but what else can we do? I will be posting more detailed pictures of our Chicken Coop tomorrow so that hopefully y'all can help!! Any tips, tricks, or advice is greatly needed and appreciated! Please help us and the hens!!!! We have possums, raccoons, and coyotes and are in NE Alabama. Thank you for any help fellow homesteaders and steemians!!!
Probably a raccoon. They can rip open chicken wire and sometimes grab a hen through the wire and bite off it's head. I had a couple of geese that got killed by a raccoon. He managed to climb down the trunk of a tree, detach the wire, climb in and kill both geese and then drag one back up the tree trunk and out on top of the chicken coup where he ate the whole thing. All I found of that goose was a pile of feathers on the top of the coop and the beak and both feet that had fallen through the wire and back into the coup. Skunks, minks and ferrets also love chickens, not to mention Hawks, owls and, of course, humans. Hope this helps. Good luck.
I agree, probably a racoon. Live trap works, place part of the dead chick in the trap as bait. Coon dog trainers will glafly take the racoon of your hands if you don't want to kill it
We have a dog that's 8months old we want to train to hunt coons/squirrels/ anything! So maybe she can help!
We have a dog that's 8months old we want to train to hunt coons/squirrels/ anything! So maybe she can help!
Raccoons are rare where I'm living now, but I hear that they are delicious. Seems like a fair exchange for a couple of chickens.
Thanks! We think it may be a raccoon too! How'd you handle your situation?
Quit trying to raise poultry until I could build a better coop. Had to use hardware cloth. That worked. Expensive, though.
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