Hello All,

Need your help. I had a client I helped about one month ago. She had a flock of 32 hens. She had lost a couple to depredation. I came in and set some coon sets out and placed out a couple of weasel boxes. The first night I caught a coon and the damage stopped.

I thought that I would save them money by having them the set out traps. The client bought a couple of havaharts and I gave them fish meal to use as a trailing scent. I told them if they have any more trouble give me a call. They never caught anything in their sets. They just called and the entire flock is now gone.

The killer(s) did not come every night. They would come back after two or three days get one or two, then 5, and last night they got the remaining flock of eleven hens. The client says the heads and necks were chewed on and in some cases the heads were gone.

The chickens were kept in a chicken coop and some of the hens roosted high off the ground. The problem is a blind elephant could have gotten into that coop it's so porous.

I feel like crap the hens were the old lady's babies.

So, what do you think it was? and what sets will caught the little devil, now?
Her neighbors are telling her it was rats.

Thanks Chuck

Well I'm certainly glad that their phone finally got fixed. I would suggest raising something like cougars in that empty coop. That

way they could feed off of whatever was eating the chickens.

Eleven at once sounds like canines, usually of the domestic sort.

If you think its weasels chances are you don't have rats, and vice versa. If they think its rats check the entrance of the holes to see if any piece of the birds had been dragged back down. I'd definitely set for Fisher, but dont rule out opossums. Had a call for opossums raiding a chicken coop, and was skeptical until I removed two from it, and had no more complaints. Keep the predator sets rolling.

Did you client also set Weasel Boxes? My guess a mink. JMO But there maybe more to the story that you are not hearing about.

After the food source is gone , I expect trapping is a waste of time.
If you really feel sorry for her you could always do a great exclusion job.
JMO

Haha...was thinking the same thing.

My first suspect would be a fox. This one was climbing a six-foot fence to get a few chicken dinners. At first it would take only one chicken per night, later it started killing a couple before escaping the pen.




Another fox killed 57 domestic ducks in one night.

Have you been there to look for sign? Seems taking 11 chickens should leave tracks or hair?

Kurt Temple

Gone tomorrow to check it out.

I'd bring a cam if you have one and leave a few observation sets out.

We had one recently with the same description as you are having. Intermittent killing of numerous chickens in a coop, till finally the whole flock was gone. It would also just eat the heads and neck, almost as if it was slaughtering them for entertainment and not a food source. I thought maybe a weasel, but turned out to be a big male mink caught in one of the weasel boxes.

Yep.... Every time I've had this scenario it has been a mink. Coons, foxes, opossums, rats, owls or hawks (daytime) seldom leave them as you described.

I am not making this up. For nearly twenty years the only window in my second story bedroom overlooked the neighbor's chicken coop. I

was kind of amazed at all the different wildlife that loved a good chicken dinner. Domestic dogs, red fox, and raccoons were the

largest. Norway rats, mink, feral cats, and weasels were the smallest. Opossum and skunks were regular visitors but they were only

interested in the eggs. Sometimes it would be a race to see who got the eggs first; the animals or the neighbor lady. I also learned

to identify great horned owls, red tailed and red shouldered hawks, and Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks all thanks to that chicken

coop. They rarely killed a chicken but always seemed interested. In the early fifties we caught a guy dressed in Confederate

clothes trying to get at some of the fryers. I remember his name was Col. Harland something or other. I wonder what happened to

him? ( I might have made up that last part )

That was happening to us one time and it was skunks. We killed 13 that year in and around the chicken pen.

Isabella