Had a neighbor who had 22 chickens,in a fenced pen, killed in one night. I think it's the neighbor's dog who has already been caught killing a couple of his chickens. He had all of his chickens in a pile a saw a fox grabbing some them and burying them. I haven't been by his place to look at it yet. It could be coons or anything I don't know. I didn't think a fox would go on a killing spree like that. Any thoughts?

I would give the fox the benefit of the doubt and suspect the dog first.
Fox probably just taking advantage of opportunity.

But a fox will kill multiple animals and not eat any of them. Had one kill 2 ducks in the yard.

Probably The dog

Look at the animals to see how torn up they are . If just neck wounds it might be a Mink. Neighbor had that issue twice . Once it was a coon other it was a mink.

A red fox will usually grab one chicken and take it away, leaving almost no evidence. It will usually come back two days later, unless it has a litter, in which case it will usually come back the next day.

Keith

Dog. And it needs put down or tied up because it's hard as heck to break a chicken Killin dog from Killin.

Cathryn, it's another neighbor's dog. The chicken owner caught the dog killing two of his chickens previously and spoke to the owner and was told he would pay for the chickens but he would not pen up his dog. I'll go over later and look at the birds but I do believe it was the dog, now whether it was "that" dog I don't know

Fox usually take my chickens one per day and leave no evidence besides a few feathers at the capture site.

Last summer I heard my neighbor's chicken making a lot of noise. As I was listening to it die down a Fox came running thru my yard with a chicken in its mouth. It seen me and dropped the chicken and took off. I went to get a trail cam to see when or if it would come back. By the time I got back she had come back and grabbed it. Over the next week I seen her come threw the yard 2 more times. This Fox had it figured out, grab one and go. She had a den under the road about 1/4 mile from my house. I got to watch the pups grow up. Im on a dead end road so everyday I came home from work the pups would be on the road. Lots of entertainment. I would shoot rabbits in the yard and leave them lay and she would come get them every night.

I say it was the dog.

If its a dog the chickens will have holes in the back. As me how I know.

I had a red fox climb a 6’ Fence and kill 28 of 30 chickens, caught him the next night inside the fence.

A lot of the time what is caught at the site of a poultry massacre is not what actually did the massacre, but something that heard or smelled it and showed up later for a meal. There's lots of opossums and skunks, including very small ones, that obviously could not have committed the slaughter, that will get trapped at a poultry massacre site for up to a week after it. A lot of other predators will show up too. The nearly irresistible urge in most predators to investigate the sounds of dying prey is why predator calls work so well.

Keith

I broke my German Shephard of it. Any chicken that got in the yard was dead and no mater what I tried she did not catch on and was still proud walking up with chicken wings hanging out of her mouth.

As a last resort I tied a chicken she killed to her collar for several days. Now a chicken can safely walk between her legs.

That's Awesome

Yes. My neighbor dis that too but dang it stunk

I've seen charts that outline pattern of chicken kills lined up to likely whodunit. Anecdotal evidence seems to back those up, but would be nice to have a discussion thread somewhere on Trapperman dedicated to chicken predators where it was confirmed what done it and what evidence was found.

As to OP's problem........this time of year.....night time mass chicken kills are often coons. Old sow teaching the kits how to hunt. Everybody gets to kill a chicken....maybe two. Dogs are pretty much the #1 culprit of mass chicken kills......daytime......when they are running around in the yard.

I've seen surveys to suggest dogs and coons kill about as many chickens as all other predators combined.

Friends Dad raised Pheasants, not just Ringneck but some of the fancier breeds like Golden, Lady Amherst and few others.
His neighbors dog would come over and jump against the fencing on the pens. Pens were strong enough so that no predators ever got one but the birds would go nuts flapping about banging into the opposite side of the pen.
The neighbor didn't care as the dog never killed a bird so what was the big deal? In fact he thought it was funny.
His Dad called the Sheriff. The Sheriff told him next time shoot the dog.
This was relayed to the irresponsible dog owner. Never had the dog come over again.

Growing up on the farm I had a dog that liked to kill a chicken now and then.My Dad took one of the chickens that had been dead for a few days and threw it in a metal barrel.THEN,,he put the dog in the barrel with it and put the lid and barrel band on.He then rolled barrel down a pretty good hill.For some reason,the dog wanted nothing to do with the chickens any more.

Cement mixer with that dead chicken would probably do it too.

He was probably scared shitless of barrels too.lol

Hahahaaa,,your probly right Cathryn.Doubt he would enter a barrel voluntarily after that.