Pheasant farm Predation

Got a call from a pheasant farm, loosing birds. This is a huge operation with acres of pens. SO far it is limited to one area.Owner has conis and cage traps out. Can't find an access point along the bottom. I have told the guy to check overhead for holes. Varmint is biting on heads like a mink but is eating necks and some birds part of the flesh more like a coon. Caught a feral cat and thought I had solved the problem but another 40 last night. Birds are scattered all over pen not drug to a corner or pile. Setting more and a trail cam today.Any thoughts?

Sounds like a weasel in a chicken coop scenario.

Surplus killing and little consumed.

I think there is being far too much consumed to be a mink or weasel but thanks.It is the same kind of killing frenzy.

Check for hawks at the top of the fencing cover....they will kill birds at top and attempt to pull them through.

Hawks and owls would not kill 40 birds a night.

Seems like there would be tracks with 40 birds around pen. The camera has made looking for that less, important. You will know for sure with the camera.

Put 2 down today thanks for the input I must be on the right page.

Also had a pheasant farmer tell me that the hawks and owls swooping around the pen would get the birds flying up to the netting , and then they would pop the heads off .

Yep I've seen it but too much kill and also too much eaten.Not avian but we have found no tracks, the pens are packed pretty hard.

Anxious to see what you find out .

Just did a job like this a couple weeks ago. Pheasants and chukars. It was the chukars getting killed, probably 100 or more. Caught six feral cats and four skunks. Im sure it was the cats doing most of the killing. The birds werent even eaten for the most part. Owner hasnt called back since I finished up, so I assume I did the trick.

I had an issue like this last year. Had large kills a couple nights in a row, then nothing, then kills again. I removed a opossum on the outside of the fence with a double door trap by an opening they "had fixed" after the first night and had no more issues. Won't say it was the only thing killing as my first thought was mink and the opossum could just be incidental, but again everything stopped once the opossum was removed.

Got a coon and a mink on the outside this morning. Had a feeling I was dealing with different critters in different pens. Hope that's it.

Glad you got them .

Mink are probably doing most of the killing and the sounds and smells, created by the mink are calling other nearby predators in for the feast. The reason why predator calls work so well for different types of carnivores and some omnivores is that they are hoping to get an easy meal after someone else makes a kill.

Keith

Keep us posted, glad you got a handle on it. I bet there will be more. JMO

Another coon today. Whittling away at it.

Any more kills ?

Seems like 2 coons a cat and a mink solved it. The farmer also ran a hotwire above his tin.