Chicken Thief?

[204cat]

Last week the flock of chickens I had was massacred. I had 34 chickens.They were purchased as egg layers. Several chickens a night went missing. It happened some time after 2am and before 5am. I think it was several varmints. What ever it was could lift an over weight 15 to 20 pound white chicken out of a two foot high fence. What am I looking for? Fox or coyote? Perhaps a few beagles? No blood but just some feathers the first day.

I have been setting up at night trying to get what ever it was. No luck. Some advice about night predators would be much appreciated. I love benchrest and know nothing about varmint hunting. thank you.

[OldTurtle]

You might want to pose the question and post some pics of the damage and any paw/footprints over on PredatorMasters.com....There are a bunch of predator hunters over there that are 'near experts' at farmyard predators...

Most of them can tell you what the culprit is by the tracks if any are left and the type of damage encountered..

[Ryan S Albright]

You had better get those chickens in cages for protection and set a trap for the varmint. Setting out at night could be a little fatiquing. But if you want blood get a red lense on your light and set up your blind. The only problem is there is no end to varmints. Shooting them is only for sport it will not even begin to thin them down.

[204cat]

ok good to know

[204cat]

Thank you for the web site. I uploaded two pictures. I did not have a camera at the time. The next day it rained as I went to wallyworld. There I picked up the cheap $10 digital camera. I am not happy with the picture quality. The brass did not come out shiny or reflective as I tried to show the scratches on the cases. Anyway it was a chicken in similar size to this one. Maybe a few pounds heavier. The sbk was seated to the same depth as the vmax factory load. It is hard to see them side by side in the picture. I took a picture of them for the other thread on scratched cases. The tracks were washed away so I tried to draw what it looked like. The chicken pen is two feet high. I do need to get something better. I wanted to semi-free range them. There a just a few left.

Right now I am reading up on varmints. I may post something over there later.

[dbullock]

You could be dealing with several predators. Owls will clean that pen out in short order. The tracks may be raccoon, they love chickens and there could be several visiting your pen. You need a better night time place. You could build a small house for them to sleep in and close the door at night and release them during the day.

[Ryan S Albright]

From your drawing it looks like a bear track.

[glenn asher]

Coons especially love chicken. Dad had a lot of problems with them getting into his hen house, he had to wrap the corners with tin sheeting (to make it too slick for them to climb into the henhouse.) Also, mink and practically every other kind of varmint like chickens, too, though they are usually too small to carry one off easily.

[204cat]

I kept most of them in the barn at night in a pen similar to the one in the picture. The chicken pen in the barn had a wood bar that the top of the fence was attached to. Some of them liked to roost on it. Many were taken
from inside the barn. I lurk on backyardchickens.com now and then. I do want to build one of those indoor houses for them.

I looked at the pictures of the predator tracks on predatormasters.com. None of them matched what I had drawn. Racoon seems to be likely.

the print was an inch and a half wide and about two inches long. Not sure if that was even the culprit. The thing that stood out was that the toenail print seemed triangular and straight.

One question is how to identify from the reflection of the light of their eyes when spotlighting what the critter is ? I am very tired from going out at 2am. Seen nothing. The neighbor sometimes has cows on the other side of the fence so I am wondering how to tell the difference from a cow or a coyote from the reflection of their eyes.

[Bitman]

I think you need to get a stronger light, so you can see if it's a cow or a coyote.

[bret1963]

Ill bet its coons there are very strong and there in and out in no time.

[Mike]

The neighbor sometimes has cows on the other side of the fence so I am wondering how to tell the difference from a cow or a coyote from the reflection of their eyes.

That one's easy. The cow's eye reflection will be much, much higher off the ground.

[204cat]

The cows do lay down a lot. So i guess that they also would be near the ground if they were laying down. nothing lately. hope it is over. so i can keep the few for eggs.

[acloco]

Just need to know the color. Predator eyes are NOT green......

[Ryan S Albright]

One practice at night with a red lense light just go out and shine it on the cows and dogs and cats train your self a little. Two I think you will have to use a trap weather a leg hold or box trap. Using a gun at night will get one or two maybe. There will be more they will where you out. Night hunting is more of a sport of calling in the preditor its not a way to eradicate pest. Cage your chickens in with a high roost. You may have a martin which is a weasel after your chickens. I use a red lenses on a hand held light then a amber lense on my gun light to shoot with a head lamp also plus I look through a scope and I can usely see and identify the creature. Good luck when you get it post us a picture.