Chicken house murderer??

[Remudamom]

This morning I drove over to the house where I keep my chickens and found one of them dead. She was partially eaten poor thing. The door was still latched. What is kinda small that could do that kind of damage?

[TwinMominTX]

is a pesky raccoon. We had some baby chicks in a rabbit hutch with small small slats - like 1/2" x 2" - too small for my 6 year olds to put their hands through.

We came downstairs one day and found all the baby hens gone. Not just dead, but GONE. Best we can figure the raccoon stuck his arm through the slats, pulled them through and ate them all for dinner.

TK

[Jean in Newcastle]

weasel? I'm not sure where you live so you might have to look up what kind of wild-life is native (something that can wriggle it's way into a hen house).

[Old Dominion Heather]

This morning I drove over to the house where I keep my chickens and found one of them dead. She was partially eaten poor thing. The door was still latched. What is kinda small that could do that kind of damage?

I'm sorry about your chickens though.

[Needleroozer]

I would vote for raccoons as well. We lost four of our chickens this winter to coons. We had to put wire over every inch of coop/run space there was, as they were getting in from a very small hole we had missed.

[Jean in Wisc]

http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-predators.html
http://www.freewebs.com/professorchickenspredators/
http://ohioline.osu.edu/vme-fact/0022.html

Different predators attach the chickens in varying ways. These might help--

[Laurie4b]

Opposums are big culprits around here.

[HomeOnTheRanch]

I hate to say it, but if you don't think anything got in, maybe it was an inside job. If the chicken was sick or died of natural causes, the others think nothing of picking on each other. Perhaps you have some cannibalistic hens.

:glare:

[Remudamom]

I hate to say it, but if you don't think anything got in, maybe it was an inside job. If the chicken was sick or died of natural causes, the others think nothing of picking on each other. Perhaps you have some cannibalistic hens.

:glare:

Yes, I've seen this before too, but the hen was healthy, as far as I could tell. And she had been eaten, not pecked. We did find a hole, and patched it, hopefully that'll do it, this chickens were inherited from some friends that moved, and I've really been enjoying them.