You sleep in your vehicle in your nightgown, boots and holding a 410.....
Something raided our chickens the night before, so we slept in the truck last night trying to catch it. It did not come back.
It took 18 hens and a couple of roosters. We found chickens and chicken feet all over the coop, barn and yard. Some it ate completely except for the feet and wings. Others it just killed and left behind.
We can not find how it got it. No holes. The coop is tight. The pen is completly surrounded with chicken wire, with holes no bigger than a quarter. Its covered top, bottom and sides. We can find no holes, rips, tears or signs of fur from a preditor or a struggle.
The remaining chickens that were killed and left behind don't seem to have any marks on them. The ones (remains)that we found in the yard and barn have no blood on them, and appear almost to have been butchered. We are wondering if perhaps a person did it??? Doors were still latched when we got up. Dog went nuts that night-did he run someone off??
Almost like someone went it, rang there necks, was piling them up, left in a hurry, ran out and into the barn dropped a couple of wings and feet and was gone.
No fur or feathers left in a trail like an animal normally does. No animal prints or scratch marks on the side of the wooden building.
2 of my daughters at times have sworn they think someone lives in our barn behind the hay....Now, we are wondering do we have a hobo that visits??? A couple of times barn lights have gone off and on for no reason. We have had the law out twice, but they could not find anything. But, a neighbor is also having similar problems....
You know your a farm wife when...
June 14th, 2007 at 03:50 pm
June 14th, 2007 at 03:58 pm 1181836681
June 14th, 2007 at 04:02 pm 1181836932
Keeps us posted if you find out what happened.
June 14th, 2007 at 05:44 pm 1181843064
June 14th, 2007 at 05:46 pm 1181843201
my set up is chicken coup with its own door. a foot away is the pen. a 14 inch peice of sewer pipe connect the 2. the chickens and ducks have a tunnel to go between the coop and the pen. i'd have to have 4 cameras on the coop and 4 on the pen to avoid all blind spots. i think we will sprinkle a bag of flour around it all, about 3 feet out. whatever steps in it should leave a print.
The neighbors problems are similar to some others we have been having. barn lights and car interior lights going off and on, shed doors found open, things not taken-but moved. (such as finding a flower pot from the front porch out on the back deck, or a bird feeder moved to a different tree, or the lawnmower moved from the barn to the back yard.
the law has been out a couple times. we have lots of law enforcement in the family, and one theory is that someone is messing with us. If we keep finding things out of place and reporting it, and the law doesnt find anything, after a while they will think we are nuts and quit showing up. Then, the culprits will hit us big time. So, I was glad when the neighbor reported theirs. Now I don't look like such a nut. Ours usually happen tues, wed or thursdays. (On the days when my husband used to work nights). He has now changed to a different schedule, it has no pattern to it and now he is starting to be here some when this stuff happens.
We are also doing more target practice with the guns here instead of at the other farm. If it is a prankster, we want them to know we have guns and can and will use them.
next trip up my dad is going to install motion sensor lights.
maybe i can post a picture of the chicken set up later
June 14th, 2007 at 07:35 pm 1181849726
Haha, what a funny visual. .410s are such a beaut to shoot.
June 14th, 2007 at 07:45 pm 1181850301
June 14th, 2007 at 08:15 pm 1181852130
June 15th, 2007 at 02:33 am 1181874815
Can you invest in some motion sensors? They have some fairly inexpensive ones if the house isn't too far from the coop or sheds that you put the sensor in the place you want guarded and then you have the alarm plugged in in the house, preferably a bedroom. We did that when neighbor teens were climbing the fence and sneaking into our yard at night to use the pool when we had it up last summer.
June 15th, 2007 at 05:43 am 1181886236
June 15th, 2007 at 03:20 pm 1181920859
I don't think it would be a predator as they would not just wantonly kill, they would be more apt, i think, to kill one or two and drag them away.
It does sound like people doing it and if it were me i'd certainly want to get to the bottom of it. Kids' pranks like turning lights on and off is one thing, but killing livestock is crossing the line.
June 15th, 2007 at 10:09 pm 1181945369
So, from Tues till this morning (they were fine with the sun came up at 5:15--when I last was with them) I went from 43 to possibly 4 birds. This attack came after it was light, but while I was not outside.
I did find coon tracks in the barn this time. However, we still can not find how they got it. DH says if I want birds that bad, he guesses he will set this one concrete so nothing can get under it (its on skids now) or build a new one on a concrete pad with the fence and walls all set into the concrete.
Bad part is my 3 little girls are the ones who found them this morning when they went to feed.
June 16th, 2007 at 01:28 am 1181957280
Sorry it had to be your girls' who found them though.
July 4th, 2007 at 02:54 am 1183517653
To boot I have my trail camera setup next to it to photograph any predators (so far the only photos are just of me working on it!
What I am really worried about are the racoons are going to outsmart me and find a way to raid the chicken coup.
Did you ever find out what the predator was?
-- Thanks
July 4th, 2007 at 03:00 pm 1183561250