Dead chickens...ferrets??

[supergran]

Hi I only seem to appear here to talk about problems! Everything has been ticking along beautifully for several months since the girls have been out again following the avian flu confinement! Then yesterday morning I discovered a single dead chicken with severed head. This morning a second dead chicken with clear neck damage but no other damage. "Countrymen" neighbours tell me this is likely to be a rogue ferret in the area or maybe a weasel. Has anybody else had experience of deaths like these? Not sure what to do next!

[Trev62]

Where we live friends lost many chickens in a similar manner, the prime suspects at the time were Pine Martens, Polecats or Mink. After setting traps the culprit turned out to be a Pine Marten, lovely to look at but an animal that seemed to kill for fun.

After reading up on them it seems (apologies for being graphic here) they just tear the head off the body, although they are good climbers they are often not large enough to carry the carcass over a fence and away so the body is left behind.

May be worth setting up a camera to see if that will reveal which animal is getting in.

[supergran]

Thanks, yes, the descriptions match up to your predators but I don't think we have that exotic range in Kent! The camera would be interesting to rig up. Just concerned "it" is going to keep revisiting and steadily wipe out the flock. Not sure how we can stop "it" at the moment!

[Bluefinch]

How upsetting to find them like that.

[supergran]

I'm dreading what tomorrow will bring. We've never shut our chickens in as they are in a large pen with 7foot wire fencing with a buried skirt which is considered (and has proved to be) fox proof. This particular flock are hopeless about going into the coop and just like to gather around and on it. So it seems this is some weasel or ferret predator that has arrived in the area and decided to target these chickies. Very unsettling and quite unusual I think.

[KarenE]

How upsetting, I'm so sorry to hear this. The mink/weasel or whatever is probably feeding young at this time of year.

I understand that mink, ferrets etc can squeeze through a remarkably small space so the first thing to do is obviously to check your run fencing & coop for any gaps or tears in the fencing, even if they seem too small for a fox they may be big enough for a mink etc. In fact they apparently can squeeze through holes that mice would find tight! Seal all gaps up. Do you have a roof on your pen, again with no gaps?

I'd also be tempted to bring the chickens inside for safety while you secure their run, if you can.

If they won't go into the coop at night, have you checked it for red mite?

[Mad Chick]

We think we lost one of ours to a mink. I'd seen it a few days before running across the road but decided the mesh on our run was small enough to keep it out. Sadly mistaken and like you found a headless chicken in the run