- Jun 18, 2007
- 16
- 0
- 22
I know, not chicken...but I'm gearing up to get a few hens and this loss has really upset me. I had, with the 4 babies in their nests, 18 pigeons. I went away a couple of days and came back yesterday afternoon to a pigeon massacre. There are only 7 remaining and one is injured. I couldn't face putting him down and he seemed bright so I've tended his wound and am hoping for the best for him. If he seems to be suffering I'll end it for him but for now we are hoping.
Anyway, I'm wondering what did it and thought y'all might have some suggestions. The set-up is a 8 x 7 shed and a 13 x 7.5 chain link dog run off it. The run is wrapped in chicken wire (because pigeons can get out of chainlink) and the top is covered in a plastic mesh. I knew I needed something more sturdy before winter but they have been in it for a few months now and things had gone fine. I'm still not positive how the predator got in but I believe it climbed the fence, and got under the netting. I found an area where the ties are broken - it's a small area but I suppose big enough.
What I find particularly upsetting is that the predator didn't eat hardly anything. Henry, my white hen was entirely intact except that her head had been peeled...it was still there, just naked. Her mate had a small amount of his belly eaten. All the babies had been killed but not eaten at all. Most had some eaten but not much. All my producing hens are gone. Two of the survivors just fledged a couple of weeks ago - one of those is injured.
I was surmising domestic cat, but I found scat and it didn't look like it was from a cat. Oh, when picking up all the dead bodies I also found a mutilated mouse body in the outdoor run. Also not eaten.
It was bad enough to lose so much of the flock, and almost all of the pretty colours, but with it seeming to have just been done for sport, that really sucks. We have racoons, skunks and fishers. I've seen a lynx once, not sure how prevalent they are. Aside from a tiny tear in the mesh there is no other sign of where it got in.
I'll be putting dog kennel chainlink panels on the top of the pen before I release the survivors from the shed, they are safely locked in. Poor things are completely freaked out.
Thanks.
Donna
Anyway, I'm wondering what did it and thought y'all might have some suggestions. The set-up is a 8 x 7 shed and a 13 x 7.5 chain link dog run off it. The run is wrapped in chicken wire (because pigeons can get out of chainlink) and the top is covered in a plastic mesh. I knew I needed something more sturdy before winter but they have been in it for a few months now and things had gone fine. I'm still not positive how the predator got in but I believe it climbed the fence, and got under the netting. I found an area where the ties are broken - it's a small area but I suppose big enough.
What I find particularly upsetting is that the predator didn't eat hardly anything. Henry, my white hen was entirely intact except that her head had been peeled...it was still there, just naked. Her mate had a small amount of his belly eaten. All the babies had been killed but not eaten at all. Most had some eaten but not much. All my producing hens are gone. Two of the survivors just fledged a couple of weeks ago - one of those is injured.
I was surmising domestic cat, but I found scat and it didn't look like it was from a cat. Oh, when picking up all the dead bodies I also found a mutilated mouse body in the outdoor run. Also not eaten.
It was bad enough to lose so much of the flock, and almost all of the pretty colours, but with it seeming to have just been done for sport, that really sucks. We have racoons, skunks and fishers. I've seen a lynx once, not sure how prevalent they are. Aside from a tiny tear in the mesh there is no other sign of where it got in.
I'll be putting dog kennel chainlink panels on the top of the pen before I release the survivors from the shed, they are safely locked in. Poor things are completely freaked out.
Thanks.
Donna
