About a week and a half ago, I lost one of my favorite hens. She had snuck out of the chicken yard, and into my regular yard, where my dog, Lacey was. Lacey has been real good with the chickens, even leaving them alone, to my surprise, when the neighbors chickens sneak into our yard. When I found my hen, she was all intact, except her neck was ripped to shreds. All that was connecting her head to her body was her trachea. With the exception of some feathers plucked out from her chest, all that was bad was the neck area. I instantly assumed it was my dog, since she was the only one out during the time, and this happened in the middle of the day. My husband was very perplexed that she could of killed a chicken, since she had shown no signs of interest towards them. I basically blamed Lacey, due to the fact that she was the obvious suspect. However, since I didn't catch her in the act, I didn't punish her. No point, IMO. I was so upset, that I didn't think to examine my hen further. Wish I had. Today, I went out for 2 1/2 hours, and came back to my beloved roo Rusty, dead in the chicken yard. I found him to be in the exact same way I found my other hen. Everything on his body seemed ok, except that his neck was stripped down to just the trachea, with the head barely hanging on. This happened in the middle of the day too! Lacey had been indoors all day, since we had construction workers in our yard all day, and no other animals had been in our yard. He was also in the chicken yard. If anything was in our regular yard, it would have to of gotten through another fence to get to the chickens. Our chicken yard is bordered by the forest however. In that forest is a marsh. Prime place for minks. We actually did see a mink a few years ago, otherwise, I wouldn't of even thought about them being out here. I was so devistated, that I had my husband bury him. He decided to examine him first, and found little puncture wounds around the base of the neck. It also looked like there were scratches on his chest, where there were feathers missing. My girls also found some footprints in a pile of sawdust that looked like little dog prints. My daughter even went online, printed out pics of mink footprints and went out and compared.
They matched. Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions as how to deal with them? I am keeping my hens confined in their 10' x 40' run and not allowing them to freerange for a while. I would like to try and get this guy, before it decides to try to get into the run and coop. I'm thinking live trap? We have alot of skunk, raccoons and opposums, but those are all nocturnal and dusk time animals. (not saying that they don't attack during the day, but usually at night and at dusk) If I did a live trap, I don't want to end up catching all those guys too, so I would probably just leave it out during the day. I'm so upset, he was such an awesome roo. Did everything for his girls, and was very respectful of people. I'd be lucky to find another like him. I'd appreciate any advice. Thanks!
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